About this Event
"Earth Day Cabaret has become a truly beautiful community tradition. Conceived and directed by Greg Bell, every year it synthesizes poetry, performance, and passionate environmentalism into a powerful and lovely work of poetic advocacy for the care of our planet."
––Quentin Ring, Former Executive Director, Beyond Baroque
Co-presented with Public Works Improvisational Theater, the program features poets Gregory Bell, Lee Boek, Paul Fleisher, Anika Paris, Jeff Rogers, Elena Secota, Susan Suntree, and Gloria Vando. Hosted by Gregory Bell.
"In the daily quicksand deluge of hatred, greed, misuse of power and lies, EARTH DAY Cabaret tells the truth. It is more an experience than a show, each poet connecting us to our own humanity and all living things. In this fraught time, we need community, belonging, purpose, motivation and inspiration. Cabaret gives us that and the knowledge that we can and must live differently, we do have the power to make a difference, and we have a community that walks with us. This is what we need right now!"
––Janet Gollery McKeithen Minister, The Church in Ocean Park
Doors Open: 7:00 PM I Readings: 7:30 PM
About the authors
Gregory Bell—actor, director, playwright, poet, chief cook & bottle washer—just had to read the Y2K IPCC report, all 1,200 pages (well, mostly—there was a lot of repetition—and since then, sanity has been a high maintenance affair. What are we to do? It’s his contention we need to fall in love with Nature all over again, face the problems of neo-fascism, war & Climate Crisis head-on. And. Take. Action. Oh—he has a poem on the moon, but it’s about how we’re failing Planet Earth. All aboard! Good planets are hard to find! PS: He has a poem on the moon aboard the Athena lander!
Lee Boek: actor, playwright, producer, storyteller & poet, awarded The Joe Hill Award by the Labor Unions of Southern CA, Artistic Director of Public Works Improv Theatre since 2001. has produced and performed in most productions since, including Confessions of a Pulpiteer, about his days as an evangelist during the Civil Rights Movement, and The Pilot Who Crashed the Party, written and directed by Paul Sand and performed at the Broadwater Theater in LA. His most recent films credits are the award winning Skitoz, written and directed by Les Twins Perrotte de Paris, and Twenty Years, produced and directed by Linda Kaye.
Paul Fleisher—(A brief autobiopsy of his time on Earth) grew up in NYC, attended High School of Music & Art, and after graduation toured with Jesus Christ Superstar & Tom O’Horgan’s Sgt Pepper on the Road (and on Broadway.) Later tours included Joan Baez & Johnny Maestro. Recordings include: Lou Reed, Elliot Randall, Eric Mercury, Kenny Barron, Larry Harlow, and his own 4 CDs released in Japan under the Boundy label. Paul’s latest book of frivolities is The Ten Recommendments.. He highly recommends it.
Anika Paris—an award-winning singer-songwriter's work spans theater, television, and film. Her collection Woven Voices (Scapegoat Press)—a multigenerational collaboration with her mother and grandmother—was nominated for the International Latin Poetry Award. Her poems appeared in numerous anthologies, and she’s one of 125 poets selected for inclusion in the Athena Moon Mission Lunar Codex, launched February. Anika authored two music education books (Hal Leonard) and teaches at UCLA and the GRAMMY. www.anikaparis.com
Jeff Rogers grew up in Michigan college towns surrounded by woods, hills, lakes, rivers, and fields. Now he lives in Crestline in the San Bernardino Mountains on the edge of a forest, after a 40-year stand in Los Angeles, a city he still loves. His poetry collection Right Wrong Night Song was released by World Stage Press in 2022. He’s published in numerous anthologies and literary journals and performs his work frequently. Jeff believes that poetry is as big as the world and there’s nothing it can’t carry. Find him most places @lefthandedjeff
Elena Secota, at the age of 20, left Romania for London, where she trained at The Webber Douglas Academy. She soon co-starred with Anthony Andrews in Lost in Siberia, and with Emma Thompson and Kenneth Branagh in Fortunes of War. She’s published in anthologies and featured throughout Los Angeles, NY, & Washington DC. Hosting the Third Friday Salon at the historical Rapp Saloon, in Santa Monica, Elena believes that poetry, creative education, and love of nature can create a harmonious world. She is an advocate for Oceana.org, protecting the world’s oceans. https://www.elenasecota.com/
Susan Suntree is a poet, performer, essayist, and activist whose recent books of poetry include This Time This Place, Dear Traveler, and the updated paperback and audiobook of her multiple award winning, best-selling non-fiction epic poem Sacred Sites: The Secret History of Southern California, written with the guidance of Western scientists and indigenous Southern California Culture Bearers. Her current work-in-progress, The Undertakers, confronts the war roots of the climate crisis. She often accompanies her readings with the dulcimer and harmonica. http://www.susansuntree.com/
Gloria Vando's books and poems have won numerous awards. Her poem is included in the "Archive of Artists" in the Lunar Codex on the Athena Mission to the moon. She is a contributing editor of The North American Review and founding publisher/editor of Helicon Nine Editions, which recently published the anthology, In the Black/In the Red: Poems of Profit $ Loss. She has served on the boards of the Venice Arts Council and Beyond Baroque.
About Beyond Baroque
is one of the United States' leading independent Literary | Arts Centers and public spaces dedicated to expanding the public's knowledge of poetry, literature and art through cultural events and community interaction. Founded in 1968 as an experimental literary magazine, Beyond Baroque is based out of the original City Hall building in Venice, California. The Center offers a diverse variety of literary and arts programming including readings and workshops. The building also houses a bookstore with a large collection of new poetry books for sale.
Livestream: If you can’t join us in person the event will be livestreamed on at the scheduled time of the event. If you are tuning in this way, no ticket purchase is necessary.
If you are attending in person, ticket purchase is required. Tickets will be available at the Beyond Baroque bookstore on the day of the event, but we recommend registering in advance through Eventbrite. Masks are encouraged while inside our center. Please arrive early.
Event attendees are expected to behave in a respectful and considerate manner while in our space. Beyond Baroque reserves the right to remove individuals from our events, virtual or otherwise, if they are not respecting the space, staff, fellow attendees, or performers.
Event Venue & Nearby Stays
Beyond Baroque, 681 Venice Boulevard, Los Angeles, United States
USD 0.00 to USD 11.49
