Tara Hardy is the working-class queer femme poet who writes and teaches in Seattle, Washington. She is the founder and current creative director of Bent, a writing institute for LGBTIQ people based in Seattle. In 2002, she was elected by the people and named by the city council as Seattle's Poet Populist, or poet of the people, and she won the Seattle Grand Slam Champion title in the same year. She holds an MFA from Vermont College in fiction writing, and an MSW from the University of Michigan in community organizing.
Tara is a daughter of the United Auto Workers, and worked in the Battered Women’s Movement for 15 years. She has toured the United States with Michelle Tea in the Stromboli's Island show, as well as with Oratrix, an all-girl, all-queer Seattle-based spoken word troupe. She is a member of the Bullhorn Collective, and has performed with the Rolling Thunder Democracy Tour, Vancouver's Rock for Choice, various Sister Spit shows, the Washington Poet's Association's Burning Word festival, Portland's Youth Pride, San Francisco's Harvey Milk Institute, and at the Minneapolis Orpheum Theater on the National Poetry Slam team finals stage. Tara's work appears in Without a Net, Sex and Single Girls, Fusion, Blythe House Quarterly, Brazen, Switched-on-Gutenberg, and her self-published chapbooks Vs and Rant-some.
Recordings of her work can be found on Vox Populi Live (the best of the Seattle Poetry Festival), the Seattle Poetry Slam Live CD, and her self-produced CD Dirty River.
In her passion to promote peace, justice, and integrity, Paula Larke has trained with CTI (CONNECT Training Institute), Creating a Culture of Peace, The Children’s Creative Response to Conflict, Inc., and the Brecht Forum TOP Lab (Theatre of the Oppressed), and has spent two decades of community organizing and education training through work with Carpetbag Theatre, Inc.,( Kellogg Foundation, Brushy Fork Institute,) the Mary Reynolds Babcock Foundation, Southern Rural Black Women’s Development Initiative, the Highlander Center for Research and Education, among many others.
Paula’s organization, VOICES IN THE TREETOPS, Inc., mentors youth and adults in the integration of arts and activism. She founded and co-ordinates an after school intercultural arts collective for teens, Creative Undertakings Leading To Understanding, Respect and Excellence – C.U.L.T.U.R.E.
PAULA LARKE (646)271-9873
paula@paulalarke.com
www.voicesinthetreetops.org
This bold and electric artist has shared the stage with the late Ossie Davis, CeCe Winans, Gregory Hines, Anthony David, Norah Jones, Amiri Baraka, Patti Labelle, Roy Ayers, Mos Def, The Last Poets, Sonia Sanchez, Talib Kweli, Nikki Giovanni, Steve Harvey, Maya Angelou and many others. Harvard Black Mens Forum honored her with their Woman of the Year Award. As an internationally respected author and poet she has rocked stages all around the world from Cape Town, Durban, Johannesburg, Berlin, Paris, Holland, England, Scotland and many others.
Jessica is among the few poets who can attract more than a literary crowd; bringing people from diverse backgrounds together through her passionate story, and the universal raw truths that permeate inside her poems. This Detroit bred natural born entertainer fuses a rock band with hip hop and poetry for her music performances. Her band, Detroit Read (pronounced "red"), fuses soul and rock 'n roll with poetry. Moore says some of her music sound is inspired by Prince, Betty Davis, Janis Joplin, The Temptations, Annie Lenox and Marvin Gaye.
Moore Black Press proudly published famed poets, Saul Williams and Shariff Simmons; Def Poetry Jam's co-founder, Danny Simmons, NBA Athlete-Etan Thomas, Activist and Poet-Ras Baraka and former Essence Magazine editor and author-Asha Bandele.
Her own literary work has received wide exposure, as she has been published
in several major anthologies including; "A Different Image," (U of D
Mercy Press, 2004), "Abandon Automobile," (WSU Press, 2001), "Listen
Up!" (Random House, 1999), "Step Into A World," (Wiley Publishing,
2001), "Role Call" (Third World Press, 2002), "Bum Rush The Page: A
Def Poetry Jam" (Crown Publishing, 2001).
