POCHO JOE at GREEN!!! About Joe:
Joe Hernández-Kolski is an actor/writer committed to creating work that challenges the audience while it entertains. He currently lives in Los Angeles. Born and raised in the city of Chicago, Joe has been acting professionally since he was a child. He is a graduate of Princeton University. Afterschool’d, a short film that he wrote/produced and starred in, was just chosen as one of twelve semi-finalists in NBC’s first Comedy Short Cuts Festival. He just returned from New York where he performed his hip-hop solo show—You Wanna Piece of Me?—with DJ Jedi (Digable Planets, Def Poetry Jam Tour) at Ars Nova. The show premiered at the Electric Lodge in Venice, California, then moved on to the San Francisco Hip-Hop Theater Festival then to the New York International Fringe Festival where the show received much attention from both theatrical producers and press. Prior to that, Joe recently finished performing in Center Theater Group’s production of The Stones at the Kirk Douglas Theatre. Currently, he can be seen nationally as the host of Si TV’s Not So Foreign Filmmakers Showcase, a show dedicated to independent film. The second season is currently airing. Before that, he was touring with The Bomb-itty of Errors, a Hip-Hop version of Shakespeare’s “The Comedy of Errors.” The cast performed in London’s West End at the famous New Ambassadors, Dublin, Chicago, Florida and won the STAGE Award for “Best Ensemble” at the 2002 Edinburgh Fringe Theater Festival in Scotland.
As a Spoken Word Poet, Joe performed on the season finale of the fourth season of HBO’s Russell Simmons Presents Def Poetry. He currently tours around the country with his lecture/performance entitled, “Refried Latino Pride.” He has performed at numerous colleges and universities nationwide. He is represented by the American Program Bureau: www.apbspeakers.com.
As a teacher, Joe continues to work with several organizations throughout Los Angeles teaching Hip-Hop Culture and Spoken Word Workshops. He currently hosts DownBeat 720, an open-mic for high school youth sponsored by the City of Santa Monica. The televised version, Downbeat Showdown, that Joe hosts and produces, just received an LA Emmy for “Outstanding Youth Programming.”
To see him perform or read his poetry online, check out his website: www.pochojoe.com
Come see Joe and ask to see his cute little Emmy!
See you at the Palmer,
Slim, Jedi, and Joshua
RACHEL KANN at GREEN!If you don't know Rachel, let us give you a brief synopsis:
Rachel Kann, LA Weekly Award Winner and Backstage West Critic's Pick Garland Award Winner, brings her work to stages as diverse as Disney Concert Hall, Royce Hall, and California Plaza in Los Angeles, The San Francisco Palace of Fine Arts, and the Vans Warped Tour, to name just a few. She also features at poetry landmarks like The Nuyorican Poets' Cafe, Beyond Baroque, and The Green Mill.
She brings the poetry solo, with her co-lab:ORATION musicians, and with DaKah 70 piece Hip Hop Orchestra. Her hip-hop laced poetry appears on 100.3 The Beat, 90.7 KPFK, Sirius Stars, College Stations, and Underground Radio and Podcast Shows worldwide. Her track, "Familiar Taste of Blood" receives airplay in Europe, and the video for the track is gaining recognition. She's performed for HBO's Def Poetry, BET's The Way We Do It, ABC's Eye On L.A., and is a part of Higher Vibration's upcoming Spoken Word DVD, and the Special Edition Belly DVD (Artisan).
Rachel workshops poetry in High, Middle and Elementary Schools, Youth Detention Facilities for both males and females, and Rehabilitation Centers for teens. She was recently commissioned to create poetry curricula for K-5th graders throughout the Los Angeles Unified School District. She has also made her mark in the world of podcasting with Eat Bird, which she co-hosts with Ragan Fox, and appears in award-winning experimental theatre in both LA and NYC.
And we have her performing NEW WORKS OF FICTION on the Palmer stage! Join us as Rach pops our prose cherry!
ALSO: Live art by AZIKIWE "Muthafuckin" ANDREWS, sounds selected by DJ "Snakes On A" Jedi, and beatboxing by JOSHUA "Plane" Silverstein!
