LEAF Global Arts & theLouderArts Project present
It’s time to let black, brown, and indigenous artists push the boundaries of ART and be genuinely seen and heard.
LEAF Lit Live! Spoken Word Poetry Salon #4
WHAT’S INSIDE YOUR IMAGINATION?
Thursday, February 4, 2021
7 PM EST • 6 PM CST • 5 PM MST • 4 PM PST
Facebook Live at LEAF Global Arts https://www.facebook.com/theLEAF.org/
LEAF Lit Live! Spoken Word Poetry Salon
We have the power to change
the end of the story.
Our Featured Poets and Emcee
Theresa Davis, Dove Dupree, NitaJade (they/she)
James Navé (he/him), Stephanie Hickling Beckman (she/her), mOody bLaCK
We are the ones we’ve been waiting for. -June Jordan
Our Featured Poets and Emcee
Theresa Davis
Theresa Davis
Theresa Davis is one of Atlanta's best known performance poets, giving voice to the things that you've been thinking but never could articulate. Theresa has gone on to forge an impressive career as a solo performer, winning poetry slams and featuring at spoken word venues around Atlanta and the nation, as well as leading writing and performance workshops and headlining conferences across the southeast. She is a member of The Word Diversity Collective/Art Amok and represented Atlanta as a member of the 2006 - 2010 Art Amok Slam Team. In 2009 Theresa was ranked 8th female poet in the world as a finalist in the Women of the World Poetry Slam. Theresa Davis has shared the stage with Eve Ensler, Jane Fonda, Pearl Cleage and Doria Roberts in The Vagina Monologues, with Berniece Johnson Reagan (Sweet Honey in the Rock) and with Def Poet Jon Goode in their joint production of "Wish You Were Here" at 7 Stages Theater in Atlanta, Georgia.
Dove Dupree
Dove Dupree
Dove Dupree adopted his stage name only within the last few years, but he began his music/poetry/theater career in fourth grade at Elwood Elementary School in Philadelphia. “I did a rap in front of my school assembly called ‘Don’t Do Drugs.” These days, Dupree’s a force in Greenville’s literary and performing-arts scene, especially in spoken-word poetry. He found opportunity and community in Greenville after graduating from Gardner-Webb University, a Christian university in Boiling Springs, North Carolina, where he earned a degree in theater and communications in 2013. As a member of the Say What?! Greenville poetry-slam team, he earned finalist and semifinalist spots in the Southern Fried and National Poetry Slam competitions, respectively. He also runs social media marketing and video services and teaches poetry and acting through the Metropolitan Arts Council’s SmartARTS program. (From The Greenville Journal article February 27, 2020)
NitaJade
NitaJade (she/her) -photo credit: Makeda
NitaJade (they/she) is a self-proclaimed weirdo hailing from Asheville, NC. They have competed and performed their poetry and storytelling on local, regional, and national stages since 2012. NitaJade has been a part of projects and creative collaborations with WNC organizations, including Different Strokes Performing Arts Collective, HomeWord, Do Tell, and Asheville Writers in the Schools and Community. Along with keynoting events for Homeward Bound WNC, NC Housing Coalition, and Do Tell, they've had the honor of performing at TEDxGreenville’s HeadVROOM event with the late and great Tavis Brunson. NitaJade has been published in the Anthology of Appalachian Writers, Charles Frazier Volume IX (April 2017), KRCC Voices (Issue 2, 2018), the Fall/Winter 2018-19 issue of The Griot: the Journal of African American Studies, and Rabbit Catastrophe Review #015 (2019). NitaJade graduated from Berea College (2019) with a Bachelor’s Degree in African and African American Studies. They are currently an MFA Poetry Candidate and Teacher’s Assistant at the University of Kentucky.
James Navé, emcee
James Navé Photo credit: John van Hasselt, Getty Images
James Navé (he/him) has performed for the public well over 10,000 times over his long career as a poet, teacher, and storyteller. As co-founder of the landmark performance company Poetry Alive!, he memorized over 600 poems and has performed shows and workshops in the United States and International Schools throughout West Africa, South America, Asia, and Europe. Navé holds an MFA in Poetry from Vermont College of Fine Arts, and Navé has been the Poetry Slam emcee for Asheville, NC's LEAF Festival, and an advisory team of LEAF Global Arts since 1995. His latest book of poems, The 100 Days, will be published by 3: A Taos Press in late 2021. Navé once owned a pizza restaurant on the coast of Carolina, won a poetry slam at Chicago's Green Mill with a perfect 30 score, and camped out on a rooftop in Manhattan in mid-September so he could watch the Empire State Building, the full moon, and the World Trade Center's two beams of memorial light.
Stephanie Hickling Beckman
Stephanie Hickling Beckman (she/her) has been active in Asheville’s theatre scene since 1999. She has worked with several local theatre companies as an actor, stage manager, and director, and toured nationally as an actor. She also has a special place in her heart for Spoken Word Poetry and longs for the days when it was a more visible part of Asheville's performing arts community. She has had the honor of judging LEAF Slams, and youth slams like HomeWord on several occasions. As the Managing Artistic Director for Different Strokes!, Stephanie is committed to directing and producing theatre that expresses the diversity we encounter in our everyday lives and finding ways to recognize and honor our differences in a safe and positive environment. Not unlike Different Strokes!, she is committed to being an active part of her community and seeks every opportunity to champion equity, diversity, and inclusion. She envisions that Different Strokes! Performing Arts Collective will further impact our community as an artistic bridge for ALL performing artists in our community.
mOody bLaCK
mOody bLaCK is a TEDx performer, a National Award-Winning Poet and Host, a Smart Arts Teaching Artist, Motivational Speaker, Spoken-Word and Visual Artist, Actor/Voice Over Artist, Chess Instructor, Story Teller, and Comedian from Spartanburg, S.C. Now, residing in Greenville, S.C.mOody bLaCk is passionate about teaching poetry to the youth and adults, and speaking about purpose and challenging depression. Each time mOody is on the stage, he aims to uplift everyone in the audience.
Highlighted Achievements:
2020 Presenter for Summer Online Arts Integration and STEAM Conference, 2019 Carrie and Skip Gordon Teaching Artist of the Year Award 2019 South Carolina Underground Music Awards Nominee for Best Male Model and Best Male Entrepreneur, 2017 TEDx Greenville Presenter.
Support our artists! Suggested donation for this event is $15. Your donation will go directly to the poets.