She is the youngest poet published in the "Prentice Hall Anthology of
African American Women's Literature," by Valerie Lee, alongside
literary greats, Zora Neale Hurston, Alice Walker, Octavia Butler Maya
Angelou and many others.
Jessica has been featured in The New York Times, Essence, Blaze, Source, Vibe, African Voices, Bomb, Mosaic, Good News, Savoy, One World, BE, Ambassador Magazine and many others. The poet’s return to the “D” was met with much buzz as she graced the covers of The Metro Times, African American Family, The Detroit News, and The Detroit Free Press.
As this talented young powerhouse continues on her journey for success, she hasn’t forgotten her roots. In 2009 she founded The jess Care moore Foundation, which will focus on youth literacy, publishing programs, life skills training, creative writing, mentorship and all form of expression through art.
Poet Rachel McKibbens is an ex-punk rock chola with five children. Known for her astonishingly visceral stage presence and devotion to craft, McKibbens has become one of the most respected poets in the spoken word community. She is the 2009 Women of the World poetry slam champion, is an eight-time National Poetry Slam team member, a three-time NPS finalist, and a 2007 New York Foundation for the Arts poetry fellow and Pushcart nominee. For four years, she co-curated the award-winning louderARTS Project reading series in New York City, coaching their poetry slam team to three consecutive National Poetry Slam final stages. She teaches poetry and creative writing throughout the country, from housing projects and needle exchanges to high schools, hospitals and universities. McKibbens was a mentor for Urban Word NYC, teaching poetry at Bellevue Hospital through The Healing Arts Program, targeting at-risk youth. Her poems have appeared in numerous journals and anthologies, including The Acentos Review, The November 3rd Club, Frigg Magazine, The Pedestal Magazine, Melusine, Wicked Alice, World Literature Today, Bowery Women: Poems, and So Luminous, the Wildflowers. She co-wrote the play-in-verse Eight Chamber Hunger Orchestra which premiered at the Bowery Poetry Club in Spring of 2007 to a capacity crowd. She has shared stages with Nikki Giovanni, Kanye West, Billy Collins, Martin Espada, Ellyn Maybe, Eve Ensler and Nick Flynn. She was featured in the slam documentary, Slam Planet: War of the Words which premiered at the 2006 SXSW film festival in Austin, Texas. She appeared twice on HBO's Russell Simmons Presents Def Poetry, has read at college campuses across the country, the Henry Miller Library, coffee houses, dive bars, homeless shelters and the Juilliard School of Fine Arts. She recently completed two full-length poetry manuscripts and is working on a collection of short stories. Her first book of poetry, Pink Elephant (Cypher Books) was released in December 2009. She lives in Rochester, NY.
Rose M. Smith describes herself as a shy, quiet poet who's lived most of her life in Columbus. Others call her "a giant of a poet" or "a shy, gentle atomic bomb," and she was voted Poet Most Unlike Herself at the Mic by her peers in Columbus, Ohio. Her work has appeared in such journals as Chiron Review, The Iconoclast, Good Foot, Pavement Saw, Pudding Magazine, Concrete Wolf, Main Street Rag, and The Pedestal Magazine. She is a National Poetry Slam veteran (13th individually in 2005) and was invited to compete in Canada's first national event in 2004, the inaugural Gypsy Slam Invitational in Lexington, Kentucky, and as a featured poet in cities throughout the Midwest. An associate editor at Pudding House and facilitator of their monthly workshop series, "Salon" in Central Ohio. She is author of Shooting the Strays (Pavement Saw Press, 2003) and A Woman You Know (Pudding House Publications, 2005), and co-editor of Cap City Poets: Columbus & Central Ohio's Best Known, Read, and Requested Poets (Pudding House Publications, 2008).
