The Inspired Word in NYC/Thursday, July 1st - Claudia Alick, Osagyefo, Sal Treppiedi + Open Mic!

Mike Geffner presents The Inspired Word New York City poetry/spoken word event, featuring Claudia Alick, Osagyefo, Sal Treppiedi + 10-slot open mic!

When: Thursday, July 1

Where: One and One Bar & Restaurant (downstairs Nexus Lounge)
76 East 1st Street (corner of 1st Avenue)
Manhattan, NYC
http://www.oneandoneny.com/
Phone: (212) 598-9126

Time: 7pm (open mic sign-up starts at 6:30)

Cover Charge: $10

Must be 21 years of age or older. Please make sure to bring ID.

*****

Claudia Alick is a playwright, performance artist, actress, producer, teacher, journalist, and HBO Def Poetry poet. She produces the outdoor performance series "The Green Show" for the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, has guest-lectured at New York University, Montgomery College, taught with Arena Stage and The Shakespeare Theatre, and was named by American Theater Magazine as one of 25 theater artists who will shape American Theater in the next 25 years. She has also served as the Artistic Director of Smokin' Word Productions, authored and directed plays staged at The Kennedy Center, Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company, LaMama E.T.C., Cherry Lane Theater, and the Hip Hop Theatre Festival, and is a member of the award winning NY Neofuturists. She lives in Ashland, Oregon.



Osagyefo is a Jamaican-born poet who never gives straight answers because he believes there are no straight answers in life. His words are filled with sound and power, the raw creative energy of the universe, as he "spits fiery rhymes,” Billboard once wrote of him. In other words, you don't just hear Osagyefo, you feel him. He has performed all over the world, from Africa to Jamaica, from Switzerland to England, and is the author of Psalms of Osagyefo…Chanting down Babylon. He was awarded the Zoo Award in 2002 for the best overall performer/reading for by the Farrago poetry society in London and currently resides in Brooklyn.



Sal Treppiedi is the author of two chapbooks: Random Thoughts of An Obese Mind (1998) and Tellin' Tales Out of School (2010). He was born in Brooklyn, NY, but currently lives in Albuquerque, New Mexico after a six year detour through Riverside, California. He has been an educator for almost 20 years, having spent the first 15 as a middle school English teacher and the last years as a high school activities director. Treppiedi is the founder of VE=NT (Voices Emerging=New Thunder), the annual New Mexico Middle School Poetry Slam. His work has appeared in several publications including Earthships: A New Mecca Poetry Collection, plus "Central Avenue," "Sage Trail" and "Lunarosity," an online journal. Treppiedi also headlined the recent Stepping Out Poetry Festival in Socorro, NM. He lives in Albuquerque, New Mexico (though his hometown is Brooklyn), is married to Deborah and has two daughters, Calle & Leah.



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The Inspired Word Blog: http://inspiredwordnyc.blogspot.com/
The Inspired Word on Twitter: http://twitter.com/InspiredWordNYC
The Inspired Word YouTube Channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/NYCInspiredWord

*****

Mike Geffner
Founder/Producer

Marvin Mendlinger
Assistant Director

Erik "Advocate of Wordz" Maldonado
MC/Host

Marron Cox
Hostess Extraordinaire

Joyce Carol Oates on the thrill of writing/Emily Dickinson

Ocean Vuong @ Mike Geffner's Inspired Word - June 17, 2010

Harlan Ellison's classic Pay the Writer!

Words of Wisdom: Michael Levy's Gatherings

Gatherings
By Michael Levy

One sunny morning, a happy-go-lucky man was walking in a park overflowing with beautiful flowers and trees. He was holding a large basket over one arm. Every so often, he would grab out at the sky and put something into his basket.

A small boy was watching the man with considerable fascination. After a while, his curiosity got the better of him. He approached the man and asked, pardon me mister, but what are you doing?

The man replied, this afternoon I am to give a keynote speech at a grand historic conference. It will be attended by all the greatest minds in the world who believe in their own opinions, ideas and perceptions of the truths, in their religions and science.

