MN Spoken Word Association » Truthmaze

SAY WORD! 2012 Youth Poetry Festival Press Release

admin — Mon, 02 Apr 2012 09:00:21 +0000

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Media Contact: Sha Cage sha.mnswa@gmail.com

Media Advisory
2 April 2012

Annual Say Word! Youth Poetry Festival

PUTS MN YOUTH ON THE MAP

Middle School and High School poets will perform original works alongside Twin Cities luminaries Villa Rosa (Maria Isa and Muja Messiah), Truthmaze, DJ Stage One, Crescent Moon (of Kill the Vultures), DJ Elsewhere and others in a fiery day of poetry, spoken word and hip hop at the annual Say Word! Youth Poetry Festival presented by the MN Spoken Word Association in collaboration with Plan-It-Hennepin. The event is the first of its kind in the state and aims to impact literacy across Minnesota while putting Youth on the Map! Don’t miss Finals on Saturday April 21, 2012 at the New Century Theater at 615 Hennepin Avenue, in downtown Minneapolis (3:00-5:00pm for Middle school and 7:00-9:00pm for High School Finals). Tickets are only $2 and can be reserved online in advance.

FOR MIDDLE SCHOOL TICKETS: http://sayword2012middleschool.eventbrite.com/

FOR HIGH SCHOOL TICKETS : http://sayword2012highschool.eventbrite.com

For more information see www.mnspokenword.com

The festival features 16 teams and reaches more than 200 Minnesota youth, and also includes dance ciphers, workshops, guest hosts, spotlight performances around this year’s theme ‘The Exchange’. This is the second year of the festival, which is anchored in a partnership with Plan-It-Hennepin, whose mission is to recreate Hennepin Avenue into a walkable and unified cultural corridor. Say Word! encourages poets to think creatively about the theme ‘The Exchange’ as it relates to Hennepin Avenue, and Minneapolis as a whole. For the festival, poets between the ages of 12 and 18 form teams of 4-8 members, and compete in a series of slams for the title of the 2012 Say Word! Champions. Slams are competitions of three-minute poems scored by a panel of judges with no musical instruments or accompaniment, and instead allow language, theme, style and performance to take center stage.

Some of the preliminary competitions, along with workshops, will also be held at the historic Cowles Center in downtown Minneapolis during the day on April 21, 2012. Tickets to preliminaries can also be reserved online. Slams are known to be Olympic style poetry competitions, but the MN Spoken Word Association (MNSWA) takes the focus off the competition, creating an atmosphere of celebration and puts the emphasis on the poetry, writing and literacy as empowerment.

“This is our way of continuing to creating space for and inspire Minnesota youth and alsodevelop an avenue where educators, schools, organizations and community leaders canstand behind youth in the community, and help support youth artists and leaders,” says Sha Cage, MNSWA’s Artistic Director.

__________________________________________________________

MN Spoken Word Association is one of the premier spoken word organizations in the country. Founded by spoken word artists, it has worked to help build the spoken word community and to elevate the art form through its mission, programming, and education programs on the tradition. Plan-It Hennepin’s mission is to recreate Hennepin Avenue into a walkable and unified cultural corridor stretching from the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden to the Mississippi Riverfront. This is a one-year creative place making project to envision a more connected and lively future for Hennepin Avenue from the Mississippi River to the Walker Art Center.

Def Poetics Open Mic -kudos

admin — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 14:00:23 +0000

Kudos to Bedlam Theater for hosting the Def Poetics 2010 series

The writing circles and series will return in 2012 •

Here are some of the ’10 highlights.

RIFF Features: Ink Tea (MN Microphone), Truthmaze, Matt Pieken (3 Minute Egg), Ibe Kaba (Atlantic Rock), Sarah Jo, Poetic Assassins (Sai Werd), Ruth Kohtz, Saymoukda Vongsay (Mooks). OPEN MIC Guest: Reggie Edmunds.

