Author Archive
Youth Poets Workshops 1st and 3rd Saturdays
Hosted by: Alexandra Marie and Joaquin Zihuatanejo, founders of Dallas Youth Poets
3rd Saturdays: 4-6 @ Oak Cliff Cultural Center, 223 W. Jefferson
Youth Poets Workshops is a component of WS Next Generation Project in support and development of young writers. These workshops are mentored by top performance poets and Dallas Youth Poets founders, Joaquin Zihuatanejo and Alexandra Marie Thurston. They provides poetry and slam outreach to area youth in two great locations for young writers to meet and open to ages 11-17. Participants instructions in writing and performance culminate in eligibility to compete for Dallas Youth Poets sponsored Team, representing Dallas in the annual conference and competition, Brave New Voices. The workshop participants are also eligible to compete in other area youth team competitions.
Joaquin Zihuatanejo (born in Dallas, Texas) is an award-winning American slam poet and teacher. In 2004, Zihuatanejo competed in the National Poetry Slam as part of the Dallas Poetry Slam team, which placed third. He also appeared on HBO’s Def Poetry in 2005. In 2008, he won the Individual World Poetry Slam and was the winner of the World Cup of Poetry Slam in 2009. Currently, Zihuatanejo resides near his hometown of Dallas with his wife and two daughters. Outside of poetry, Zihuatanejo taught English and creative writing for seven years.
Alexandra Marie Thurston, is a writer from Los Angeles and Director of the Dallas Poetry Slam. She bring years of service to the poetry community and inspiring mentorship to young writers. Alexandra Marie Thurston serves as the board of directors of WordSpace.
WordSpace is honored to partner with Oak Cliff Cultural Center to produce Youth Poets Workhops at their facility. Funding for this program is made possible by City of Dallas Office of Cultural Affairs and WordSpace Members.
Special Thanks to Half Price Books, sponsors of WordSpace at The Kessler, for use of their facilities for this program. WordSpace is also honored to be a 2014 recipient of TACA’s generosity.
WordSpace Tribute to Alan Lomax
Author Jerry Kelley presents an entertaining and enriching multi-media tribute to the historic work of Alan Lomax.
Where: Salon in Private Residence – RSVP wordspace@wordspace.us, 214-838-3554
When: Thursday, November 13, 7 pm
Refreshments Served: Thank you Spiral Diner and Ben E. Keith
Alan Lomax (January 31, 1915 – July 19, 2002) was one of the great American field collectors of folk music of the 20th century. He was also a folklorist, ethnomusicologist, archivist, writer, scholar, political activist, oral historian, and film-maker. Lomax also produced recordings, concerts, and radio shows in the US and in England, which played an important role in both the American and British folk revivals of the 1940s, ’50s and early ’60s. During the New Deal, with his father, famed folklorist and collector John A. Lomax and later alone and with others, Lomax recorded thousands of songs and interviews for the Archive of American Folk Song at the Library of Congress on aluminum and acetate discs.
After 1942, when Congress cut off the Library of Congress’s funding for folk song collecting, Lomax continued to collect independently in Britain, Ireland, the Caribbean, Italy, and Spain, as well as the United States, using the latest recording technology, assembling a treasure trove of American and international culture. With the start of the Cold War, Lomax continued to speak out for a public role for folklore,[3] even as academic folklorists turned inward. He devoted much of the latter part of his life to advocating what he called Cultural Equity, which he sought to put on a solid theoretical foundation through to his Cantometrics research (which included a prototype Cantometrics-based educational program, the Global Jukebox). In the 1970s and 80s Lomax advised the Smithsonian Institution’s Folklife Festival and produced a series of films about folk music, American Patchwork, which aired on PBS in 1991. In his late seventies, Lomax completed a long-deferred memoir, The Land Where the Blues Began (1995), linking the birth of the blues to debt peonage, segregation, and forced labor in the American South.
JERRY KELLEY holds a BA degree from Harvard University. He has published poetry in The Texas Observer as well as a number of little magazines in North Texas. His fiction has appeared in Southwest Review. Jeremiah is also a founding member of WordSpace Board of Directors and world traveler. Born in Dallas, he attended St. Mark’s School. From Boston and Harvard in the 60s to the Canadian Bush in the 70s, he now lives in Dallas with his wife, poet Patty Turner. His multi-media presentations on writers such as William Blake have been educationally enriching, intellectually stimulating- and very entertaining!
Spiral Diner owner, Sara Tomerlin.