Rosemary Daniel is known as one of the best writing coaches in the country. The author of Secrets of the Zona Rosa: How Writing (and Sisterhood) Change Women's Lives, its prequel, The Woman Who Spilled Words all Over Herself: Writing and Living the Zona Rosa Way, she is the founder and leader of Zona Rosa ®, a series of writing and living workshops in Savannah, Atlanta, and cities throughout the country, as well as in Europe, as profiled in People and Southern Living magazines
But first and foremost, she is the award-winning author of six other books of poetry and prose. Her revolutionary memoir, FATAL FLOWERS: ON SIN, SEX, AND SUICIDE IN THE DEEP SOUTH , won the 1999 Palimpsest Prize for a most-requested out-of-print book. Along with her second memoir, SLEEPING WITH SOLDIERS , it was a forerunner of the current memoir trend. Along with her four other books of poetry and prose, they were widely and nationally reviewed in many publications, among them Time magazine, the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Philadelphia Inquirer, Ms., and Rolling Stone.
Sunni Patterson, is more than a poet, more than a singer, more than an emcee--it's not just what she says, it's how she says it. Emerging from the musical womb that is New Orleans, artist and visionary Sunni Patterson combines the heritage and tradition of her Native town with an enlightened modern world view to create music and poetry that is timeless in its groove. Sunni has been a featured performer at the many of Nation's premier spoken word venues, including HBO's Def Poetry Jam. She has also had the privilege of speaking at the Panafest in Ghana, West Africa. She has worked with several well known artists and performers including Hannibal Lokumbe- singing lead vocals for his score,” King and the Cresent City Moon," Kalamu Ya Salaam, Sonia Sanchez, Wanda Coleman, Amiri Baraka, Laini Kuumba Afrikan Dance Company, and many more.
Alice Lovelace, performer, playwright, author, and poet, she also is the co-founder of the Southern Collective of African American Writers (SCAWW), lead staff organizer of the United States Social Forum, editor of CRUX: A Conversation in Words and Images from South Africa to South USA, and co-editor of the on-line publication In Motion Magazine. Honors include the City of Atlanta Mayor's Fellowship in the Arts, Fund for Southern Communities' Torchbearers Award, Project South Voice of the Movement Award, Georgia Writers Association's Lifetime Achievement Award, and the 2007 Democratic Socialists of America's Frederick Douglas-Eugene Debs Award. Other credits include: Remembering My Birth: New and Collected Poems; The Kitchen Survival Almanac; Black Coffee; Forever; The Citizen Artist: 20 Years of Art in the Public Arena; The Atlanta Tribune; DrumVoices Revue; Catalyst Magazine; The Great Speckled Bird; High Performance Magazine; Up Town/On The Town; Photography Quarterly; Black Poetry of the 80's From the Deep South; and This Is For Family (CD). Website: www.AliceLovelace.com and www.InMotionMagazine.com
Gina Loring, with a rich, soulful voice, thought provoking lyrics, and a powerful stage presence, Gina Loring is in a league of her own. The top ranking female poet at the 2002 National Poetry Slam, she was featured on two seasons of HBO's Russell Simmons' Def Poetry and BET's Lyric Cafe. Following several showcases produced by Norman Lear, she was hired as a writer/ performer on his "Declare Yourself" tour. In conjunction with Diddy's "Vote or Die" campaign and Rock the Vote, Gina helped to register thousands of young voters. She was also a featured vocalist/songwriter on the Brand New Heavies album "We Won't Stop" and has been mentored by such artists as Mos Def, Pharoahe Monch, Suzan-Lori Parks and Marla Gibbs.
Kimberly Dark is a writer, mother, performer and professor. She is the author of five award-winning solo performance scripts and her poetry and prose appear in a number of publications. For more than ten years, Kimberly has inspired audiences in fancy theatres, esteemed universities and fabulous festivals. She tours widely in North America and Europe— anywhere an audience loves a well-told story. Kimberly's shows have twice been named on Curve magazine's top-ten performances of the year and in 2010, Campus Pride named her as one of 25 "Best of the Best" speakers and performers on college campuses.
