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March 29, 2005

Best of Tuesdays at the Cabaret

WHAT: March Productions Presents Tuesdays at the Cabaret
A monthly spotlight of original poetry, comedy and prose, the second Tuesday
of every month

WHEN: Tuesday, April 12, 2005 at 8:00pm

WHERE: Richard Hugo House, 1634 Eleventh Avenue Seattle, WA 98122
Need directions? Go to www.hugohouse.org
$5 admission

WHO: Featuring Christa Bell, Becky Guerra, Katinka Kraft, Marsha Major, Carol
Maki, Kory Martin-Damon, Lane Stroud, and Craig Trolli.

WHY: It's way better than television.

take back the night rally with spoken word

Tuesday, April 5th at 6pm in the HUB Auditorium of the Seattle University of Washington Campus, the Committee of Organizing Rape Education, a student group, will be hosting the annual Take Back the Night Rally.

The rally, part of the campus's Sexual Assault and Relationship Violence Awareness week, is designed to raise awareness of the impacts of sexual violence on all members of society. It will include various speakers as well as a performance by Spoken Word artist and singer Alix Olson. Her website can be found at Alix Olson.com. The event is free and available to the public.

bent gear for sale


bent has a new store!

check out all the gear, be the coolest person in your class with bent tote and messenger bags; get your honey a thong or some boxers; get your head on straight with bent caps; spiral bound notebooks to collect all your half-scratched poems ... keep track of your writing time with a bent wall clock! something for everybody ... there's even throw pillows, and an "I'm a poet, not a chef" apron!

resistance is futile. c'mon, you know you want to.

tee shirts are still available by contacting us.

... all proceeds go to support yer favorite queer writing institute, bent!

April - National Poetry Month

April is National Poetry Month! Get out there and read some poetry!

Here's some events that are going on in April.

* 2005 Seattle Poetry Festival, including the Grand Slam, guest speakers Anne Waldman and Sherman Alexie, and many workshops and panels at the Hugo House.

* University Book Store events, including the Dead Poet's Society reading, and poet Mary Lou Sanelli.

* Open Books, Seattle's only poetry bookstore, is celebrating 10 years of business with four consecutive nights of poetry, April 25-29, including poets Linda Bierds, Joshua Beckman, Lucia Perillo, and Bruce Beasley.

WRITE OFF TOUR (a spoken word show)

Write Off Performers: Ivan E. Coyote, Tara Hardy, Lane Stroud,
Katinka Kraft, Amy Mahoney, & SoulChilde
Special Guests: Kristie Fleming & Becky Guerra

Show Date: Saturday, April 23rd, 2005
Time: Doors: 7:00 p.m.
Show: 8:00 p.m.
Location: Re-bar
1114 Howell street
Seattle, WA 98101
(206) 233-9873

Cost: $8-10 (sliding scale)

Seattle’s own Oratrix Productions presents:
THE WRITE OFF TOUR

Come give some hometown love to some of Seattle’s hottest poets, who will be burnin’ rubber down the West coast featuring their work in 11 cities, in April 2005. The Write Off Tour is a collection of fast-talking, mic rocking, and story dropping verbal outlaws. WRITE OFF is Katinka Kraft, Amy Mahoney, Tara Hardy, Lane Stroud, Ivan E. Coyote, and SoulChilde. These artists speak like they live: out of bounds. They come on full force and in your face with shocking honesty and twisted wit in an on going effort to challenge people’s ideas about gender, sex, race, nationality, class, privilege and social responsibility.

Tara Hardy is the femme dyke working class poet populist of Seattle and Seattle’s 2002 Grand Slam champion. She is the founder and director of Bent, the Seattle Queer Writers Institute (“Bent”) where she has been teaching and mentoring queer artist for over four years. She has been seen on “The Rolling Thunder Democracy Tour, “Strombolis Island of Donkeys and Dolls Tour”, the “All Girl, All Word Tour” and can be found in “Without a Net” out on Seal Press.

