A poet, a comedian, and a storyteller walk into a bar… it sounds like the beginning of a joke, but on Tuesday, April 9, it was a beautiful reality manifested via Motif’s second annual RI Spoken Awards. Nominees and members of the spoken word community alike gathered at Myrtle in East Providence, which was the […]
Funda is a Zulu word meaning “to learn.” This month, the Rhode Island Black Storytellers (RIBS) are hoping you learn about the art of storytelling in all forms and have fun doing it. Their annual Funda Fest is celebrating its 25th year, as well as their return to live performances, rather than the online version […]
Homer’s tale Iliad becomes a touchstone and a metaphor for all wars in An Iliad presented by the Willbury Group. Theater is a collaborative experience, even if the end result seems centered on one person. Even a self-penned, self-designed (and, in this age of no-overhead marketing, self-promoted) piece needs extra eyes to ensure that ego does not trump […]
Every summer, the Rhode Island Office of Library and Information Services offers summer reading workshops and performances under a specific theme for children, teens and adults in libraries across the state. This year, the office saw it fit to have poetry/spoken word workshops and performances in its teen category under the theme “Beneath the Surface” […]
With the passing of 2013’s National Poetry month, I mourn the random email notifications that there is a poetic happening within moments from where I’m standing, all of my poet friends engaging in a NaPoMo 30/30 (that’s when people commit to writing a poem a day for 30 days) , and most of all, the […]
It’s Tuesday night at Blue State Café on Thayer. Like any night, the staff is serving specialty drinks and pastries in a brightly lit room surrounded by the décor of a local artist, which expels the classroom-like feel created by the standardized tables and chairs. But tonight is different. It’s Tuesday night, which means it’s […]
By Christopher Johnson For 10 years now, a group of Brown and RISD students crowd into a small space that for two hours a week is dedicated to poetry. There they produce some of the best spoken word shows in Providence. It is Thursday night in the basement of Brown’s Rites and Reasons Theater. […]