terraNOVA Collective Presents 2nd SUBTERRANEAN Monthly Party

terraNOVA Collective is proud to present the second SUBTERRANEAN, a new monthly party at the D-Lounge, a cabaret-style venue at 101 East 15th Street at Union Square. terraNOVA Collective strives to create a creative home for artists from a variety of different genre's. As the newest addition to terraNOVA's residency at the DR2 Theatre & D-Lounge, SUBTERRANEAN presents a variety of monthly performances including spoken word, music, burlesque, magic, storytelling, short play readings, vaudeville acts, and DJ's."

The line up for Thursday, February 5 will include slam poet, Roger Bonair-Agard, Maya Azucena & Vanessa Hidary performing excerpts from their show, Culture Bandit Soul, and DJ Popcorn spinning tunes for you.

SUBTERRANEAN curator, James Carter says, "We are happy to have Maya Azucena and Vanessa Hidary perform excerpts form their show Culture Bandit Soul, whose full performance was canceled due to the shuttering of The Zipper Factory's doors. These fierce women, along with National Slam Champion, Roger Bonair-Agard and DJ Popcorn of dancelikeforever fame, will blow the roof off the Daryl Roth Theater."

SUBTERRANEAN
First Thursday of Every Month
10:00pm
$10.00 Entry + 1 Drink Minimum
D-Lounge 101 East 15th Street
Just off Union Square

ROGER BONAIR-AGARD weaves living, breathing tapestries out of politics and the notion of home; a native of Trinidad and Tobago, Roger has lived in Brooklyn for seventeen years and his work reflects the struggles of a man in voluntary exile in a conflicted 21st-century America. A professional performance poet since 1997, Roger has appeared three times on Russell Simmons' Def Poetry Jam on HBO and aims to blow the hinges off what is considered possible, to create work that discomforts with the truths and lies it exposes down to every forensic detail, and so create a movement of its very own, such that when his poems are read, they birth new mythologies in the reader's memory. He is co-author of Burning Down the House (Soft Skull Press, 2000), and author of Tarnish and Masquerade, his first collection of poetry (Rattapallax Press, 2007). He co-founded and is the Artistic Director of the louderARTS Project, an organization dedicated to the evolution of poetry through the craft of writing and performance.

Roger is also a Cave Canem fellow, studying with such luminaries as Yusef Komunyakaa, Marilyn Nelson, and Cornelius Eady. In 1998, he was named the Nuyorican Poets Café Fresh Poet of the Year. That same year, he coached the Nuyorican team to victory in the National Poetry Slam. The following year he earned the title of National Individual Slam Champion while leading and coaching the New York City louderARTS team to the final four of the National Poetry Slam, a feat he repeated in 2000. While managing the louderARTS slam, Roger continues to perform and teach throughout the world, leading workshops and conducting performances in major universities, including such outposts as University of Alaska at Anchorage, University of West Indies, St. Augustine, Trinidad and in Literary Festivals in Heidelberg (Germany), Kingston (Jamaica), Durban, Cape Town, Johannesburg (South Africa) and the Geraldine R. Dodge Poetry Festival (New Jersey). He has also appeared on The MacNeil-Lehrer NewsHour, Air America, Pacifica Radio's Beneath the Surface and other national radio programs. He works as a creative writing instructor and teacher trainer with Urban Word NYC, Cooper Union's outreach program, and the Bronx Writers' Center, among others. Roger's work has been widely anthologized, and has been commissioned extensively through the multi-disciplinary performance troupe VisionIntoArt (www.visionintoart.com).

He has also authored a successful one-man show, and chaos congealed (1998) and the acclaimed one-man poetry concert MASQUERADE: calypso and home which has been developed and performed with the terraNOVA Collective since June of 2006. He is currently working on a new collection entitled EXTRA COVER: To be young, black and fast - poems from a West Indian cricket history.
MAYA AZUCENA Is often described as the "hardest working artist I know," Maya Azucena has planted the seeds for her burgeoning career by touring around the world. To date, she's shared stages or been on bills with legendary artists, vets and newcomers from the worlds of R&B, Soul, Hip Hop, Jazz, and Rock. Artists such as Roberta Flack, Roy Ayers, Vernon Reid, Stephen Marley, Martin Luther, Jaguar Wright, Joss Stone, Leon Ware, Richard Bona, Bilal, Lupe Fiasco, Big Daddy Kane, the Isley Brothers, Gladys Knight, Anthony Hamilton, Platinum Pied Pipers, and John Legend comprise the partial list. In addition to criss-crossing the US with riveting performances, she's toured cities in China, Philippines, Canada, Italy, and England as well as Stockholm, Amsterdam, Rotterdam and Croatia where Croatian superstar, Gibonni enlisted Maya's vocal talents for a track named "Andejo U Tebi" ('Angel In You'), that consequently won 2 Croatian Grammy awards (or PORIN, as they are called). The critical acclaim for Maya has been worldwide and diverse in its acknowledgement of her undeniable talent.

