Mike's Writing Workshop & Newsletter: The Inspired Word/Monday, May 25!

The Inspired Word: Passionate Readings of Poetry & Prose

When: Monday, May 25
Time: 7-10 PM
Where: Tierra Sana Restaurant
http://www.tierrasana.com/
Click here
100-17 Queens Blvd & 67th Road
Forest Hills, Queens
New York City

By subway, take the local R or V to 67th Avenue stop (and it's right there between 67th Road and 67th Avenue along Queens Boulevard).

Free wine tasting! Free appetizers! Awesome ambience and food! A great collection of writers and their work!

Performer Bios:

John Survivor Blake has been daydreaming since birth. He escaped the torment of his Heroin laden home by staring into the television so hard he couldn't hear the screams around him. Whenever there wasn't a TV; he simply stared at walls and drifted. He's been writing these images down and sharing them with the bravest of us all. After 25 years of addiction to narcotics, Survivor has found a new way out. He's been writing and performing poetry for the last 4 years and hasn't looked back to the streets. Sharing the stage with the likes of Saul Williams, Patricia Smith, Rachel McKibbens, Amiri Baracka, and Suheir Hamad, John has discovered there is a beauty on the other side of ugly, and they can be forced to live together on the page.Since burying his entire family from AIDS, overdoses, and Hep C, John's learned to live in the moment and stop apologizing!

Timothy Prolific Jones is a poet, publisher, activist, and ambassador of the Black Long Island experience. He is the Founder and Editor-In-Chief of an independent book publishing company, André Maurice Press, LLC, and it's closely related performance poetry and hip-hop venture, Indelible. Timothy currently serves as the Co-chairman of the Board of Directors of Blackout Arts Collective, a national non-profit organization dedicated to utilizing art as a vehicle for social justice. Timothy Prolific Jones has performed across the country in open mics, slams, hip-hop showcases, and speaking engagements at venues including ranging from The Nuyorican Poets Cafe and Bar 13 to Rikers Island and Riverside Church. AMP|Indelible published a limited-edition self-titled book of his early work in 2005 to much success. His poetry has been recently featured in Gunplay, a graphic novel created by Jorge Vega, and published through Platinum Studios. Timothy is currently working on several books of poetry concurrently. His first full-length book, The Seventh Seal, which is scheduled for release Winter 2009. For more information, please visit andremauricepress.com.
Click here

Word to Rakim

Molly Kat is studying Creative Writing at Binghamton University. She has attended SUNY Purchase, WCC, and Cambridge University in England. She has had work published in "Ragazine" and college journals and newspapers. Currently a member of Binghamton University's slam team; Grey City Slam, she attended college Nationals for the first time, and last year went to the regionals on the Bowery Poetry Club's Intercollegiate Slam Team. Although slams have their place, she'd rather just sit around with good poets and listen... she's not big on scoring art with numbers...numbers ruin everything. Right now, all she wants to do is drop out of school and follow Sister Spit around until the tell her to get inside the van.

Why Things Burn

Albany, New York raised, Brooklyn based Caitlin Meissner is a poet, performer, educator and graphic designer with a BFA from Pratt Institute. Using her background in visual art, anti-racism work, disability advocacy and youth empowerment, her poems are visually rich testaments to the complexities of the human spirit. As a performer, she has featured for the progressive literary collective louderArts; Opened for the acclaimed Page Meets Stage series (with Thomas Lux); Shared sets with musicians such as Immortal Technique, Grandmaster Caz, Boot Camp Clik and many others; And has performed on countless stages- from street corners to Columbia University, The Nuyorican Poets Café to Rikers Island, including a tour throughout the San Francisco Bay Area in September of 2008. Ms. Meissner's poems have been published in the independently released HIS RIB and GOT POETRY 2007 anthologies, as well as in various literary journals. For two years Caitlin served as Project Coordinator of the successful all-woman Saturday Performance Series at The Lower Eastside Girls Club and currently holds residency teaching poetry to middle school students in New York City public schools through Urban Ats Partnership. Recently honored as the winner of the OneWorld Poetry Contest, Caitlin attended the 2008 inaugural Pan-African Literary Forum in Accra, Ghana, studying under Pulitzer Prize winner Yusef Komunyakaa and other luminaries from the literary African diaspora.

The World Is Yours

Sonia Mukherji was born in Calcutta, raised in Maryland, and lives in New York. She is a Kundiman fellow, and her poetry has been published in the US and internationally in literary journals including Shampoo Poetry, Stylus, and Calcutta’s The Little Magazine. She has featured in venues in New York, Maryland, Austin, and Michigan, and was given an international poetry feature performance in Calcutta, India, which was held at the prestigious cultural institute Nandan, hosted and reviewed by the literary journal Bhashanagar, and televised.

Bonafide Rojas is a poet, musician and author of pelo bueno: a day in the life of a Nuyorican poet (dark souls press, 2006). he is the vocalist/guitarist for the band The Mona Passage, a poetic rock and roll art experiment. He's also the 2002 slam this! champion and has been on two national poetry slam teams, NYC/Union Square 2002 & wicker park 2003. he has appeared in Russell Simmon's "Def Poetry Jam" season 4 and he has been published in the anthologies: bum rush the page: a def poetry jam, rolecall: "a generational anthology of social and political black literature and art, the centro journal, the acentos review, calabash journal and is the father of a beautiful five year old named John Pablo.

In Front Of The Class

Howard Treadwell is a New York native hailing from Mastic and Buffalo, New York. He believes in the beauty of razorblades and roses. A coping Manic-Depressant and survivor of multiple suicide attempts, he finds his reasons for living within the first breath of morning. Howard earned a spot on the Buffalo national slam team for two consecutive years (2006 & 2007), and became the city's Grand Slam Champion in 2006. He also coached the 2008 team. Howard is AMP|Indelible's Co-Editor-in-Chief, and its resident performance coach. He was recently a member of the Spoken Word/Hip-hop group 21poetz. Current literary projects include a chapbook entitled Dreams of Loisaida, and a poetic/prose autobiography entitled Native Blood, Barrio Soul.

Gravity

Kelly Zen-Yie Tsai is a Chicago-born, Brooklyn-based, Chinese Taiwanese American spoken word artist who has given over 300 performances worldwide in notable venues like the Nuyorican Poets Café, House of Blues, Apollo Theater in Harlem, Kennedy Center, Lincoln Center, and three seasons on HBO's "Def Poetry." A frequent collaborator with filmmakers, choreographers, musicians, and theater artists, Tsai has released three chapbooks: Inside Outside Outside Inside (2004), Thought Crimes (2005), No Sugar Please (2008), and the CD Infinity Breaks (2006). She has shared stages with Mos Def, KRS-One, Sonia Sanchez, Talib Kweli, Erykah Badu, Amiri Baraka, and many more. (www.yellowgurl.com)Click here

Grey Matter