Spoken Word Conversation and Concert
3PM-5PM
Jane Addams Hull-House Museum
Residents' Dining Hall
800 South Halsted
A conversation around spoken word and hip-hop poetics.
FREE
Two free tickets to the play Las Chicas at the MCA will be available to all who attend the afternoon HomeGirls conversation.
As part of the first generation of American women to attend college, Jane Addams understood the importance of breaking boundaries and being a border crosser. She did this in numerous ways: as a white person working in communities of color; as a wealthy person addressing issues of poverty; and as a woman entering into the male dominated and defined public sphere.
Join us for an afternoon conversation with a new generation of border crossing female spoken word poets. They are continuing in Jane Addams legacy, blazing across new borders from the subculture to the dominant culture, crossing geographical terrain, from the personal to the political--and back again. How do we unleash our radical imaginations to create a new world with appreciation, acknowledgement, and understanding of difference and boundaries while crossing over to create a common, more just world?
Can we do this from the word up?
AND THAT EVENING:
A Dangerous Woman Affair…
A Spoken Word Concert
FREE
7pm
UIC Campus
1044 W. Harrison L285 Lecture Hall
Jane Addams Hull-House Museum celebrates the legacy of Jane Addams, who was once called "Public Enemy #1" and "The Most Dangerous Woman in America" by the FBI, with a series of events that features and celebrates women who might be considered "dangerous." These artists, scholars, activists and organizers all speak truth to power, share a fierce determination to challenge the status quo and inspire us to imagine a better, more just future.
Bios
A native of Chicago’s south side, Mayda del Valle relocated to New York City in October, 2000 and won the 2001 Nuyorican Grand Slam Championship, and went on to win the Individual National Poetry Slam Championship to become the youngest poet, and first Latina to win the title. Mayda has been featured on 4 seasons of the HBO series Russell Simmons Presents Def Poetry. She was an original cast member and writer for the critically acclaimed Tony award winning Broadway production of Russell Simmons Def Poetry Jam on Broadway. She currently resides in Los Angeles and is continuing work on her solo show and a CD.
Bassey Ikpi is a Nigerian born Oklahoma raised poet. She's performed her poetry on the NAACP Image Awards and Essence Music Festival. She has also appeared in the pages of notable magazines such as Marie Claire, Glamour and Bust. Bassey has appeared on HBO's Def Poetry Jam a record 5 times and has toured nationally and internationally with the Tony Award winning Broadway stage production.
Marty McConnell co-founded the louderARTS Project, received her MFA from Sarah Lawrence College, and is a member of the Piper Jane Project. In addition to being chosen as one of the top 20 "Best of the Net" poems for 2007, her work has been published in journals including Rattle, Fourteen Hills, and Rattapallax, and anthologies including Spoken Word Revolution: Redux, Homewrecker: An Adultery Reader, and Women of the Bowery.
Angel Nafis is a babywomen from Michigan, and the Poet in Residence for the Ann Arbor VOLUME youth poetry project. She is also a member of the University of Michigan’s poetry troupe "Word Works", and a two time member of the Ann Arbor youth Poetry Slam team that competed in the national youth slam Brave New Voices in San Francisco and New York City. She doesn't like writing with pencil, and she likes journals made by Krista the best.
Kelly Zen-Yie Tsai is a Chicago-born, Brooklyn-based Chinese Taiwanese American spoken word artist who fights for cultural pride and survival through how she spits and how she lives. She's performed at over 250 performances worldwide from Los Angeles to Nairobi, New York to Beijing including 3 seasons of "HBO Def Poetry.” www.yellowgurl.com
Anna West is a spoken word poet, educator and community arts organizer. She has developed and led youth literary arts programs in diverse settings throughout Chicago and Louisiana for ten years. She is the founding director of WordPlay Teen Writing Project in Baton Rouge, Louisiana and co-founded Young Chicago Authors' Say What Magazine and the acclaimed teen poetry slam festival, Louder Than A Bomb. Her poetry has been featured at numerous live venues and is published in collections such as Columbia Poetry Review (2000), New Skool Poetics (2004), After Hours (2006), and Country Road (2007).
Lauren Whitehead, a native of Chicago, Illinois is a recent graduate of the University of Michigan. Lauren is currently the Associate Program Director at Youth Speaks in San Francisco. She is working on the production of her one woman show set to open in November of this year.