A fresh take on an open mic. Hosted and produced by Twin Cities duo E.G. Bailey + Sha Cage (MNSWA). This new monthly event happens at Bedlam Theater, every first Wednesday. It features the below listed four components in what promises to be a mix of humor, literary rendering, interesting guests, music, plus food + beverage.

From the Curators: ‘We’ve produced mics, shows, slams and more but felt the Twin Cities was missing a cross-generational/cross cultural/cross genre event like this that brings together some of the finest word artists, youth, legendaries, musicians, performers, lit folks, and even some unknowns that are all doing fine things in their separate worlds. We’re excited about a space where the two of us can also continue to preview our own works and feature some of the incredible people we’ve grown to know as fellow artists, friends, and pioneers. A space that helps cultivate a ‘fresh/ new/ innovative’ mode of expression – yet reminds us all to ‘play, laugh, and take risks.’ We are hoping audiences will be a mix of the average Joe, the girl next door, ground-breaking artists, literary hipsters, young students, and spoken word artists, versus just word artists or just theater artists. You get the point. It also ends early unlike most mics which gives folks a chance to make it home early, attend another event or just chill and network with other artists from different worlds. We’ll start monthly and if the interest is there we’ll feature it more often, or less often. We’ll keep refining it as we go and feel confident that it can easily become the new ‘place to be’ and see new artist/in new light.’ – Sha + E.G.

Components include:
#1 Guest Artist RIFFs: 6 pre-invited guests from different genres are invited to rift/rant/perform/or re-invent a previously SELECTED ‘word’. What we see is both serious, gut busting-humorous and sometimes uncomfortable. #2. A short Open Mic: 8 slots, half go to folks that participate in the free writing workshop and the other half to first come first serve. One reserved for a special guest. #3 SPOTLIGHT: E.G. + Sha feature an interesting artist in the Twin Cities, or one passing through, shine the bright lights on them, and let the community know what they have done/are doing/or will be doing. #4 Free Writing/Performance Workshop: Its a short free workshop for those serious and interested in getting ideas or trying out a new piece. Ruth Kohtz lends a hand (or two) to guiding this component along with Sha. Open to youth and adults. For more information email: sha.mnswa@gmail.com.

DEF POETICS
6:00 – 8:00 pm
5:30-6:00pm – Free Writing/Performance Workshop
(Led by Ruth Kohtz, Sha Cage)
6:00 – 8:00 – Open Mic, Riffs + Spotlight
6:30pm – free snacks
$2 suggested donation (no one turned away)

Bedlam Theatre, 1501 – 6th Street South
Minneapolis, MN 55454-1162 • (612) 341-1038

March’s WORD: ‘GIRLFRIEND’
(in recognition of Women’s History Month’

April’s WORD: Flavor (or for some…Flava)
Features: Brenda Bell Brown, Indigo, See More Perspective, Andrea Jenkins, Uncle Bruce Axelrod and more!

Urban Griots Awards at Varsity Theater • April 3rd

admin — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 09:00:36 +0000

The MN Spoken Word Association Presents

The URBAN GRIOTS Spoken Word Awards Celebration
An 8 Year Retrospective Honoring One of the Nations Most Vibrant Communities
The Official National Poetry Month Kick-Off!
Friday, April 3, 2009

WHAT: An evening of historic recognition, noted nominees, awards, music and dance highlighting the magnitude of the celebrated Spoken Word community in the Twin Cities and beyond. Not to be missed performances by Twin Cities finest spoken word artists, bands, and DJs. The official 2009 National Poetry Month kick off, this evening is one of the most culturally diverse artistic gatherings held this year. A night to Celebrate and Remember!! Be sure to check out Twin Cities + National Spoken Word artists on your Spoken Word radio shows –– Tehuti: From the Griot to the MC (KFAI, 90.3fm/106.7fm, www.kfai.org, Sundays 11pm – midnight), Spoken Soul (KMOJ, 88.9fm, www.kmojfm.com, Saturdays, 10pm – midnight) and Write On RaDio! (KFAI, 90.3fm/106.7fm, www.kfai.org, Thursdays, 11am – noon).

