April durham3

April is National Poetry Month and to celebrate, durham3 is bringing poetry to the people with Call What You’re Thinking Poetry. Poetry is typically thought of as something that exists outside regular life, a special event you go to see, a particular type of book you pick up to read. What if people recognized the ways poetry already exists in life? What would happen if poetry’s daily presence was recognized and valued? How can poetry shape an individual’s life? A city’s future? A country’s politics? A culture’s values? Call What You’re Thinking Poetry will find poets located throughout the April 15th Culture Crawl giving readings, both at Culture Crawl sites and on the streets. durham3 will also be handing out free broadsheets containing poems from participants and hanging posters of poems throughout downtown. Participating poets will include Chris Vitiello, Mz. Julee, Langston Fuze, Randall Williams, Maura High, Bill Weaver, Kim Arrington, Ken Rumble, Debra Kaufman, E.V. Noechel, Rhonda Reese, Carol Lautier and others. Choreo Collective will serve as collaborators with some poets. Call What You’re Thinking Poetry will finish up at the Arts Place building (305 E. Chapel Hill Street) with an open mike at 9:30 and a free reception to which everyone is invited. On April 15th, durham3 urges you to look for poetry everywhere you turn (because that’s where it already is.)

durham3 is sponsored in part by the Carolina Wren Press (www.carolinawrenpress.org). Need more information? Contact Tanya Olson (olson@vgcc.edu), Amy Nolan (amycnolan@hotmail.com), or visit the durham3 website at http://durham3.blogspot.com

Artists
Kim Arrington- Singer-teacher-writer Kim Arrington is deeply committed to her community and is fed by the twin forces of literature and performance. A lifelong resident of Durham, NC, Kim founded a publishing house, greased scalp press, to assist first-time authors and underrepresented voices with the production of their books. The press will release her first volume of poetry, the lapis dwellers, in June 2005. Writer-in-residence for the Wings Community Art Center, she has performed at many events and shared the stage with the legendary Last Poets, Julie Patton, and Chuck Davis African American Dance Ensemble. She is working on a full-length play, the color of jesus, and teaching youth workshops on cultural awareness using poetry and performance as a lens.

Mz. Julee- Mz. Julee has been in Raleigh around 3 years pursuing her performance art/spoken word as well as her visual artwork. She is the moderator/organizer for STAMMER!, an event of spoken word, poetry/performance art/film/ music/ playwrights & more, held at Artspace bi-monthly and other venues in between. Check out her website at www.geocities.com/pbqtest for more info.

Carol Lautier- Through her work as a spoken word performer, Carol Lautier composes and presents poetry that celebrates women. Her poems present women’s hurdles with unflinching honesty, and then celebrate women’s triumphs over them. A performance poet since 1999, Carol performs at various poetry venues in the southeast as well as national conferences and fundraising events for organizations that serve women in crisis. As a result of her work with abuse survivors and those in recovery, Carol is the recipient of the 2004 Women's Advocacy Award (sponsored by the Carolina Women's Center.) Carol believes that affirmation and wholeness result from sharing the stories of our lives. Her poetry bears witness to the
healing power of the spoken word.

Randall Williams- Randall Williams is a poet, social activist and filmmaker living near Hillsborough, North Carolina. His writing has appeared in Word For/Word, McSweeneys, Salon and the Independent Weekly. He is currently working on the campaign to end the U.S. occupation of Iraq and local efforts to fend off Senate Bill 8 and House Bill 55, two discriminatory pieces of legislation which would constitutionally ban many legal protections for same-sex couples.

Ken Rumble- Ken Rumble is the director of the Desert City Poetry Series and list administrator of the Lucifer Poetics Group. His poems have been published in Parakeet, Word For/Word, Effing Magazine, Sidereality,NoTell Motel, Sugar Mule, VeRT, and others. He collects books of poetry by Leonard Nimoy.

Chris Vitiello- Chris Vitiello lives in Durham, NC and is part of the Lucifer Poetics Group. He has just finished a manuscript entitled Irresponsibility , and his Nouns Swarm A Verb was published by Xurban in 1999. His blog is located at http://the_delay.blogspot.com/

Bill Weaver- Bill Weaver is one of two bassists and the lyricist for the band Section Eight. He’s been involved in music and politics since his early student days, attending protests against the First Gulf War and George Bush I. Bill brings his political and musical passion to the world of spoken word as well.

Debra Kaufman- Debra Kaufman is the author of three books of poetry: Family of Strangers, Still ife Burning, and A Certain Light. She works at Duke University Press.

Langston Fuze- Fuze, whose stage name is derived from the great Harlem Renaissance poet Langston Hughes, has produced several works after a inspiring conversation in 1999 with Black Thought of the Hip-Hop band The Roots. L-Fuze’s first three albums (The Poetic / 2000 * Inkwell Skripturez / 2001 * LYRITOGRAPHY / 2002) are a meshing of poetry, spoken word rhythms, and rap lyricism. In 2003, Fuze was awarded the United Arts Council Literature Grant for his first book of poetry and social commentaries entitled Plasma Succotash. Within that same year, he also released two more books: To Be The Sun / A Ghetto Story. These titles were followed by the release of his fourth book in 2004 – The Poetic Biography Of Langston Lyricai Fuze. Book number five, Real Men Have Love Handles, was released in January of 2005.

Maura High- Maura High volunteers for The Nature Conservancy's prescribed fire program and edits books for a living.

Rhonda Reese- Sista Rhonda Reese is a social justice poet and spoken word artist from Durham. She is always active on North Carolina’s spoken word scene.

E.V. Noechel- As the daughter of a travelling salesman, E.V. Noechel spent her early years touring the Southeast, gaining extensive knowledge of motels and public restrooms. Lower education took place in a small town in the trailer park belt of Florida, followed by a BA from the University of Georgia. She currently resides in Raleigh, North Carolina where she works as a bookseller and dog biscuit baker. Her recently completed novel, Sanitized, is a Southern suburban coming of age novel and reflection on what she refers to as Shakespeare's "Teen Angst Trilogy": Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet, and Henry IV. It is currently available for publication.

Choreo Collective- Choreo Collective is a collective of local modern dancers and choreographers committed to exploring the creative process and increasing the presence of the performing arts in the Triangle community. Choreo Collective works throughout the Triangle and is based in Durham. Visit their website at http://www.choreocollective.org/