SpokenWord Paris

“Halloo!”  Got that from Winnie the Pooh. . .This is just to say that I believe you’d love to see our featured human at this Wednesday’s Open Secret, the Other open mic of SpokenWord Paris.  I am required by local laws, & Interpol, to capitalize the word ‘Other,’ to warn you about the CrazyFunny (“C’est dingue!”) shenanigans of Ryan Galer, performer extraordinary, who gets weirder & better & more intriguing each week.  Details, links & video below.  Oh, & my general blah-blah-blah! 🙂

David 2

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David Leo Anti-Hero Pseudo-Impresario Oreos-Are-So-Last-Millennium Macho Man Sirois here!

“Yes, we can!” That’s what all my friendly, welcoming pharmacists cheer me with whenever I walk in. I’m a frequent flyer. 😉 We is you & me. Yes, we can! The following is a welcoming to Open Secret, a wildly blossoming open mic, under the big, sexy umbrella of SpokenWord Paris, longest-running Anglophone open mic in the Pretty City.

Share your secret heart Wednesdays at Le Bistrot des Artistes in the Latin Quarter, at 6 rue des Anglais, an ecstatic passageway between Boulevard Saint Germain & rue Lagrange, people. . .Metro Maubert-Mutualité (line 10) or Saint-Michel (line 4). 8:30, sign-up is born, 9pm Things begin. Happenings. Look for the nerdy guy in the pirate hat. He’ll hook you up! Anyway.

This week we’ll unveil our most hilarious Open Secret yet! Really. The perfectly scientific topic is: “Perform the experiment!” Our cutting-edge Special Guest, specialer than the mind can grapple with, is Ryan Galer – experimental performance artist (who has clipped his toenails & had his hair cut on stage, I’ll have you know), stand-up comedian (Melting Pot, “Edouardo & Friends” at Culture Rapide, many venues in Berlin…), filmmaker (https://vimeo.com/ryangaler/), & just a generally swell guy. 🙂 He will be presenting the much-anticipated part 2 of his show “Welcome in Putingrad” – see the link here for a tasty part of part 1, where Ryan’s character Russian Man (anyone reminiscing on my hero Andy Kaufman?) invites a pigeon expert onstage (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PTR01KDxhms)

This week Ryan’s mystery visitor claims to be named Jason Stoneking. He’s actually an author with several books to his credit – whether you believe that’s his real name or not! It’s pretty fancy.

Who knows what secret stunts Ryan will pull! His experiments evolve with every performance. . .& you? Are you ready to rawk? Ya feelin’ experimental? Do what you’ve always dreamed of…“Perform the experiment!”

Wednesday evenings. Le Bistrot des Artistes. Latin Quarter – “Vox populi, vox dei.” “The voice of the people is the voice of God.” The people have spoken: 60-some-odd peeps came out last week to see Stephanie Papa, who reigned as queen of inventive verse, & also to perform their hearts out with their own (or others’) poetry, prose, frozen noses, comedy, performance art, sacred rituals involving philosophy & the burning of hair (seriously), voice, guitar, oh, & a lot more voice & guitar. See you at the Bistrot!

David Leo Show-Biz Cheez-Wiz Jizz Goat-Cheese-Goodness Sirois 😉 on the wire here – welcoming you to Open Secret, that fabled church of the spoken & sung word/intimacy issues support group you’ve probably heard about ad infinitum, ad nauseum eeeeeven.

Our weekly Wednesday open mic blooms wildly at Le Bistrot des Artistes (6, rue des Anglais, in the 5th, a sexy little passageway that marries Boulevard Saint Germain & rue Lagrange – metro Maubert-Mutualité on line 10, or Saint-Michel on line 4). 8:30pm, sign-up spirals upward into the whole night, & at 9 pm the imaginary curtains open. 🙂

+++This week our featured poet is Rufo Quintavalle, cutting-edge wordsmith who uses both his genius & his humo(u)r to make things new. He will be reading from his still-dew-laden new collection of poems, which was launched on 29th September! More about him below+++

This Wednesday’s Not-Theme, but Thing To Do, our kind command, is Listen To Your Intuition. “A true artist lets her intuition take her wherever it wants,” Lao-Tzu says in his testament to the enlightened life, the Tao te Ching. On the back of my copy of the book, which I borrowed from a college friend in 1989 & never returned (half on purpose), it proclaims “The Wisest Book in the World.” Well, “Whatever gets you through the night/is all right, is all right,” as a more recent prophet said, n’est-ce pas? I’m certainly down with it!

I love how in my translation, Stephen Mitchell alternates between masculine & feminine pronouns for the Master, the enlightened teacher. Seems fair to me, especially since I’ve always espoused the divine feminine, the Tao (though the first lines are “The Tao that can be told/is not the eternal Tao./The name that can be named/is not the eternal Name.”) & also because I am the student of a living woman saint. Fortunately – otherwise I’d really be a goner, like in the days when I used to answer people who asked “So, what do you do for a living?” by saying “I’m a psychic! I work for the police.” Think I wanted to feel special, & get a little attention?

Our Special Guest Reader:
Rufo Quintavalle was born in London in 1978 and now lives in Paris. He was formerly poetry editor for the online magazine nthposition and also served on the editorial board of the Paris-based literary review Upstairs at Duroc. From 2011 to 2013 he ran the bilingual reading series Poets Live and currently teaches creative writing at NYU Paris as part of their MA program in literary translation. Rufo is also a regular contributor to the Stanford Social Innovation Review on topics relating to finance, food and the environment. His most recent books of poetry are anyone for anymore (Red Ceilings Press) and Weather Derivatives (Eyewear Publishing).

Please don’t set yourself up to be regretful for as long as your body lasts, even to the end of the universe, if you miss this precious reading!

Open Secret – “Listen To Your Intuition.” Welcome to your world.