I am grabbing different aspects of truth, putting them all in my basket, so that I can present them to all the noble minds. It may enable them to study and understand their own truths more clearly. The little boy looked inside the basket to find it full of thin air.

10 Random Things about me.....

10 Random Things about me.....

1. I lost my mother when I was 16 to breast cancer, just a month before my high school graduation, and I often say that my mother's death was the "best and worst thing that ever happened to me." Worst, for the obvious reasons. Best, in that it made me not only independent at a young age but determined to honor her life by achieving something great.

2) I'm often accused of being a bleeding-heart liberal, but I'm actually fiercely independent.

3) Every time I walk into a room, I alternately think I'm the best or worst person there. Am I alone in this feeling?

4) Despite being a fairly public person and someone who's appeared live on radio and TV before millions of people - and sound pretty good, if I don't say so myself - I'm often very shy in one-on-one situations.

5) My father was the greatest man I've ever known, a man of principle and character. A father and husband first, everything else a distant second.

6) I hate talking on the phone most of the time.

7) I get compliments for my blue eyes all the time. Not only from women but from men. Favorite compliment: "Wow, do they glow in the dark?"

8) My first girlfriend's name was Amy Fisher. Nooooooo, not THAT ONE!

9) I dont have many close friends, but the ones I do have couldn't be closer. They'd do anything for me and vice versa.

10) I may be a sports journalist, but the truth is, I almost never watch a sporting event unless I'm working it. In fact, I haven't been a fan for decades and, quite frankly, don't get the whole idea of being a fan of a team once you've entered adulthood. I guess I'm the weirdest sportswriter you know.

Michael Wolff: Failure Was a "Great Experience"

Writing Quotes of the Day

“The best way is always to stop when you are going good. If you do that, you’ll never be stuck. And don’t think or worry about it until you start to write again the next day. That way your subconscious will be working on it all the time, but if you worry about it, your brain will get tired before you start again. But work every day. No matter what has happened the day or night before, get up and bite on the nail.”

— Ernest Hemingway

“Writer's have two main problems. One is writer's block, when words won't come at all, and the other's logorrhea, when words come so fast that they hardly get to the wastebasket in time.”

— Cecilia Bartholomew

“When I don't write, I feel my world shrink. I lose my fire, my color.”

— Anais Nin

“Writing is like prostitution. First you do it for love, and then for a few close friends, and then for money.”

— Moliere

“This manuscript of yours that has just come back from another editor is a precious package. Don't consider it rejected. Consider that you've addressed it 'to the editor who can appreciate my work' and it has simply come back stamped 'not at this address.' Just keep looking for the right address.”

— Barbara Kingsolver

The Inspired Word - Thursday, June 24: Sean Patrick Conlon, Rico Frederick, Jani Bomba Rose + Open Mic!

Mike Geffner presents The Inspired Word, featuring Sean Patrick Conlon, Rico Frederick, Jani "Bomba" Rose plus a 10-slot open mic!

When: Thursday, June 24

Where: One and One Bar & Restaurant (downstairs Nexus Lounge)
76 East 1st Street (corner of 1st Avenue)
Manhattan, NYC
http://www.oneandoneny.com/
Phone: (212) 598-9126

Time: 7pm (open mic signup starts at 6:30)

Cover Charge: $10

Must be 21 years of age or older. Please make sure to bring ID.

*****

A talented writer and compelling performer born and raised in rural Virginia, Sean Patrick Conlon is a dedicated student of the page and a firm believer in the power of spoken word. As a poet, his constant devotion to both the craft of writing and live showmanship has fast earned him a reputation as being one of the hardest working and most original artists in the spoken word community today. He's the current Intangible Collective Grand Slam Champion and also the workshop coordinator for LouderARTS. To find out more about Sean, visit his site @ http://www.thevanishingman.com/.



Rico Frederick, a self-described "Trini farm boi'" turned graphic designer turned national slam poet, is the current Grand Slam Champion of LouderARTS as well as a three-time Nuyorican Grand Slam Finalist and three-time Urbana Grand Slam Finalist. He freely admits to loving Gummy Worms and pistachio ice cream.



