Open Mic Featuring Stephen Willems

Terpoets hosted an open mic on October 11th that featured poet, Stephen Willems. “I thought [the night] was really fun,” said audience member, Becca Arsham. “I liked that there was a diverse group of performers, like a comedian, singers, and poets. There were also a bunch of new performers, which was great!”

After the open mic, Stephen Willems took the stage. Tyler Kutner, one of the Jimenez-Porter Writers’ House students said of Willems, “He’s embraced that unpredictable spark of showmanship I think too many poets shy away from or over emphasize. Every sound, word, and movement felt natural. I’m glad he brought us along for the ride.”

Sage Francis – TOMORROW night! (10/27)

FREE & open to the public. Space is limited and on a first come first-serve basis. This event will be held in Hoff Theater in Stamp Student Union. Doors open at 7!

Hosted by Jonathan B. Tucker, Terpoets co-founder and coach of the DC Youth Slam Team, with DJ Black Santa (http://soundcloud.com/dj-black-santa).

This event is generously funded by Terpoets, the Hoff Funding Board, the SEE Review Board, EUA and the Pepsi Fund for Campus enhancement.

Contact: terpoets@gmail.com

2 Hour Open Mic

For our second event, Terpoets and The Love Movement co-hosted an open mic as part of Radical Rush Week. The open mic was two hours packed with the poetry and musical talents of UMD students.

“Welcome Back” Open mic featuring Eva Freeman

September 6

7-9pm

Dorchester Basement Lounge

One hour open mic followed by a brief intermission and then reading by Eva Freeman. The open mic list will beavailable at 6:45 pm and sign ups are on a first come, first served basis.

Eva Freeman grew up in a small town outside of Boston and lived with her family at age ten on a Greek island two hours off the coast of Athens. During that year, her father’s sabbatical, she attended a local school and learned to read and write Greek with first graders. She majored in English at Yale and after graduation spent nine years in network news production at ABC News in New York. She is pursuing her MFA degree in fiction and is the coordinator of the Writers Here and Now Program.Questions: Terpoets@gmail.com

Planning Meeting

Terpoets will be having an open board meeting tomorrow afternoon @ 4:00PM in Dorchester Hall Basement Lounge, all are welcome to attend.

Public Speaking feat. Fran Lebowitz

PUBLIC SPEAKING
In Person: author Fran Lebowitz!

“Enormously enjoyable and perceptive. … Perfectly captures the pleasure Lebowitz takes in observing the world while subtly revealing the crippling dimensions of perfectionism, the outsize ego it requires to achieve a certain kind of creative failure.” – The New York Times

Wise, brilliant and funny, Fran Lebowitz hit the New York literary scene in the early ’70s when Andy Warhol hired her to write a column for Interview magazine. Today, she’s an acclaimed author with legions of fans who adore her acerbic wit. Director Martin Scorsese, displaying the energetic style of his early documentaries, captures the author in conversation at New York’s Waverly Inn, in an onstage discussion with longtime friend Toni Morrison, and on the streets of New York City. Lebowitz offers insights on timely issues such as gender, race and gay rights, as well as her pet peeves, including celebrity culture, smoking bans, tourists and strollers. A Rialto Pictures Release.

DIR/PROD Martin Scorsese; PROD Margaret Bodde, Graydon Carter, Fran Lebowitz. US, 2010, color, 85 min. NOT RATED

Thu, May 12, 7:00

Tickets $15 General Admission/$12 AFI Members

(Accessible via ShuttleUM)

Open Mic April 19th

National Poetry Month is going absolutely swell. Blogging every minute of it has been much easier said than done but, whatever. Come hang with us @ our open mic on Tuesday (7pm, Dorchester basement lounge) and we’ll TELL you what we’ve been up to in person.

Jihan

Is that a poem in your pocket?

National Poetry Month is about sharing and celebrating the wonder of poetry, and what better way to celebrate than by putting poetry in a public place? Go one step beyond hopscotch squares and write a poem in chalk on the sidewalk! -From poets.org.

A group of poetry enthusiasts will be meeting in the Dorchester Basement Lounge on April 14 (tomorrow) to go out around the mall from 2-3 pm. Bring chalk if you have it!

If you can’t make it, don’t forget to put a Poem in Your Pocket…

Sister…Spat

See what I did there? Because the event is over?

All failed attempts at humor aside, Sister Spit: The Next Generation was fabulous! The multimedia presentation took place in Hoff Theatre at the University of Maryland, College Park and featured many different artists, including a former teenage dominatrix. I will be perfectly honest with you, I’m extremely awkward and was a little at a loss on how to make conversation with a former dominatrix (it’s hard to believe they exist in real life). Good thing Shawna Kenney was so nice. Luckily, she answers some  FAQ’s about her former lifestyle in her memoir, which I started reading at the merch table and am adding to the top of my summer reading list…

Jenna Brager aka J Bee was in the house and introduced the group. Jenna really helped get the ball–or rather, van–rolling on this project during her tenure. We were so happy to have her back on campus (well, back on the  Terpoets stage since she actually has a grown-up job on campus).  In addition to being a talented creative writer,  Jenna is also a gifted scholar, artist,  and graphic designer. She did the artwork for that amazing Sister Spit flier (hopefully you guys grabbed one on your way out but we’ll also have them at our next event, on April 19th) that Marinaomi tweeted (that’s MY hand in the picture, everyone!) & Shawna blogged. Jenna’s artwork is also available on her etsy site and will be at the DC Zinefest this summer, which she is planning. Go check out her zines, it’ll be the best $2.00 + shipping and handling you ever spend!

The DC Zinefest is an independent event organized to provide a space for zine makers, self-published artists and writers to share their work with each other and the Washington D.C. community.  The main Zinefest will take place on July 30th, 2011 from 11 am- 4 pm at St. Stephen’s Church in Washington, D.C. See you there!

Jihan

Sister Spit -4/9

Saturday, April 9th. Hoff Theatre

Special guest writer/journalist SHAWNA KENNEY (I WAS A TEENAGE DOMINATRIX) and writer/activist and Mothertongue founder NATALIE E. ILLUM!

The legendary, raucous, rowdy performance gang, Sister Spit, lands in COLLEGE PARK, MARYLAND with a vanload of multimedia, queer-centric brilliance! Don’t miss this multimedia explosion of taste-makers, novelists, fashion plates, painters, performance artists, poets and fancy scribblers.

Featuring queer luminary Michelle Tea (Best Music Writing 2010, Chelsea Whistle, Valencia, Rent Girl), writer and provocative performance artist Kirk Read (How I Learned To Snap), graphic novelist and visual artist MariNaomi (Kiss & Tell), award-winning poet laureate of the obsessed and tormented Ali Liebegott (The IHOP Papers, The Beautifully Worthless), novelist and film fodder Blake Nelson (Girl, Paranoid Park, Recovery Road), photographer and Original Plumbing transmale quarterly publisher Amos Mac and award-winning transmitter-writer of brilliantly terrifying fairy tales Myriam Gurba (Dahlia Season)!

http://radarproductions.org/whosinthevanspring2011.html