Spiral Diner & Bakery opened its door on August 21, 2002. But first, let’s go back a little further than that. The founder of Spiral Diner & Bakery, Amy McNutt, while making a short film about factory-farmed cows in California she learned about the heartless practices of the dairy and egg industries. Overnight this experience turned the long time vegetarian into a vegan. Amy began to research and study the plight of animals, soon extending her studies to environmentalism as well. She began to take part in educational activism and tried her best to keep an open dialogue with people about Veganism and its relation to the environment. In doing this she discovered that most people, once they have a total understanding of Veganism, agree it’s a necessary step for survival on this planet. However, they have difficulty changing their lifestyles for lack of access to information and most importantly, GOOD VEGAN FOOD. So, after a year of working in the film industry Amy decided to move on to her other love: Food. In an attempt to provide delicious cruelty-free and organic food to those who need it most she left L.A. and moved back home to Texas where she opened Spiral Diner in Fort Worth.
The original location was a small lunch counter at the Fort Worth Rail Market in downtown. There was only 800 square feet of kitchen space, 5 employees, and less than ten items on the menu! After being open a few months Amy and James started dating and after only two months they got hitched. Turns out that James was an old school vegan foodie himself so he quit his lucrative job as a bounty hunter and immediately joined Amy to help run Spiral.
After a year and a half at the Rail Market Spiral was bursting at the seams. The customer base was growing and growing and they were running out of space in the kitchen. They needed a bigger and better place. With financial support from Amy’s wonderful mom and many regular customers who came on board as lenders the move to Magnolia was on. They found an old gutted building in the Near Southside and along with the landlord’s help were able to fix it up. And on their second anniversary Spiral Diner Fort Worth was born anew. With fancy new digs and expanded menu Spiral quickly became a Fort Worth institution and a destination for vegan travelers. All the while they kept a great core crew of employees that stuck with them through thick and thin. In 2007 Spiral pulled off a real coup: The little vegan restaurant in Cowtown, TX was awarded Best Vegetarian Restaurant in America by VegNews magazine!
(That’s right, Texas!).
In 2006, Sara Tomerlin, a recent TCU grad and longtime Spiral employee decided she wanted to share good vegan food with the rest of DFW and she asked if she could open a Spiral Diner in Dallas. Since Sara’s the best, Amy said “yes”. In February of 2008, after two long years of planning and location hunting, Spiral Diner Dallas opened its doors. Located in a beautiful old neighborhood in Oak Cliff, Spiral Dallas has quickly become a second home for many locals and for the 20 employees who work so hard to make the place awesome.
In January of 2008 Spiral Fort Worth’s wonderful and amazing longtime manager, Lindsey Akey, took over ownership of Spiral Fort Worth. Lindsey’s supernatural work ethic and brains for miles make Spiral Fort Worth awesome. As does the positivity and hard work of our 20 Fort Worth employees who work their little butts off every day in the name of good vegan food and
cool customers.
Today, Amy and James still own and run the company as benevolent overlords while Lindsey and Sara own and run their respective locations. This allows them have more time to work on recipes, teach cooking classes, work on filmmaking and plan the opening of an art house theater in Fort Worth. They love their customers and co-workers who have given them the opportunity to do what they love most… save animals and watch movies!
Michael Hatcher at Dallas Poetry Slam
When: May 16, 2014 at 8 pm
Where: Heroes, 7402 Greenville Ave., Dallas, TX 75231
Hosted by: Alexandra Marie
Admission: $5, WS Members Free
A lifelong lover of lyrics, Michael Hatcher began writing when his lack of rhythm (and singing skills) thwarted any dreams of making music. When Michael was young, he and his best friend created a comic book: Michael wrote the story and his best friend drew it out. Though he studied poetry while in college at the University of North Texas, Michael didn’t start writing in that genre until 2010. Since then, he has made three slam teams, representing his hometown of Fort Worth in 2011, and Arlington (Inkwell) in 2012 and 2013 at the National Poetry Slam.
Describing his style as minimalist, Michael tries to say as much as he can with the least amount of words. Michael writes about the things he has experienced, his insecurities, regrets, and those who have touched his life in some way. Everything inspires him: The way John Frusciante plays guitar, the books he reads, the way his mother smiles, Katy Trail, the poetry community, his Inkwell family, his Dallas Slam family, his Fort Worth Slam family.
Currently, Michael is writing, slamming, and working on a chapbook. What’s next? He doesn’t know, but by the end of it all…
This reading is a Featured Reader Series at the Dallas Poetry Slam.
Roberto Munguia
Who: Roberto Munguia
What: Mighty Fine Arts Series
When: Saturday, March 15, 8:15 pm
Where: From the Ends of the Earth
In conjunction with Frank Lopez’s opening exhibition at Mighty Fine Arts, Roberto Munguia presents a spoken word performance next door at From the Ends of the Earth.
