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Amherst, MA – The 2nd Annual Women’s Poetry Open Mic featuring and hosted by world renowned poet, writer and performance artist Patricia Smith will be held on Friday November 16, 7 pm at el Mercado Café on 413 Main St., Holyoke, MA, conveniently located right on Route 116 in Holyoke. Directions to el Mercado at www.motherwoman.org. All proceeds to benefit MotherWoman, Inc. MotherWoman, Inc. is a local non-profit organization that supports and empowers mothers to create personal and social change for themselves, their families, their communities and the world. As an extremely dynamic African American woman, writer, mother and grandmother, Patricia Smith leaves her audiences breathless with the honesty, beauty and energy of her poetry performances. She speaks the truth, empowering others to express themselves with more courage. In addition to performing her own explosively brilliant work, Patricia Smith will host the 2nd Annual Women’s Poetry Open Mic. This dynamic & interactive event is open to the public (men are welcome in audience) with a donation of $15.00 at the door to benefit MotherWoman, Inc. Limited scholarships available to low income participants. Call (413) 253-8990 to apply for a reduced ticket rate. This event is made possible through the generous support of many, including: Amherst College Black Studies Department, Amherst College Creative Writing Program, Centro de Artes at el Mercado, The Daily Hampshire Gazette, Deans Beans Organic Coffee, Green River Doula Network, Patricia Lee Lewis at Patchwork Farm Retreat, Smith College Office of Institutional Diversity, UMass Social Thought and Political Economy Department, and the Valley Advocate, Writers in Progress. Patricia Smith is one of the finest published poets and performance poets in the world. As a performance poet, Smith is the four time individual champion of the National Poetry Slam and has performed her poetry for audiences throughout North America and Europe. She was featured in the nationally-released film “Slamnation,” and was a featured poet on the award-winning HBO series “Def Poetry Jam.” A film of Smith performing her poem “Undertaker,” won awards at the Sundance and San Francisco Film Festivals and earned a prestigious Cable Ace Award from the Lifetime Network’s Women’s Film Festival. Smith’s latest poetry book, Teahouse of the Almighty, was chosen by Ed Sanders for the 2005 National Poetry Series and published by Coffee House Press. Her poems have appeared in many publications, including, The Oxford Book of African-American Poetry and The Outlaw Bible of American Poetry. Her other poetry books include: Close to Death, Big Towns, Big Talk, and Life According to Motown. Her first children’s book, Janna and the Kings, won the New Voices Award. Her second children’s book, Mahina the Mad, Mad Moon was just completed. As a scholar, she is the co-author of Africans in America, the companion book to the PBS series. She is currently completing a book of poems about the human toll of Hurricane Katrina, as well as Fixed on a Star: The Journeys of Harriet Tubman, to be published by Crown in 2007. Smith’s essays were recently published in the anthologies Convictions and Rise Up Singing: Black Women Writers on Motherhood, which won an American Book Award. She is the winner of the Patterson Poetry Prize, the Pushcart, the Carl Sandburg Award, the Illinois Council of the Arts literary award, and has received an honorary degree from the John Jay College of Criminal Justice. She was recently inducted into the International Hall of Fame for Writers of African Descent. |
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