Events Calendar
Bent Benefit!
presented by Fremont Abbey, Youth Speaks & Bent
December 2, 2011
A BENEFIT FOR BENT:
Friday, December 2nd
Andrea Gibson @ The Fremont Abbey Arts Center
w/ members of Youth Speaks Seattle and Tara Hardy
TICKETS: $12 adv / $10 student w/ ID (Advance only) / $15 door
DOORS: 8pm
START TIME: 9pm
ALL AGES, BAR W/ ID
Click Here to Purchase Your Tickets!
Andrea Gibson is not gentle with her truths. It is this raw fearlessness that has led her to the forefront of the spoken word movement– the first winner of the Women’s World Poetry Slam --Gibson has headlined prestigious performance venues coast to coast with powerful readings on war, class, gender, bullying, white privilege, sexuality, love, and spirituality. Her work has been featured on the BBC, Huffinton Post, Air America, C-SPAN, Free Speech TV and in 2010 was read by a state representative in lieu of morning prayer at the Utah State Legislature. (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/john-lundberg/gay-poem-shakes-up-the-ut_b_460390.html) Now, on her fifth full-length album FLOWER BOY, Gibson’s poems continue to be a rally cry for action and a welcome mat at the door of the heart’s most compassionate room. Featuring the music of Chris Pureka, Nervous But Excited, and many other phenomenal musical guests the tracks on this compilation are active Volcano. They burn away and rebirth- a creation story in every lyric, radiating with the fire of a heart fiercely committed to social justice.
“Andrea Gibson is a truly American poet, or rather, she represents the America I want to live in. Her work lights a candle to lead us where we need to go.” - Cristin O’ Keefe Aptowicz
Tara Hardy is the working class queer femme poet who founded Bent, a writing institute for LGBTIQ people in Seattle. Her first full length book of poems, "Bring Down the Chandeliers," was published by Write Bloody Press in the spring, 2011. She is a founding member of Salt Lines, the all woman performance poetry group that tours the U.S. since March, 2009. By a vote of the people, the Seattle City Council named Tara Hardy Seattle Poet Populist in 2002. She is the recipient of the 2011 Washington Poets Association Burning Word Award. She has been finalist on seven National Poetry Slam stages. A daughter of the United Auto Workers, and activist in the Battered Women’s Movement, Tara is committed to art as a tool for social change. Her work has been published in various journals and anthologies, including the two anthologies by Seal Press, "Sex and Single Girls" and "Without A Net." Tara has been a keynote speaker and performer on hundreds of campuses for Take Back the Night, LGBT Pride, Women’s History Month, Trans Awareness Week, Kink on Campus, Women’s Studies and Lavender graduations, Domestic Violence Awareness Month, National Coming out Day and various gender, sexuality, social class and poetry related events. More about Tara at tarahardy.net.
Since 2003, Youth Speaks Seattle has been the city's premier collective for youth spoken word poetry, creating avenues for youth voices through creative writing instruction and performance opportunities. Over the years, Youth Speaks has conducted residencies and visited classrooms in nearly all of Seattle's public high schools, and hosted a monthly open mic series that has thrived for nearly six years. In 2011, Youth Speaks Seattle became a program of Arts Corps.