See you at the Palmer,
Slim, Jedi, and Josh
ABOUT GABRIELA GARCIA MEDINA:I am
Rhymes tight
Like my womb
Wet with honey for Oshun
Lyrically in-tuned to my heartbeat.
I converse with the earth
Bare spirit children in my verse
Give birth to words that build temples
Of my familiar femininity
I am the Echo Park Deity
A sacred melody
And a silent prayer.
I am a Libra ascendant with a moon in Piscis
I am a Queen like Isis
And from my breath the Goddess rises
Of blood and bone?Made out of stardust ?And mineral stone
I am Lauryn Hill, and Nina Simone
My body is home to infinite soul
I am the sugar in your bowl
And Beautiful Beautiful like India Arie
And I was born from Erikahs Apple tree
And my lyrics are constantly
Transforming like Angie Stone back when she was Angie B
Cause Octavia taught me that God is Change
And my destiny
Is to take root among the stars.
I am
Full of contradictions
Sometimes down to earth, sometimes science fiction
Sometimes in your face, sometimes all over the place
Sometimes cynical, sometimes naïve
And often I laugh when Im expected to grieve
I believe in God but I am afraid of death
I say Im independent, but I linger on my lovers every breath
I am sometimes a sell-out, sometimes revolution
I am a spiritual evolution
Sometimes practical, sometimes aesthetic
I am elegantly unapologetic
And intuitively prophetic
I am nationalism and reparations
I am destruction and creation
I am
Addicted to love like my mother
Addicted to freedom like my father
And my existence is a divine manifestation
Of their affection for one another.
I am
360 degrees of sexuality
Fierce in my stride
Take pride in the way my hips
Rub from side to side
Arousing sacred rituals
Born from between my thighs
Make you wanna cum inside
Taste like ripe mango pulp
Unrefined Sugar
With a pinch of salt and chile
My
Body shakes
And muscles ache
When I masturbate
Create my own pleasure
Skin cleansed in warm sweat
Out of breath
And hair is messy when I roll out of bed.
I am mujer
Womyn
In Labor de Amor clothing
With an Earthseed purse
On stage spittin a verse
I am Alice Walker
Meets Lila Downs
I am Cesaria Evora
Meets Elaine Brown
I am Octavia Butler
Meets Audre Lorde
I am Hip Hop and spoken word
I am poetry, thats who I be.
I am Poetry
And she
Be
Blessed
To Be
Born
from
Me.
----
Monday night, 9PM to midnight at The Palmer Room. Jedi on the turntables. Joshua on beatbox. Slim sitting back in the cut.
RAW DADDY TEARING IT UP AT GREEN! This is an exciting time of the year for the poetry community. This week, the National Poetry Slam takes place in Austin, Texas. The slam team we took to Big Sur this year (Gang Green) will not be going to Austin to duke it out with the rest of the country, but after making it to the second day of competition and placing 4th overall at this year's Western Regional competition, we've decided that it's time to let Green take a trip to Austin next year. Stay tuned for more info on qualifying slams and all that good stuff...
TONIGHT! We are super pleased to bring back a regular of ours, and part of our goodwill ambassador posse this past year at Big Sur...He's a dope artist (check out my living room if you don't believe me--or the cover to my chapbook) who will have stuff for sale, I'm sure. BUT WAIT--he's also one of my favorite lyricists/poets out there right now. If Biggie met Dr. Suess on the corner of Vivid Video and Patron, he might be RAW DADDI aka AZIKIWE ANDREWS! Roll through tonight and listen to 'Kwe spit more fire than Dhalsim from Street Fighter!
And coming up this month:
AUGUST 14: GABRIELA GARCIA MEDINA!
AUGUST 21: A fiction reading by RACHEL KANN!
AUGUST 28: POCHO JOE!
And we're talking to all kinds of fresh artists right now: musicians, freakin' BANDS, poets, writers...this fall is gonna be (say it with me) NOTHING BUT NET.
And I would be remiss if I didn't mention the immeasurable talents of DJ JEDI on the turntables and JOSHUA SILVERSTEIN, beatboxer extraordinaire...
See you at the Palmer tonight!
--Slim, Jedi, and Joshua