ROBERTO MUNGUIA
Photo Credit: Dallas Arts Revue
“Roberto Munguia likes to work with a number of different media. And at each instance a very different aesthetic emerges. His ink drawings are composed of languorous calligraphic strokes and loosely balanced solid forms, sometimes additionally punctuated with flowering washes of diluted ink. He achieves a nice balance between his flowering forms and lines and the white of the paper. These works reflect a quite and solid sensibility. Munguia’s prints reveal pre-Columbian influences in their titles and Islamic influences in their mosaic-like composition. These works are as enchanting and mysterious as the creatures that inhabit them.”
Sasha Banks at Dallas Poetry Slam
When: April 18, 2014 at 8 pm
Where: Heroes, 7402 Greenville Ave., Dallas, TX 75231
Hosted by: Alexandra Marie
Admission: $5, WS Members Free
Sasha Banks is a poet and educator from Ohio, by way of Alaska, by way of Germany, by way of California. She lives in Ft. Worth, TX, teaching writing workshops for elementary and university level students. She studied creative writing at Texas Wesleyan University where she graduated, in 2012. She has spoken for Arun Gandhi, and was a Golden Poem Award winner and performer at the 2013 National Poetry Slam. Her work has been published in The Austin International Poetry Anthology and was awarded publication in Alight. She is a 2013 Button Poetry Chapbook Prize finalist.
Brando Chemtrails at Dallas Poetry Slam
When: March 21, 2014 at 8 pm
Where: Heroes, 7402 Greenville Ave., Dallas, TX 75231
Hosted by: Alexandra Marie
Admission: $5, WS Members Free
Brando Chemtrails is a poet from Denver Colorado that finds terror in the clean and hope in the hopeless. Brando was a member of the 2011 Slam Nuba national championship team and is the author of seven chapbooks, as well as half of the dance-noise-propaganda-poe
Members Discount PreSale for Laurie Anderson NOW
To become a member, click the PayPal Donation Button on the WordSpace website. Enter $35, fill in your info, and call 214-838-3554 for your discount tix.
Laurie Anderson is one of today’s premier performance artists. Known primarily for her multimedia presentations she has cast herself in roles as varied as visual artist, composer, poet, photographer, filmmaker, electronics whiz, vocalist, and instrumentalist.O Superman launched Anderson’s recording career in 1980, rising to number two on the British pop charts and subsequently appearing on Big Science, the first of her seven albums on the Warner Brothers label. Other record releases include Mister Heartbreak, United States Live, Strange Angels, Bright Red, and the soundtrack to her feature film Home of the Brave. A deluxe box set of her Warner Brothers output, Talk Normal, was released in the fall of 2000 on Rhino/Warner Archives. In 2001, Anderson released her first record for Nonesuch Records, entitled Life on a String, which was followed by Live in New York, recorded at Town Hall in New York City in September 2001, and released in May 2002.Anderson has toured the United States and internationally numerous times with shows ranging from simple spoken word performances to elaborate multimedia events. Major works include United States I-V (1983), Empty Places (1990), The Nerve Bible (1995), and Songs and Stories for Moby Dick, a multimedia stage performance based on the novel by Herman Melville. Songs and Stories for Moby Dick toured internationally throughout 1999 and 2000.In the fall of 2001, Anderson toured the United States and Europe with a band, performing music from Life on a String. She has also presented many solo works, including Happiness, which premiered in 2001 and toured internationally through Spring 2003. Anderson has published six books. Text from Anderson’s solo performances appears in the book Extreme Exposure, edited by Jo Bonney. She has also written the entry for New York for the Encyclopedia Brittanica. Laurie Anderson’s visual work has been presented in major museums throughout the United States and Europe.In 2003, The Musée Art Contemporain of Lyon in France produced a touring retrospective of her work, entitled The Record of the Time: Sound in the Work of Laurie Anderson. This retrospective included installation, audio, instruments, video and art objects and spans Anderson’s career from the 1970’s to her most current works. It continued to tour internationally from 2003 to 2005. As a visual artist, Anderson is represented by the Sean Kelly Gallery in New York where her exhibition, The Waters Reglitterized, opened in September 2005.As a composer, Anderson has contributed music to films by Wim Wenders and Jonathan Demme; dance pieces by Bill T. Jones, Trisha Brown, Molissa Fenley, and a score for Robert LePage’s theater production, Far Side of the Moon. She has created pieces for National Public Radio, The BBC, and Expo ‘92 in Seville. In 1997 she curated the two-week Meltdown Festival at Royal Festival Hall in London.Her most recent orchestra work Songs for A.E. premiered at Carnegie Hall in February 2000 performed by the American Composers Orchestra and later toured Europe with the Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra conducted by Dennis Russell Davies. Recognized worldwide