Jani "Bomba" Rose is a Nuyorican poet and performer born in Spanish Harlem and raised in the Bronx who began writing at the age of seven. She went from the public school system to an elite manhattan private school overnight where she developed a love for Plath and Method Man. She is an Acentos Fellow, the host of the Latina Empowerment series and founder of Poetry for the People and spends all of her time making stuff, reading, writing and taking care of her four sons.. To find out more, visit her site @ MusingsandScribbles.com.



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The Inspired Word Blog: http://inspiredwordnyc.blogspot.com/
The Inspired Word on Twitter: http://twitter.com/InspiredWordNYC
The Inspired Word YouTube Channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/NYCInspiredWord

*****

Mike Geffner
Founder/Producer

Marvin Mendlinger
Assistant Director

Erik "Advocate of Wordz" Maldonado
MC/Host

Marron Cox
Hostess Extraordinaire

ee cummings reads "Somewhere I have never travelled..."

The Inspired Word/Thursday, June 17 @ One and One Bar & Restaurant - Carlos Andrés Gómez, Sarah Kay, Ocean Vuong + open mic!

Mike Geffner presents The Inspired Word, featuring Carlos Andrés Gómez, Sarah Kay, Ocean Vuong, and a 10-slot open mic!

Where: One and One Bar and Restaurant (downstairs Nexus Lounge)
76 East 1st Street (corner of 1st Avenue)
Manhattan, NYC
http://www.oneandoneny.com/
Phone: (212) 598-9126

Time: 7pm (open mic signup starts at 6:30pm; ask for Adrian or Marvin)

Cover Charge: $10

Must be 21 years of age or older. Please make sure to bring ID.

*****

CARLOS ANDRÉS GÓMEZ is an actor, playwright, and poet from New York City. He is a Russell Simmons’ HBO Def Poet and the 2006 Toronto International Poetry Slam Champion. Named Artist of the Year at the 2009 Promoting Outstanding Writers Awards, he appears in Spike Lee’s #1 box office smash hit film “INSIDE MAN” with a lead role alongside Denzel Washington, Jodie Foster, and Clive Owen. Over the past year, he's collaborated with Tony Award-winning tap dance legend Savion Glover on Broadway, represented the United States at the Poetry Africa International Festival in Durban, South Africa, and was a special guest performer at the MACY's Passport Fashion Show. For more info, please visit: http://www.carloslive.com/.



Sarah Kay is a Spoken Word Poet who grew up in New York City and began performing her poetry when she was only fourteen years old. Even though she was often the youngest poet by a decade, Sarah made herself at home at the Bowery Poetry Club, one of New York's most famous Spoken Word venues. In 2006, she joined the Bowery Poetry Club's Poetry Slam Team, NYC Urbana, and competed in the 2006 National Poetry Slam in Austin Texas. That year, she was the youngest poet competing at Nationals. Sarah was featured on the sixth season of the television series Russell Simmons presents HBO Def Poetry Jam, where she performed her poem "Hands." She has performed in venues across the country including Lincoln Center, the Tribeca Film Festival, and the United Nations, where she was a featured performer for the launch of the 2004 World Youth Report. She has performed side by side with Spoken Word superstars like Beau Sia, Taylor Mali, Buddy Wakefield, and many others. In 2004, Sarah founded Project V.O.I.C.E. to encourage teenagers toward creative self-expression through Spoken Word workshops. She has taught Spoken Word to students of all ages and most recently she has been teaching a weekly after-school spoken word class at Hope High School in Providence, Rhode Island.



Born in 1988 in Saigon, Vietnam, Ocean Vuong currently resides in New York City as an undergraduate student at Brooklyn College. His poems have received an Academy of American Poets award as well as two Pushcart Prize nominations. His work appears in Word Riot, the Kartika Review, Lantern Review, SOFTBLOW, Asia Literary Review, and PANK among others. He enjoys practicing Zen Meditation and is an avid supporter of animal rights.



