Pocket Poems

Currently, artBeat is editing submissions we've received for "Pocket Poems," a pocket-sized literary  magazine showcasing the work of D.C. youth under the age of 25. The goal of the magazine is to celebrate youth creativity and self-expression and to create an avenue of literary exchange between young poets; literally, we are binding your work together to form a window into D.C. youth writing.  Our audience includes youth, ranging from 7th grade at Friendship Edison Blow Pierce Junior Academy to recent graduates of the Lannan Fellows program at Georgetown University. But the audience will also be educators and administrators at schools/ organizations who create the space for this work. Some themes that have surfaced from the work of young poets are: "neighborhoods,""space in the place," "imitation," and "the war poem." We're also including an interview with awesome activist/ poet ammiel alcalay. But really, it's a youth-focused thang. We're going to print in late July 2008, but there is still time to submit your work. Young poets can submit up to three poems to Montana: montana.artbeat@gmail.com. Please attach a bio including your neighborhood and a detail about you that you'd like to share with other young writers. And contact Montana with any questions via email or phone: 617.448.4337.

Spread the Word 2008

Speard the Word 2008, artBeat's second annual youth poetry symposium, generously funded by the Lannan Literary Programs at Georgetown Univeristy, was held on Tuesday, April 29, 2008, again at the WVSA ARTiculate Gallery: 1100 16th Street, NW Washington, DC 20036. Youth participants at this year's gathering represented the Latin American Youth Center, Art & Media House (AMH), WVSA ArtsConnection, School for the Arts in Learning (SAIL). St. Stephens & St. Agnes School (SSSAS) in Va, Howard University, Studio School, and Georgetown University and ranged in age from 9-23 years of age. 

Our emcee was local poetry educator and the unofficial mayor of the DC open mic, Chiston "Christylez" Bacon, who set a tone of comfortable and energetic exchange. Christylez also lead a writing exercise for participants to generate new words. Our guest reader, Anna Mwalagho, was born and raised in Kenya, East Africa; Ms. Mwalagho in an internationally recognized artist and one woman blend of African dance, music, acting , and storytelling. She is the lead singer of the afro funk group ChopTeeth and an educator at Maya Angelou Public Charter School. 

It was great to hear a good number of young female poets at this year's Spread the Word, including the very brave first time readers Imani and Esther from the SAIL poetry club. In combination with Anna's female-empowering pieces and the exhibition on display in the reading, fabric art curated by White Ribbon Alliance, relating to maternal health care, there was a definite vibe of support for the physical and mental well being of women. Also of note at this year's gathering was that poetry was read in three languages: English, Spanish and Kiswahili. Speacial shout outs to returning participants Cameron from SSSAS and Angel from AMH; we love seeing you grow as writers and people. And hope to see you next year!

Art Educator's Retreat

December 2007 we were hired by St. Stephen's & St. Agnes School in VA to facilitate an arts education retreat for arts educators and administrators across the DC-VA-MD Metro ares, including back to school workshops in bookmaking, ceramics, printmaking, Batala drumming and storytelling. 

Calabash Festival

How are we practicing freedom? How are we writing it?

artBeat envisions establishing an international arts festival in DC; and, as such, we are ever explorers on the search for models: real people making things happen. Happily, one such example of things not only happening but being done right at the hands of Kwame Dawes, Justine Henzell, and Colin Channer is the Calabash Festival in Treasure Beach, Jamaica. http://www.calabashfestival.org/

In it's eighth year, Calabash is a well-executed, well-attended, and free gathering of a diverse spectrum of writers, including an ample representation of emerging female poets like Aracelis Girmay, Jackie Kay, and Achy Objeas. As well as big hitting Diasporic voices like Derek Walcott and Yusef Komunyakaa. And many other artists and attendees from Europe, Africa, Latin America, and North America. Despite the international presence, the gathering, set in an otherwise sleepy fishing village, retained an energy and expression of freedom that characterizes Caribbean writing and struggle.

To place this all in a historical context: this year marked the passing of Aime Cesaire, who speaks to both the ambiguities of Caribbean life and culture and the power of a cultural gathering such as Calabash: "I have a different idea of a universal. It is of a universal rich with all that is particular, rich with all the particulars there are, the deepening of each particular, the coexistence of them all. " Lettre à Maurice Thorez. And to place this in a contemporary struggle: this is also the year that Jamaican Prime Minister Bruce Golding declared that he would not allow homosexuals to form part of his Cabinet. A comment that was addressed in the manner that Objeas described as "talking back to power" by Thomas Glave, the editor of the anthology Our Caribbean: A Gathering of Lesbian and Gay Writing from the Antilles and the first reader at Calabash 08.

The people Calabash draws share an interest in engaging with the world through their writing. As a festival, it knows it's history. It's political. It's relevant. It's good quality writing. The gathering also includes three open mics., opportunities for young writers to read their work in the presence of a robust creative community.

Also of interest to the artBeat community is the way in which Calabash combined artforms. There was a film showing of Perry Henzell's No Place Like Home, which for the uninitiated is a great introduction to Jamaican music and life, including the complex relationship between American and Jamaican artists. Also prominent, naturally so, was the relationship between Jamaican writing and music. Bob Andy, all dressed in white and brandishing a white hanky, lead what felt like a revival on the cloudy Sunday afternoon with the sea framed by a mosaic stage, declaring, "My revolution started. I'm gonna live my life."

