DEZ HOPE, and the HIP HOP SLAM!

First of all, Greenlings, repeat after me:

no rain on Monday.

no rain on Monday.

NO RAIN ON MONDAY!!!

Okay. Now that we've cleared that up...this Monday, March 27th, prepare ye for the musical stylings of Dez Hope, who's graced our stage before and will do so at a decent hour so you can all hear how damned talented this cat is. (He's a Green MySpace friend as well--check out his page, please...)

And then: Following in the tradition of non-traditional slams at the Palmer, we have assembled four of our favorite hip-hop based poets to rock the mic to decide who's the dopest of them all. We're talking Brutha Gimel AKA Mel Millionz, Azikiwe AKA Raw Daddi, In-Q AKA Don Juan, and Gina Loring AKA...Gina Loring! Four emcees, three rounds, two turntables, one mic. And our Round Three caveat this time out: All the competitors must use at least ONE OTHER ELEMENT OF HIP HOP in their final round. Good thing we have a deejay and a beatboxer available...any graf writers, b-boys or b-girls must be provided by the contestants. Who will emerge victorious? What goofy-ass prizes will be given out this time?

A mere 5 bucks will get you in the door. Dez! Gimel! Raw Daddi! In-Q! Gina! Us! And will you get there to be on the limited open mic???

Show up at the Palmer this Monday to find out!

--Slim, Jedi, and Joshua

JACKIE TONE at GREEN!

What part of last week was not worth the price of (donated) admission? Christa Bell threw down a set of poems and songs chock full of soul and inspirado, accompanied by Joshua and the world premiere of Melany Bell and Christa doing the sister thing (and i mean, real biological, not me trying to sound all hip)! and Gary Mex Glazner, in town for readings with his Alzheimer's Poetry Project, showed us why he's been "making a living as a poet" (and by the way, Gary's book is invaluable for anyone trying to make their living with their words). Add Jason Bayani to the mix with a powerful new piece ("Love In The Time of Gunpowder"), and everyone's game was elevated--!

This week, we are proud to bring back the song stylings of Ms. JACKIE TONE--she rocked us once at the UnUrban, and now she's making her Palmer Room debut--acoustic soul-folk-rock...hell, just some good-ass music from a singer we ain't heard nearly enough from lately.

And the open mic wants your three minutes of potluck emotion.

And of course, Joshua Silverstein on beatbox and the world-famous DJ Jedi on turntables.

Poems-and-songs-and-yucks-and-beats,
The Green Guys

CHRISTA BELL, GARY MEX GLAZNER at GREEN!

First of all, Greenarinos, big ups to all who made it out to the Palmer for the second rainy-ass Monday in a row last week...our feature Suffi was vibrant and powerful, and pity to those who slept because of the nasty weather. We also were blessed with several performances on the open mic by the ensemble cast of "The Playground", a musical about homeless kids that opens in LA in a few weeks (theplaygroundlive.com), and they were stellar. I hope hope hope they make it back out before the show opens, as they helped fill the space with their off-the-hook energy and incredible voices. Music was definitely the theme of the night, with three Playground performances and the old-timey blues of Darla Sugar Candy...! And of course, our lovable cast of regulars spit new poems and old favorites. Thanks to Massey, Floyd, Josh Lewis, Manuel, and Sam for holding it down OG Green style, and to newcomers like Chris Hines who got under our skin with spoken word panache and flavor.



THIS MONDAY, we have two performers coming through from out of town who I know will rock your socks off in two distinctly different ways. Our feature for the evening comes straight outta Seattle, and she's in the middle of a nationwide tour that's gonna land her at the Palmer for one night only: Christa Bell (christabellonline.com) is a spoken word artist who, to borrow some words from her bio, has a mission: "Her conundrum: How to make the Goddess fonky. How to make the resurrection of women's spiritual consciousness sexy while maintaining its urgency and emphasizing its relevance to popular culture. The solution: Sanctifying women's experience on the altar of the stage. " She was the 2005 Seattle National Grand Slam Champion and she represented the Northwest at the 2005 Individual World Poetry Slam as well. So, yeah, she's got some chops...

AND: Let me swipe some biographical words about our special guest and mini-feature, Gary Mex Glazner:



"Gary Mex Glazner makes his living as a poet [And he has a book to prove it--the aptly titled "How To Make A Living As A Poet"! --Slim]. Pontiac featured Glazner's poetry in April 2002 on the Beat Fest; a 17-city traveling festival organized by the New York based Knitting Factory. Gary is the Minister of Fun for Poetry Slam Incorporated. Glazner was featured along with Gary Snyder, Anne Waldman and Sherman Alexi at the 20th anniversary of Tucson Poetry Festival. In 1990, Glazner produced the first National Poetry Slam in San Francisco. His poetry has appeared in anthologies, periodicals, on CD, radio, television, and underwater on the Bay Area Rapid Transit system. His poems have been translated into Chinese, Moldavian, Nepali, and Vietnamese. In 1997, Poets and Writers Inc. awarded him a grant to work with Alzheimer patients using poetry".

So I guess what I'm saying, dear readers, is that rain or shine, you simply cannot miss this double dose of poetic dreaminess.
Bell and Glazner, both rocking the Green stage.

Poems & Yucks & Tunes & Beats to you all,

The Greenfellas.

SUFFI THIS MONDAY AT GREEN!

Me oh my, Greenlings. The Tag Team Slam this past Monday was one of the most bizarre slams I have ever been a part of. From George McDonald trying to get his freak on with Damnyo(!) to the Thick Chick Posse en masse on stage to Sam and Lara and all kinds of Pauls stacking action figures, it was truly a night that will be etched into my brain forever.

Big ups to Queen Sheba who rocked a great set four drinks into the night (yes, she threw her "X" up, y'all), and to Dez Hope who gets better by the minute, and who we are bringing back soon so the rest of you can experience a full set by this cat BEFORE midnight...

and to our open mic'ers Cornelius Rex, Sandbloom and Melanie, Judah-One, and SJR, the Senior Jewish Rapper, who I had the pleasure of beatboxing for...

to Paul Jay and Gray (sp?) for calibrating with their, um, very special oral presentation...

Congrats to Team MIC AND DIM LIGHTS who pulled out the victory and the dual gold medals, Team ELEMENTS who took second and scored the clown sex DVD (i am not kidding), and the OG PACIFIC OCEAN SLAM TEAM who came in 3rd. Green's 0 for 2. And that's the way we like it.

Thank you, a trillion times, everyone who came out on the rainiest, crappiest night ever to represent. You all rock.

Whew. And that was all in the shortest month of the year...

Join us this week when we feature SUFFI, who bridges poetics and theatrics with style and grace. And of course, the open mic list is wide open. And we have some amazing people coming through in March. Be ye ready?

See ya at the Palmer,
Slim, Jedi, Josh, and Mike!