“What you all have here is special…don’t ever forget that.” –– Amiri Baraka (2008)

“I’ve been saying for years, the Twin Cities Spoken Word Community is one of the most advanced, and innovative, in the country, and a number of artists here can stand toe to toe with many of the top artists nationwide. It just usually doesn’t get the attention it deserves.” –– e.g. bailey (MN Spoken Word Association/Tru Ruts)

WHEN/WHERE:
Friday, April 3, 2009. Doors at 8pm. Event at 9pm. The Varsity Theater.
308 Fourth St. S.E., Minneapolis.

COST:
$3 Before 9:30pm, $5 After 9:30pm
Advance Tickets Available at www.varsitytheater.org

RESERVATIONS:
Group Reservations are being taken now for reserved seating via email at mnswa.mail@gmail.com

ABOUT THE EVENING AND ARTISTS:

Master of Ceremony: Tiyo Siyolo
Music By: DJ Mixwell
Awards: Over 20 categories of awards, ranging from Spoken Word Album to New Artist of the Year to launching Minnesota’s Spoken Word Hall of Fame.

Performances By: J. Otis Powell, Truthmaze, Bao Phi, Edupoetic Enterbrainment (Frank Sentwali, Tiyo, Queen Drea), Hyder Ali, Ibe Kaba, Palabristas, Ed Bok Lee, Poetic Assassins, MPLS and St. Paul Slam Teams, Marie Chante, Guante, Chantz, Tish Jones, Lady Lit, October, Karma, Niyah Bengai and other surprise guests.

SPONSORS: KFAI Fresh Air Community Radio, KMOJ Radio

INTERVIEW OPPORTUNITIES:
Interview opportunities, digital photos and video are available upon request.

PRESS CONTACT:
Sha Cage, MN Spoken Word Association
(612) 288-9491 or sha.mnswa@gmail.com

MN Spoken Word Association (MNSWA) is one of the premier Spoken Word organizations in the nation with programming solely dedicated to spoken word and urban arts. It strives to empower youth and community through leadership, literacy, and spoken word! Programming includes: workshops and residencies in schools and community centers, regional/national travel, social justice work, area slams, radio shows, consulting and producing projects, youth leadership groups, and sustainable partnerships.

# # #

Singers of Daybreak + Carl Hancock Rux: Spoken Word Comes of Age

admin — Fri, 17 Aug 2001 09:00:02 +0000

Singers of Daybreak + Carl Hancock Rux: Spoken Word Comes of Age
by Lydia Howell

Through hip-hop, poetry and the many strands of oral traditions, have permeated pop culture. Minneapolis is ground zero for the first national symposium of spoken word performance, SINGERS OF DAYBREAK. The two-day conference is a whirlwind of dialogue, jams, workshops, video, and film showings, capped by an exhilarating evening of performances.

“Spoken Word is a long-practiced form, most recognized in the griot tradition of Africa, the bardic tradition of Europe and the Middle East, Tamil poets of India, and the cantos singers of South America,” says e.g. bailey, co-founder of the Minnesota Spoken Word Association, initiating the historical weekend of events. “Spoken Word today grows out of these traditions, an American prodigy: from the Harlem Renaissance and Blues singers, the Beat Generation poets of the 50s rebelling against conformity to poets of the Black Artist Movement of the 60s. The art from married Jazz in the 50s and gave birth to hip-hop, continuing to evolve in the 80s and 90s.”

bailey knows his stuff, as former co-producer of KFAI’s Write On RaDio! program and various performance groups including Arkology. SINGERS OF DAYBREAK continues his mission to create opportunities for emerging and established artists to explore and express themselves in a fully empowered way. The conference features a myriad of workshops for developing skills, taught by local artists with a body of work. SINGERS OF DAYBREAK is the outgrowth of the Spoken Word community over the last five years.

The artists leading dialogues and teaching workshops will also perform at First Avenue, Sunday August 19, at First Avenue. Truthmaze gives an Introduction to Spoken Word, with bailey; novelist Alexs Pate explores Writing and Publishing; J. Otis Powell! (who premiered his poetic-performance piece STIGMATISM at Intermedia Arts last month) explores Spoken Word and Music. Sha Cage, Minnesota Spoken Word Association co-founder, and co-creator of Mama Mosaic theatre group, teaches career development with the astounding Desdamona and Frank Sentwali.