Young Writers Workshop Series

As part of a larger effort to develop arts education opportunities for Georgetown University students, artBeat connected the Lannan Fellows, GU undergraduates enrolled in the Lannan Literary Programs seminar series, with the After School Kids Program (ASK). The goal is to provide poetry workshops to adjudicated youth in ASK.  In Spring 2007 three Lannan Fellows developed curricula and presented three poetry workshops to ASK, incorporating poetic principles from texts of Lannan visiting writers. artBeat partnered with GoMag, pocket-sized nightlife magazine, to host a fundraiser for a literary magazine devoted to the works generated in the ASK-Lannan workshop series.  In Spring 2008, artBeat worked with local poetry educator Christion "Christylez" Bacon and Brooklyn-based GU grad Fabian "Farbeon" Saucedo to facilitate ASK writing workshops utilizing principles of the Hip Hop craft.  For information on ASK visit www.georgetown.edu/outreach.  

Thai Culinary Workshop

In March 2008 we planned, Cooking Thyme. A Thai culinary workshop with local chef Tao Vigsittaboot of Thai-Xing and Raising Expectations, Inc. a DC-based youth programming company; held at the Latin American Youth Center, Art & Media House. 

"On Art and Social Practice" "DC-VA-MD Arts Education Dialogue Series"

In December 2006 we embarked on a dialogue project, "On Arts and Social Practice" with the goal of uniting the educators we had worked with and reaching out to others in DC's arts education community. Our first dialogue on building communities across culture, featured round table leaders from Hip Hop Matters, LAYC Art & Media House, Young Women's Drumming Empowerment Project, Latino Media Collective, and Provisions Library. Our second dialogue was held at Provisions Library in June 2007 and included educators from 16 local arts-based organizations; this discussion focused explicitly on defining our collective "Art Values." The third dialogue was held during the artBeat Retreat at St. Stephens & St. Agnes and focused on ways in which we can support each other's projects and build a network of the youth with whom we work.

Spread the Word 2007

Thursday, April 26 2007, we celebrated literacy in the district with our first annual Youth Literary symposium, Spread the Word.   The gathering was held at the  and WVSA ARTiculate Gallery and was generously funded by Lannan Literary Programs, Georgetown University.  At Spread the Word 07, youth gathered from seven DC-VA-MD  area organizations and schools to read their poetry.   Participants also had the opportunity to ask questions of our guest reader, Dinaw Mengestu, author of the acclaimed, "The Beautiful Things that Heaven Bears."  Christylez was the emcee and Kristin Arrant of the Young Women's Drumming Empowerment Project backed readers on her drums. 

Growing Roots

 Held in december 2006 at the LAYC, Art & Media House, Growing Roots was a week long artBeat event series featuring an exhibition of works by Nigerian-born Aniekan Udofia and DC-born Tanekeya Word and the music of Aquarela do Brasil, featuring Gigi Maclaughlin-vocals, Didier Prossaird-keyboards, David Sachs-trombone, and Thomaz de Castro-Brazilian percussion.  The event closed with the spoken word of poet of Congolese origin, Omekongo wa Dibinga. 

Beat Making with Hip Hop Matters

In 2006 artBeat co-hosted beat making workshops with Jeff Tate of Hip Hop Matters for youth of the Latin American Youth Center,  Art & Media.  Pictured above is Jeff Tate at work on the mixer. 

AfroBeat

Fight the Power (Outage), an account of People's Paradise.  People's Paradise, an AfroBeat concert at Bohemian Caverns, on Sunday, November 12th, 2006, was co-hosted by Biribelle Clothing.  It was held for the purpose of connecting individuals interested in fusion-driven arts and culture, and contributing to an international arts community in the U Street Corridor.

Who would have thought that despite all of the delicious connections and good intentions, the rain gods would have opened fire, handed us the first day of winter, and triggered a power outage across five blocks of U St?  A power outage?  No joke!  For an hour we drummed and channeled our energies, til we remembered our city is one of Southern efficiency and Northern comfort, and realized the power was out for the night.

Crazy.  And yet the atmosphere and tea-candle reserves of the Caverns could not have been better suited to combat the outage.  Local artist Jolley D held it down on the drums.  Guest got cozy or added their brush strokes to our cave art canvases.  artBeat ladies regrouped to plot plan B.

The AfroBeat must go on.  artBeat is grateful to Juliana Landim for trucking home to pick up the Guerilla Poet's battery-powered microphone and to Boho Caves for permitting the event to continue and running the bar by flashlight.  And further thanks to performers Burnface, Lethy Denise, and, particularly, Wanluv, for accommodating the technical impossibilities and giving his all a cappella.

Wanluv's spinning tunic, in colors of his native Ghana, appeared perhaps more majestic by candle-light; and the crowd circled closer to catch the ironies replete in "Green Card," a song about the tribulations of immigrating to the US.

Thank you, also, to the progressive and beautiful crowd in attendance.  Thank you for your patience and support.  We hope to see you at future artBeat events and learn more about ways in which we can work together. 

"No electricity is a drummer's dream."  Jolley D. 

Welcome!

Our narrative: artBeat was born in a 2006 poetry seminar instructed by Jamaican poet and scholar Mark McMorris at Georgetown University. Inspired by an exchange of thier written work, founders Montana Ray and Claudine Kanku Page began a dialogue regarding the capacity of poetry to express ideas of social currency.