Poetry Electric: Keepers of the Flame
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“…we predicate our hopes and dreams towards survival and change,
first made into language, then into idea,
then into more tangible action.”
-Audre Lorde
In these treacherous times, poetry is now more necessary than ever. We need both the revolutionary and the visionary, the pragmatist and the dreamer. Join us as these diverse New York City voices celebrate, protest, investigate and imagine. These are writers of the resistance.
Performances by:
Penny Arcade | Daniel Peddle | Ilka Scobie | Mas Walker | Helixx C. Armageddon | Cody Franchetti | Raven Necole | HD Artemis
Penny Arcade aka Susana Ventura occupies a rare position in America’s avant-garde, contributing to the creation of new art forms every decade of her 50-year career. She is an internationally-respected poet, essayist, performance artist, actress, and experimental theater maker. With her longtime collaborator of 26 years, Steve Zehentner, she co-helms The Lower East Side Biography Project: Stemming the Tide of Cultural Amnesia, an oral history video documentary project that has broadcast and cybercast weekly since 1999 every Monday at 11 PM via Facebook at @LowerEastSideBiographyProject
Daniel Peddle has written and directed five feature films, published several books, shown his paintings globally, discovered actress Jennifer Lawrence, and owns a casting company with an international clientele. He is represented by UTA. Originally from NC, Daniel has lived in NYC for over twenty-five years.
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.
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.
Born and raised in Rome, Cody Franchetti studied in Paris and New York’s Mannes School of Music and Columbia University’s Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. He published literary works on various journals. His first set of poems, arranged to music for voice and piano by Michael Linton, were performed at Carnegie Hall in 2013; his second set shall be performed there in June of 2019, in view of an upcoming CD (“Franchetti Songs”).
Raven Necole is a Brooklyn based creative, volunteer, teacher and community organizer. Her work spans from poetry, video and photography but is not limited to these forms.
HD Artemis has read her work most recently at The Red Room at KGB bar, LaMama etc., Bluestocking Books, Bronx Museum and other places, and has appeared in print including in We’Moon: Gaia Rhythms for Women, Stepping Into Ourselves: An Anthology of Writings on Priestesses, ARAS Online, and LiveMag. She will be publishing her first poetry book soon and is working on her memoirs and some creative fiction projects.
Mas Walker has been an award winning poet since he was a child, born and raised on Lower East Side.
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.