as a groundbreaking leader in the use of technology in the arts, Anderson collaborated with Interval Research Corporation, a research and development laboratory founded by Paul Allen and David Liddle, in the exploration of new creative tools, including the Talking Stick.She created the introduction sequence for the first segment of the PBS special Art 21, a series about Art in the 21st century. Her awards include the 2001 Tenco Prize for Songwriting in San Remo, Italy and the 2001 Deutsche Schallplatten prize for Life On A String as well as grants from the Guggenheim Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts.In 2002, Anderson was appointed the first artist-in-residence of NASA out of which she developed her solo performance “The End of the Moon” which premiered in 2004 and toured internationally through 2006. Other recent projects include a commission to create a series of audio-visual installations and a high definition film, Hidden Inside Mountains, for the World Expo 2005 in Aichi, Japan and a series of programs for French radio called “Rien dans les Poches/Nothing in my Pockets”. Her score for Trisha Brown’s acclaimed piece “O Composite” premiered at the Opera Garnier in Paris in December 2004.Anderson was also part of the team that created the opening ceremony for the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens. Currently she is working on a series of documented walks, a new album for Nonesuch Records, “Homeland”, and an accompanying touring performance.Randall Garrett
When: Saturday, January 25, 8 pm
Where: WordSpace, 415 North Tyler Street
Admission: Free
MORE! Clay Stinnett and Andy Don Emmons provide performance accompaniment
SEE RANDALL’S WORDSPACE SPOKEN WORD SET LIST HERE!
In conjunction with his exhibition opening at Mighty Fine Arts, Randall Garrett performs spoken word art at WordSpace. Gallery opening starts at 6. Performance at 8. Beverages and snacks are served and neighborhood businesses on Tyler Street are open for business and block partying.
Corey Black at Dallas Poetry Slam
When: February 21, 2014 at 8 pm
Where: Heroes, 7402 Greenville Ave., Dallas, TX 75231
Hosted by: Alexandra Marie
Admission: $5, WS Members Free
Corey Black is a St. Louis born emcee, lyricist, poet, and spoken word artist. He is most known for his affiliation with St.Louis collective The Force and being the hypeman for recording artist Tef Poe. Black’s grit and tenacity also saw him perform on-stage with the Force in front of a crowd of over 20,000 at the 2009 and 2010 Live on the Levee. Along with The Force, Black has opened for such artist like Lupe Fiasco, Common, and Talib Kweli.
His poetry featured on international recording artist L-Vis 1990’s debut album Neon Dreams released in October 2011 through PMR/Island/Universal Records. Heavily influenced by Amiri Baraka and Gil Scott-Heron, Black honed his skills at open-mic nights as one of St. Louis’ premier poets. In November 2011, Black published a self-improvement book The Black Gentleman.This book is intended to help motivate and uplift Black men with inspirational sayings. Noted for his metaphorical lingo, Black has crafted powerful poems like “My Greatest Lyric” , “When You See Me,” and “Revolution” that can be heard on his 2012 spoken word EP “State Of The Art”. Black is the creator/founder of Live Poets Society, a unified collective of poets and spoken word artists that seek to keep the art of poetry, literature, and music healthy in the community. He is also host of Poetic Justice Open Mic, a monthly open mic night in St. Louis.
Prior to his poetry/recording career, Black served in the United States Marine Corps. He draws on that experience as a catalyst to create his art. Black believes, “hip hop is rooted in truth; and people are intrigued by my reality.”
For more information on this artist, visit http://www.iamcoreyblack.com.
Karleigh at Dallas Poetry Slam
When: January 17, 2014 at 8 pm
Where: Heroes, 7402 Greenville Ave., Dallas, TX 75231
Hosted by: Alexandra Marie
Admission: $5, WS Members Free
Karleigh began writing poetry in April of 2013 after a performance of Shane Koyczan’s poem “To This Day” left her anxious to share her experiences with people who could relate. Before poetry she spent all of her free time working back stage as well as performing in the theatre. She grew up doing productions in her hometown, Decatur Texas Before moving to Arlington to be closer to poetry venues in the Metroplex. She bases her writing off of the many life experiences that have brought her to this point in her life where she has been allowed the opportunity to effect people in a positive and healing manner.
She was a member of the 2013 Forth Write Youth Slam Team based out of Fort Worth, Texas. Together, they traveled to Chicago to compete in the Brave New Voices poetry festival where they placed Top 10 in the World and Karleigh was invited to perform on the Best Of BNV stage.
A chapbook and CD are both in the works as she prepares for the 2014 Women Of The World Slam in Austin, Brave New Voices 2014 in Philadelphia, and the National Poetry Slam Competition in Oakland. She hopes to continue writing and performing poetry and she cannot wait to see where her opportunities take her next.
