It’s April, it’s 75 degrees and drenched in sunshine here in Oakland, and I’ve got some events this month that have me exploding with spring fever. In a good way.
First off, I’m giving my first-ever college lecture this Monday, April 4 at UC-Berkeley. Not a show, not a town hall…a LECTURE. It’s for the “Other Voices” series at Cal, and I was invited to talk about Poetry & Political Activism. I’ll perform some pieces, but I’m looking forward to giving my 30-minute talk, which I’ve decided to entitle “Post-Modern Polemical Poetics: Why Alliteration is Ridiculous and America Needs to Stop Bombing Everyone.”
Then on Tuesday, I’m doing a feature slot at my man Ner City’s monthly Golden State Slam in Oakland. In honor of the show’s title, I’m gonna be bring out some new pieces in my series about California, what Manifest Destiny looks like in 2011, and jerk tofu recipes.
But the one I can’t for is my return to Madison and First Wave on April 14, where I have the honor to perform and introduce the final show of the First Wave program’ first cohort that graduates this May. These are my old students who I recruited into the ground-breaking hip-hop arts program, so this is a homecoming and celebration four years in the making. Plus I get to be in now-legendary Wisconsin for a couple days, so all I wanna know is, Where’s the sit-in at that weekend?
See you at the shows, see you in the streets…
Monday, April 4 – 12:00pm
UC-Berkeley: “Other Voices†Lecture Series
Performance and Lecture.
Heller Multicultural Lounge (MLK Student Union, room 205). Berkeley, CA.
Free and open to the public.
Sponsored by the UC-Berkeley Student Learning Center
Tuesday, April 5 – 8:00pm
Golden State Slam
Spoken word feature.
Grand Lake Coffee House. 440 Grand Avenue, Oakland, CA
$5. Presented by the Golden State Slam
Thursday, April 14 – 7:00pm
First Wave Ensemble Show
“DOG YEARS: A Wisconsin Experienceâ€
Short performance, introduction, and talk-back after the show.
Overture Center for the Arts (Rotunda Studio). 201 State Street. Madison, WI.
Free and open to the public, but tickets are needed. Reserve your tickets here.
Presented by the OMAI/First Wave as part of the Line Breaks Festival.