More than a poet, more than a singer, more than an emcee--it's not just what she says, it's how she says it. Emerging from the musical womb that is New Orleans, artist and visionary Sunni Patterson combines the heritage and tradition of her Native town with an enlightened modern world view to create music and poetry that is timeless in its groove.
Sunni has been a featured performer at many premier spoken word venues, including HBO's Def Poetry Jam. She has also had the privilege of speaking at the Panafest in Ghana, West Africa. She has worked with several well known artists and performers including Hannibal Lokumbe- singing lead vocals for his score, “King and the Crescent City Moon," Kalamu Ya Salaam, Sonia Sanchez, Wanda Coleman, Amiri Baraka, Laini Kuumba Afrikan Dance Company, and many more.
An Aborisha (Omo Oshun) and advocate of Holistic Health, Sunni has trained under such greats as Oluwo Afolabi Epega, Dr. Ndugu Khan (Babalawo Ifa Kayode,) Queen Malikah Sabah (Iyanifa Faadisi Olaolu Olabisi,) Dr.Morris F.X.Jeff,Jr., Nana Anoa Nantambo, Mama Jean Taiwo, Nana Kwabena Faheem Ashanti, Ph.D, and several others. She is a certified instructor of Chi Kung (Qi Gong) and Tai Chi for Health.
There is so much more to say about her, but words just cannot describe her way, her Spirit, her grace, or gift of healing. In every word/sound she utters, you hear the grit and grime, hope and love, problem and solution, optimism and faith. She is a mouth piece for the Ancestors, a vessel used to promote goodness in a world where oppression and injustice seems the order of the day. What a blessing it is to feel her warm and nourishing rays shine light on your soul!
Sonya Renee is easily one of the most distinguished, accomplished and recognizable females in the world of Performance Poetry and rightly so. She has redefined the role and impact of women in poetry slam since her whirlwind arrival on the scene in 2004, consistently ranking at the top of every major national and international poetry slam she has competed in. In addition to having her work appear in numerous journals and anthologies, she has just released her first collection of poetry entitled A Little Truth on Your Shirt published under GirlChild Press. Her poetry has been translated into Dutch and German, used as curriculum in college and university courses across the country and abroad, and as an HIV education resource with HIV Campus Education. Sonya continues to put her socially conscious words into action; even performing in front of over 1 million spectators in Washington D.C. alongside Secretary of State, Hillary Rodham Clinton at the historic March for Women’s Lives. She was selected as an Artist for Choice with Choice USA, the reproductive rights organization started by Gloria Steinem. She also serves on the National Board of Directors for the arts and activism organization, Blackout Arts Collective. Sonya’s poetry is blunt, raw, and poignant. She is fearless in her reflections on the challenges of her own family history, transforming the legacy of addiction, mental illness, & homelessness into a triumphant call to action and compassion. Sonya Renee is a voice from and for humanity.
Jonida Beqo a.k.a. Gypsee Yo is a native of Tirana, Albania, currently residing in Atlanta, Ga. She received her B.A. in Theatre from the University of Alabama in Birmingham, where she founded Lighthouse Productions, an independent theatre company dedicated to original works that educate about and empower communities in crisis. In 2003 the American College Theatre Festival and the Kennedy Center for the Arts recognized Jonida’s one-woman show “The Women I Know” with the Dell’Arte Diversity Award. She has been published in magazines and anthologies such as Mehr Licht!, Java Monkey Speaks Anthology, Her Circle Ezine , Estrology, as well as in a series of periodicals in Albanian. Jonida is the author of three poetry collections in her native tongue, and of four audio CD collections in English, including Kitchensinkdrama, and Firstborn Daughters. As Gypsee Yo , she performs internationally as a spoken word artist, and has competed in slams worldwide, including National Poetry Slam 2006 and 2007, Individual World Poetry Slam 2006, and the first ever Women of the World Poetry Slam 2008. Jonida is a devoted wife, a doting mother, and a passionate teacher.
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