The Underground Rises Up! Join your comrades in this downtown style evening where Boho beauty meets the the pioneers of urban panache. Find revolution in the elocution—at the junction of poetry, music, art, and performance, in this super mix of literary legends and must-see up and comers.
featuring
Edwin Torres, Michelle Whittaker, Craig Kite, Sergio Satellite, Ilka Scobie,
Ron Kolm, Asiya Wadud, Jane LeCroy, Wyl White, Helixx C. Armageddon
Helixx C. Armageddon is a performance artist, lyricist, poet, and music producer. She is a founding member of The Anomolies, a gender justice hip-hop collective, formed in 1995. Helixx has performed in notable venues around New York City including Nuyorican Poets Cafe, Bowery Poetry Club, Joe’s Pub at the Public Theatre, Hammerstein Ballroom, Gene Frankel Theatre, Howl! Happening and the Leslie-Lohman Museum of Gay and Lesbian Art. Currently, she is working on an experimental spoken word album and is based in the East Village.
Edwin Torres’ books of poetry include, Ameriscopia (University of Arizona Press), The PoPedology of an Ambient Language (Atelos Books) and most recently XOETEOX: the infinite word object (Wave Books). Anthologies include: American Poets in the 21st Century Vol. 5: Global Poetics, Who Will Speak For America, and Angels of the Americlypse: New Latin@ Writing. He is currently editing a collection forthcoming in 2019 entitled, The Body In Language: An Anthology (Counterpath Press).
Native New Yorker Ilka Scobie is a poet and art writer who teaches poetry in the public school system. Recent work has appeared in Marie Claire Italia, London Artlyst, American Book Review and small press publications. Book publications include the anthology Resist Much/Obey Little, Flower Power Man, and Jews: A History of the Lower East Side.
Jane LeCroy fronts the avant-pop, cello/voice/drums trio, The Icebergs, hear “Eldorado” on cd. Also, the spontaneous music project Ω▽(Ohmslice) with Bradford Reed’s modular synth, hear “Conduit” on vinyl. Both available from Imaginator Records & digitally everywhere; so add them to your streaming music que right now! Jane has toured with the SF based all women’s poetry troupe, Sister Spit, and is a regularly featured character at The Poetry Brothel. Three Rooms Press published, Signature Play, a multimedia book of her lyrical poems, nominated for a Pushcart Prize.
Asiya Wadud’s debut collection, Crosslight for Youngbird, was recently published by Nightboat Books and she has subsequent collections forthcoming in 2019 (Syncope) and 2020 (No Knowledge Is Complete Until It Passes Through My Body). Her work has been supported by the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, Dickinson House (Belgium), Mount Tremper Arts, and the New York Public Library, among others. Recent work can be found in Makhzin, Chicago Review, Best American Experimental Writing, and Tupelo Quarterly. She teaches poetry at Saint Ann’s School and leads an English conversation class for new immigrants Wednesday evenings at the Brooklyn Public Library.
Jeffrey Cyphers Wright is a publisher, critic, eco-activist, artist, and impresario, who is best known as a poet. He is the author of 15 books of verse, including Blue Lyre from Dos Madres Press. He has an MFA in Poetry from Brooklyn College where he studied with Allen Ginsberg and also taught. For many years, Wright ran Cover Magazine, The Underground National. He has also been a community garden advocate, defending them and helping them develop governmental procedures and increase membership. Currently, Wright stages events at KGB Lit Bar and La MaMa ETC in NYC, in conjunction with his art and poetry journal, Live Mag! He is a regular contributor to American Book Review and ArtNexus. Wright is a Kathy Acker Award recipient for 2018. www.livemag.com www.jeffreycypherswright.com
Ron Kolm is a contributing editor of Sensitive Skin magazine, and the author of Divine Comedy, Night Shift and A Change in the Weather. He’s had work in Great Weather for Media, Maintenant, Local Knowledge and The Opiate. Ron’s papers are archived in the New York University library.
Michelle Whittaker is the author of Surge ( great weather for MEDIA 2017 ) which was a finalist for 2018 Next Generation Indie Award. She has been published in the New York Times Magazine, New Yorker, The Southampton Review, Narrative, and other publications. She was awarded a Jody Donohue Poetry Prize, Cave Canem Fellowship and was a recipient of the 2017 New York Foundation of Arts Fellowship in Poetry.
Wyl White , vocalist and multi-instrumentalist, comes from Paterson, NJ, with a variety of genres and heart-filled melodies. Performing at a host of venues from NJ,PA, NY, and many more. With love for all music and all walks of life, he mixes the charms of awkwardness with the melody of his own original compositions. Performing and featuring in multiple bands and community groups such as; Lead singer of Minor King, feature vocalist and guitarist for Dr. Law, Lead vocalist and multi-instrumentalist for Wyl White & The Good People, as well as vocalist for local bands and groups like Randy Haze Trio, Stereo Joe, Dylan Miller, Stellarstream, and many more. You can find some of his music and art online at websites like; Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Youtube, Spotify, Pandora, Apple Music, and other affiliates under tags like, Minor King, Wyl White, hazexfrost, or Whitefox Co.
Craig Kite is a poet, publisher and CEO of Mad Gleam Press LLC. He is the current poetry slam champion of Staten Island representing the borough at the National Poetry Slam 2018. He was nominated for Pushcart Prize by Great Weather For MEDIA in 2016 and has been published by various presses including Paris Lit Up, Three Rooms Press, The Opiate, and NYSIA Press. He has a background in journalism/human rights reporting and has written from locations such as Iraq, Turkey, Chiapas, Guatemala, New Orleans and Algonquin territory Ontario.
Sergio Satélite hails from the Dominican Republic. He is a champion spoken word slammer and has performed at the Bowery Poetry Club, the great weather for media series at Parkside Lounge, KGB, Mad Gleam, and in the Local Knowledge Magazine series
Poetry Electric
The Poetry Electric fuses music, movement, sound, and dance with the spoken word and presents artists working in a wide range of styles including beatboxing, jazz and hip-hop theatre. This series has presented over 200 emerging poets from diverse cultural backgrounds.