Ivan E. Coyote was born and raised in Whitehorse, Yukon and now resides in Vancouver. She is a writer and storyteller who first came to attention as a member of ‘Taste This’, who collaborated on the critically acclaimed, award winning book, “Boys Like Her”. She currently performs with One-Trick Rodeo, an audio-visual storytelling extravaganza. Her first solo collection was the award winning “Close to Spider Man”, followed closely by “One Man’s Trash”. She was recently listed as one of shift Magazines Top 75 Cultural Movers and Shakers form around the world. This year she collaborated with musicians Richard Spencer, Veda Hille, and the Longest Night Ensemble to create her first CD, “You’re a Nation”, a collection of her stories set to music. She is a monthly columnist for Xtra West, and freelances regularly for The Georgia Straight, The Vancouver Sun, CBC Radio, and is currently at work on her first novel, which is set in the Yukon.

Katinka Kraft is a Seattle based spoken word and multi-media performance artist who uses a fusion of word, song, rhythm and body. She is the co-owner of Oratrix Productions and Vice President of the Board of Directors of Bent, the Seattle Queer Writing Institute. Her most recent artistic endeavor took her to Poland and Germany in the summer of 2004 where she directed and filmed a documentary short with the Descendants Project. Her interests include writing, directing, vocalizing for original music projects and teaching poetry and theater workshops.

Lane Stroud appeared on the Bumbershoot Literary stage for the last two years. She is a poet, philosopher, and performers. She remains determined to unlock the words potential with her mouth as her tool of choice. Through a powerful mix of art and politics she commands stage after stage. From Bent showcases to the world famous Nuyorican in New York City to college campuses throughout the Northwest and through the national poetry slam circuit she is standing up for what she stands behind.

Amy Mahoney is a potent, pure, and raw artist whose stage presence is both gorgeous and eerie, a blend of genius, wit, and core aches. She is the co-owner of Oratrix Productions and President of the Board of Directors for Bent, a Seattle Queer Writing Institute. She has two self-published collections of poetry "Dirt Girl" and "Warning Label". She is featured on the 2003 Oratrix “All Girl. All Word” Tour CD and is featured in Canadian Anthology "Fusion". She is studying Creative Writing and Arts Management at Antioch University, Seattle. She is a graceful presence whether on stage or hard at work producing tours and other artists.

SoulChilde is an Emerald City native who has been expressing himself for over 10 years via music, singing, acting & writing. He is a self proclaimed expressionist, currently using performance art as his medium for the sharing of infinite vision. Through word, song & dance he carries on the tradition of revolutionaries such as the Last Poets, Alvin Ailey & Nina Simone. Last summer he rocked the mic & shared stages at the Vancouver B.C. Folk Music Festival & the Vancouver International Hip-Hop Film Festival & last October debuted his one-soul, two spirit show entitled WITH WARRIOR’S TONGUE.

Oratrix Productions is passion, politics and poetic fury, known for delivering artists who have the power to make you question everything you thought you knew and sending you back into the world with new eyes. Their artists stand at the fringes, but won’t be ignored; they speak with gritty intellect, humor and heart. Oratrix Productions believe that by sharing their lives and their work, these artists create an invaluable record of a marginalized history with a distinctly unique view of class, race, gender and sexuality. This is the second West Coast tour for Seattle based Oratrix Productions. Visit Oratrix Productions for more information.

March 14, 2005

New Space! Wheelchair Accessible!

Bent has a new space! Yes, it's true, we have moved out of our beloved studio on 12th and Pike and into an office space at 12th and Terrace, behind Seattle University. The new space is smaller, but it has two rooms and carpet and a hallway all of our own. Plus, it is wheelchair accessible! You heard me, wheelchair accessible! (We are really excited about that.)

No doubt we'll be having some parties soon ... keep watch!