Advertisement
In the great tradition of San Francisco jazz and spoken-word basement readings first forged by Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Kenneth Rexroth, and Bob Kaufman, Litquake is proud to bring back this festival favorite, showcasing world-class poets accompanied by improvised music created on the spot. With San Francisco Poet Laureate Tongo Eisen-Martin, Oakland Poet Laureate Ayodele ”WordSlanger“ Nzinga, Darius Simpson, and special guest Chiamaka Enyi-Amadi. Music by the Broun Fellinis. Doors 730pm, show 830pm. $18 adv / $25 doorTongo Eisen-Martin is a poet, movement worker, educator, and current Poet Laureate of San Francisco. He is the author of Heaven Is All Goodbyes (City Lights Books, 2017), which was shortlisted for the Griffin International Poetry Prize, received the California Book Award for Poetry, an American Book Award, and a PEN Oakland Book Award. He is also author of someone's dead already (Bootstrap Press, 2015). His newest collection, Blood on the Fog, was published as volume 62 in the City Lights Pocket Poets Series in 2021. He co-founded Black Freighter Press to publish revolutionary works.
Ayodele “WordSlanger” Nzinga is is a multi-disciplined creative force; a brilliant actress, producing director, playwright, poet, dramaturg, performance consultant, educator, and community advocate. She is founding producing director of the Lower Bottom Playaz, Oakland's oldest North American Theater Company, and founder of the Lower Bottom Playaz Summer Theater Day Camp, which provides enrichment activity for youth 5-18. She is also the founding Director of Oakland’s Black Arts Movement Business District Community Development Corporation, and founding producer of BAMBDFEST, an annual international month-long arts and cultural festival. She is the current Poet Laureate of Oakland, CA.
Darius Simpson is a writer, educator, performer, and skilled living room dancer from Akron, Ohio. Much like the means of production, he believes poetry belongs to and with the masses. He aims to inspire those chills that make you frown and slightly twist up ya face in approval. His forthcoming book, Never Catch Me, is available for pre-order at buttonpoetry.com. Darius believes in the dissolution of empire and the total liberation of Africans and all oppressed people by any means available. Free The People. Free The Land. Free All Political Prisoners.
Chiamaka Enyi-Amadi is a poet, communications officer and content creator. She was born in Lagos, Nigeria and grew up in Dublin, Ireland. Her work has been published in various magazines both online and in print. She has performed in festivals, cultural events and workshops around Ireland, and most recently, she co-edited the anthology Writing Home: The New Irish Poets, a collection which featured poems from poets who have emigrated to Ireland.
The most important thing about music is the way it makes you feel. Musicians are lucky enough to live a life of pure feeling if they can play their personal visionary music with as much integrity and energy as the spirit grants them. For the last 30 years, the trio called Broun Fellinis have been doing exactly this, innovating and disseminating their "Brounsoun," a sonic expression inspired by the ancient to future traditions of jazz, funk, Afrocentric Hip Hop, Dub, film soundtracks, and African/Indian trance sounds. The Fellinis play this NOW music with passion, precision and soul in energetic performances that embrace freedom and structure equally. Out of nowhere, improvised themes and motifs morph into well-crafted songs with evocative melodies, exotic harmonies and infectious rhythms. It is a music of the moment, reflecting the lives of three exceptional musicians living and creating in the Bay Area, California.
Advertisement
Event Venue & Nearby Stays
Cafe Du Nord, 2174 Market St,San Francisco,CA,United States
Tickets