You can get in the groove at an open-mic performance Saturday evening at 7pm at Sabathani Community Center. Closing out day-one of the event is an outdoor dusk showing of the feature film SLAM, which follows the open mic.

“We’re looking for participation from youth to long-time performers,” said Sha Cage. “This is a community-building event.” (Scholarships are available).

Leading a master class workshop and headlining the Sunday, First Avenue concert (backed by the local jazz group Moveable Feast) will be NYC luminary Carl Hancock Rux. This Bronx-born performer has toured from Paris to Africa, blowing minds along the way. His debut CD, RUX REVUE, included Rux jamming with singer-songwriter Toshi Reagon, and shatters boundaries: Delta blues meets hip-hop and the frontiers of Jazz as does his live performance.

Spin Magazine observed that Rux’s “baritone bends like a willow switch.” The NY Times called him a “secular preacher and hip-hop provocateur.” To this writer’s ears, he is an urgent whisper, an authentic shout of the unbound spirit. He expresses a tender lyricism with gritty truths. His performance is a don’t miss event. Slam champion, local poet Bao Phi, will perform pieces from his new fiery CD, FLARES. Congo transplant, Sister Mimi; dancer Leah Nelson; singer and founder of Java Noire Café, Anika, and spoken word collectives Edupoetic Enterbrainment and The Poet Tree, among others, join Rux for a spellbinding night.

For complete schedule: www.mnspokenword.org. 612-288-9491. Sat. Aug. 18: 10am-4pm Opening Ceremony & Panel Discussion, Workshops; 7pm Open Mic, Screening of SLAM at dusk. Sun. Aug. 19: Noon-4pm Master Class, Workshops at SABATHANI Community Center, 310 E. 38th St., Mpls. (Check website for details and prices)

Carl Hancock Rux and Twin Cities performers, Sun. Aug. 19 6pm ($10) First Avenue, Mpls.

First published in 2001 in The Twin Cities Pulse

Singers of Daybreak 2001 featuring Carl Hancock Rux

admin — Fri, 27 Jul 2001 09:00:19 +0000

Press Release:

July, 27, 2001

Contact:
Rachel Joyce
612.874.7931

MINNESOTA SPOKEN WORD ASSOCIATION PRESENTS
THE FIRST SPOKEN WORD SYMPOSIUM: SINGERS OF DAYBREAK
TWO DAY DIALOGUE TO FEATURE SONY SPOKEN WORD RECORDING
ARTIST CARL HANCOCK RUX

The art of spoken word is an ancient art form rooted in the oral tradition recognized in the griot tradition of Africa, the bardic tradition of Europe and the Middle East, the itinerant Tamil poets of India and the cantos singers of South America. Spoken word as it is practiced today is a rhythmically based performance of poetry that is steeped in influence of these traditions. Recognizing the rise of spoken word as an art form in the community in the last 10 years, the Minnesota Spoken Word Association presents the Twin Cities first symposium dedicated to the art of spoken word.This two-day dialogue, August 18 &19, will feature panel discussions, workshops, screenings of spoken word films and videos, and youth activities. The event concludes with Carl Hancock Rux headlining an evening of spoken word, music and dance in First Avenue’s Mainroom. Featuring two stages, the evening will include a performance by jazz group Moveable Feast, spoken word collectives Edupoetic Enterbrainment, The Poet Tree Collective, the Brutist, a performance by rising hip hop artist Slug (of Atmosphere) and along solo spoken word artists including J. Otis Powell!, Bao Phi, Divine Words, Doug Kearney, Sister Mimi, Toki Wright, choreographer Leah Nelson, and others. The evening will culminate with a performance by Carl Hancock Rux.