Maya's soaring and sensual performance is featured on producer/songwriter (and son of the legendary Bob), Stephen Marley's track, "Let Her Dance," from his latest Grammy winning Universal/Tuff Gong release "Mind Control." An upcoming single with popular dance producer Bob Sinclair promises radio play. Upcoming recording collaborations with HipHop artists in the underground scene include Immortal Technique, Cheeks (Lost Boys), Dres (Black Sheep), Hasan Salaam, Doujah Raze, and more. Maya recently had the Number 3 spot on BILLBOARD'S Hot Club Dance chart with the single, "Make It Happen" on Kult Records. Her recent Jason Fisher-directed video, "Set you Free," is on rotation at BET-J. Her voice may even have grabbed your attention through the national NAIR commercials in "The Less You Wear" and "Short Shorts" campaigns plus others like Gillette, Johnson & Johnson, Icy Hot, Macy's INC, Mike's Hard Lemonade, and Longhorn Steakhouse. Her focus, however, lies with her own band that has built an avid following throughout the world wherever they've traveled. Her sound has been compared to Roberta Flack, Chaka Kahn, Lauryn Hill and Jill Scott. What lies in common between all the comparisons is the high energy, excellent live show and huge range. mayaazucena.com

VANESSA HIDARY grew up on Manhattan's culturally diverse Upper West Side, graduating from LaGuardia High School of the Arts and Hunter College. Her experiences as a Sephardic Jew with close friends from different ethnic and religious backgrounds inspired her to write Culture Bandit, a solo show that chronicles Vanessa's coming of age during the golden age of Hip-Hop and her dedication to fostering understanding and friendship between all people. Culture Bandit, was originally produced by LAByrinth Theatre Company (Artistic directors; Phillip Seymour Hoffman and John Ortiz). It has since played as part of The Roar Theatre Festival at Nuyorican Poets Café, as part of The Downtown Urban Theater Festival, The Los Angeles Women's Theater Festival, the 3rd Annual Hip Hop Theatre Festival in Washington, D.C, The Revolutions Theatre Festival in Albuquerque, New Mexico, The Philadelphia Fringe Festival, and Makor Arts Center in the Hip-hop without Borders, festival and Most recently The Comedy Central Stage in Los Angeles. , where Vanessa attended as the Representative. She has aired three times on the "Russell Simmon's Def Poetry Jam" on HBO, and is featured in the film "The Tribe" which was selected for the 2006 Sundance Film Festival, 2006 Tribeca Film Festival in NYC., and for the 2007 Jewish Motifs International Film Festival in Warsaw, Poland, where Vanessa attended as the film's representative (www.tribethefilm.com). She has been featured in The New York Post, Time Out New York, The Jewish Week, Spitkickers.com, The Forward, URB magazine, BUST Magazine, The Los Angeles Times, Time Out NY, The Albuquerque Journal, and Lilith Magazine. Vanessa is also a member of the troupe "Nice Jewish Girls Gone Bad" , which has been featured at various NYC venues including Joe's Pub and Fez Café, and is currently touring the U.S. and Canada. hebrewmamita.com

DJ POPCORN Also known as Ron Garcia, DJ Popcorn has driven the steel wheels in Los Angeles, New York City, and everywhere in between. Spinning a range from punk/funk to progressive house, Popcorn is best known to New York audiences for his 2006 stint as promoter and DJ for dancelikeforever (www.dancelikeforever.com) a monthly dance party that lasted for a year at Center Stage, NY. Also an actor, Mr. Garcia is a member of terraNOVA Collective and the Los Angeles based theatre company Buffalo Knights.

terraNOVA Collective is a vibrant playground for artists devoted to innovative new and original theatrical works. Its multi-layered development process, solo arts festivals, and productions serve to nurture and liberate our community.
"...brings back the art of storytelling." - Backstage

www.TerraNovaCollective.org