*****

The Inspired Word Blog: http://inspiredwordnyc.blogspot.com/
The Inspired Word on Twitter: http://twitter.com/InspiredWordNYC
The Inspired Word YouTube Channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/NYCInspiredWord

******

Mike Geffner
Founder/Producer

Marvin Mendlinger
Assistant Director

Erik "Advocate of Wordz" Maldonado
MC/Host

Adrian Wyatt
Open Mic Mistress

Marron Cox
Hostess Extraordinaire

Gulf Oil Spill: Poems of Protest and Relief - June 9 in NYC

Gulf Oil Spill: Poems of Protest and Relief
Date: Wednesday June 9th
Time: 7:30PM
Venue: Happy Ending Lounge, 302 Broome Street between Forsyth & Eldridge

$5 Suggested donation. All proceeds will go to the Alabama Coastal Foundation

Featuring: Ted Dodson, Jeffery Berg, Micheal Myron, Curtis Jensen, Ken Walker and more...

Hosted by Southern Writers NY http://southernwritersny.wordpress.com/

The Inspired Word/Thursday, June 10 @ (Le) Poisson Rouge - Carvens, Seary, Ormerod + open mic!

Mike Geffner presents The Inspired Word, featuring Carvens Lissaint, Jane Ormerod, JF Seary, and a 10-slot open mic!

Where: (Le) Poisson Rouge (downstairs gallery)
158 Bleecker Street (between Thompson and Sullivan)
Manhattan, NYC
http://lepoissonrouge.com/

Time: 7pm (open mic signup starts at 6:30pm; ask for Adrian or Marvin)

Cover Charge: $10

Must be 21 years of age or older. Please make sure to bring ID.

*****

Carvens Lissaint is a young performance artist, native from Haiti who resides in Washington Heights, New York. He first established himself as a spoken word artist in 2006 and went on to win multiple poetry slams in the tri-state area. He was the 2007 Grand Slam Champion of the highly acclaimed New York Knicks Poetry Slam, a member of the 2008 Newark, NJ slam team that placed 6th in the Brave New Voices National poetry competition, 2009 Slam Global Grand Slam Champion, a member of the 2009 Urban Word Nyc poetry slam team, 2009 Robert Redford Speak Green Team and has won poetry slams in various venues including the Bowery Poetry Club and the famous Nuyorican Poets Café. He has mentored and Coached the New York University Collegiate team and the New York City youth team in 2010. Carvens also debuted his one-man show called “Walk” (directed and co-developed by Queen GodIs, choreographed by Nicco Anann and sponsored by Urban Word NYC in collaboration with DTW) at Dance Theater Workshop where he was noticed for his high energy and crowd-capturing Theater skills. He is currently signed to Penmanship Books Publishing and has touched stages across the country performing at the Sundance Film Festival and in the United States Green Build Council. He hopes to share his art with the world, and become a better being of the universe.



Jane Ormerod is the author of Recreational Vehicles on Fire (Three Rooms Press, 2009), 11 Films (Modern Metrics, 2008,) and the spoken word CD Nashville Invades Manhattan. She is host of the reading series Emotional Rescue at The Cornelia Street Café, performs throughout the United States and beyond, and is a founding editor at Uphook Press. “One of the most imaginative, persistent poetry visionaries… (Jane’s) signature style is beyond belief—moving lightspeed with an astoundingly unique beat and the ability to communicate with complete command of language,” said Daniel Yaryan, producer of the San Francisco poetry series "Sparring With Beatnik Ghosts."



J F Seary is an educator/poet/actor. She has been writing and performing her poetry for over ten years. Her performance career began at Binghamton University. Since then she has performed at the Nuyorican Poets Café, the Bowery Poetry Club, Cemí Underground, 5C Cultural Center, Binghamton University, Cornell University, Columbia University, Penn State University, Rutgers University, University at Albany, SUNY Stony Brook and other venues. Seary is currently a member of the NYC Latina Writers Group, The Fantastic Latina Playwright's Lab and she is on tour with Urbintel's "HerStory."



*****

Mike Geffner
Founder/Producer

Marvin Mendlinger
Assistant Director

Erik "Advocate of Wordz" Maldonado
MC

Eliel Lucero
DJ

Adrian Wyatt
Open Mic Mistress

Marron Cox
Hostess Extraordinaire