Selected by The New York Times Magazine as “One of Thirty Artists Under the Age of Thirty Most Likely to Influence Culture Over the Next Thirty Years” (New York Times-1994) and featured on the cover of The Village Voice as one of “Eight Writers on the Verge of Impacting The Literary Landscape…” (Village Voice-June 1998), poet/performer Carl Hancock Rux crosses the disciplines of poetry, music, dance and theater. Having recently published an experimental collection of poetry and prose, Pagan Operetta (Fly By Night Press), Rux has also published poetry, fiction and experimental dramas in numerous journals and anthologies internationally. Musically, Rux has performed his work in collaboration with a variety of artists, including Vernon Reid, Mark Batson, Toshi Reagon, Nona Hendryx, as well as alternative rock bands, trip-hop DJ’s, Latin orchestras, and West African drumming ensembles. Rux has also performed on world stages with The Alvin Alley American Dance Theater (with Jamaican multi-percussionist Junior Gabbu Wedderburn), The Urban Bush Women (featuring an original composition by the avante-garde jazz musician David Murray), and Movin’ Spirits Dance Theater (with Tony award nominated choreographer of “Rent”, Marlies Yearby). He has also performed his work throughout the U.S., Europe, West Africa, Indonesia and Scandinavia. Rux’s debut album, Rux Revue (Sony/550 Music), pairs the artist with some of popular-alternative music’s most inventive composers to date, including Beck/Beastie Boys producers, The Dust Brothers, Elliot Smith producers, Tom Rothrock and Rob Schnapf, newcomer Alan Elliot, and acclaimed folk rock singer/songwriter, Toshi Reagon. Rux Revue is available now.

The reputation of the Twin Cities as a rising spoken word community was recently acknowledged by the naming of Minneapolis as the location of the 2002 National Slam Competition. The community has fostered the talents of several nationally acknowledged performers including Bao Phi who has won at the Nuyorican slam competition (one of the strongest in the country) twice. He has also placed highly at the National Slam Competition two years in a row. And the local performance community is poised for international acclaim with the upcoming release of a CD featuring the spoken word of Desdamona produced by legendary Jamaican producers Sly & Robbie. Additionally, Village Blues, the spoken word film by spoken word artist e.g. bailey and filmmaker Ayesha Adu has been shown in several festival and venues including the Juneteenth Film Festival, MMAAC First Film Festival, and MNTV, a showcase of Minnesota independent films. And it received a silver award at the Worldfest Flagstaff International Film and Video Festival. A group of Minnesota spoken word artists including Mankwe Ndosi, Truthmaze, Sister Mimi, Desdamona performed Sleeping God at the first Hip Hop Theatre Festival in New York under the direction of dancer and choreographer Leah Nelson. Edupoetic Enterbrainment has performed regionally at various venues, and member Tiyo Siyolo placed in top 10 (out of 120) at the Def Jam Slam Competitions in Chicago.

The mission of MN Spoken Word Association is to foster and support the community of spoken word artists in Minnesota, and to facilitate programs and events that will further the work of the artists and advance the art of Spoken Word. MnSWA creates programs and workshops for spoken word artists, develop and facilitate grants, and promote their work. It would also serve as a center for information and networking within the spoken word community.

This activity is made possible, in part, by funds provided by Metropolitan Regional Arts Council (MRAC) from an appropriation by the Minnesota Legislature. Also funded in part by the Jerome Foundation.

Singers of the Daybreak is co-sponsored by SASE: The Write Place, Intermedia Arts, KFAI, The Loft, Flatland Gallery, Ricochet Kitchen, Rhymesayers Entertainment, First Avenue, World Beat Video, Borders Book Stores, Insight News, Radio K, Pangea World Theatre, Sgt. Preston’s, Sound Unseen/Undercinema, Ashe & Spencer, The Archie Givens Sr. Collection, The Givens Foundation, Minnesota Center for Book Arts, First Fridays, Sabathani Community Center, Pillsbury House Theatre and Backdrop Productions.

Artist biographies and a complete schedule of symposium events follows. For more complete information about Singers of Daybreak or MN Spoken Word Association, please check our website www.mnspokenword.org.