OSF to Host Hip Hop Poetry Open Mic Series

The Oregon Shakespeare Festival (OSF) will host three free Hip Hop Poetry Open Mic events this spring on March 7, April 4 and May 9. All Hip Hop Poetry Open Mic events will take place from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. at the Black Swan on the OSF campus (15 S. Pioneer St., Ashland, OR 97520). Doors will open at 6:30 p.m.; space is limited.

In addition to opening the stage for the community to share their talents via all styles of poetry, music, dance and theatre, each night will highlight a different featured artist: the SOU Performance Poetry Team on March 7, Dahlak Brathwaite on April 4 and Gene Burnett on May 9.

"Our open mics are a hotbed of creativity and collaboration," said OSF Community Producer Claudia Alick. "They celebrate poetry, music and imagination. They thrive on the talent of our local community and our company. Each open mic is different but they always contain virtuosic performance, surprising moments and sincere expression."

The first featured artists of the three-event series, the SOU Performance Poetry Team, is a collective of four student poets who will represent Southern Oregon University in the College Unions Poetry Slam Invitational (CUPSI) this year in Austin, Texas. The 2016 team consists of Ahsante Foree, Sean Schaeffer, Savannah Randall and Victoria Morgan. SOU sent their first team to CUPSI last year and intend to return with even more passion this year.

Dahlak Brathwaite is a multi-faceted hip-hop artist, maximizing his abilities as musician, actor, poet and educator within the transformational space of the theater. Since launching into the national spoken word scene by winning the Brave New Voices international poetry slam, Dahlak has performed on the Tavis Smiley Show and the past two seasons of Russell Simmons Presents Def Poetry Jam on HBO. Dahlak has worked with Broadway veteran and Rockefeller fellow, Marc Bamuthi Joseph, by writing and performing in his critically acclaimed plays Scourge and Word Becomes Flesh. As a member of the group iLL-Literacy, Dahlak has showcased his seamless blend of hip-hop, theatre and spoken word throughout the U.S. and overseas including over 200 colleges and universities. Dahlak earned his bachelor of arts degree from the University of California, Davis, where he studied English and dramatic studies. From 2007 to 2012, Dahlak has released five musical projects, which include, most notably, his full-length albums Dual Consciousness and spiritrials.

Gene Burnett has written over 600 songs since 1975 and shows no signs of stopping. Covering a wide range of topics and styles, his songs explore the ecology of human relationships, based on the Taoist idea of using less force and following an inner sense of rightness. He also teaches T'ai-Chi along the same lines. Somehow he manages to be funny and serious, cynical and tender-hearted, sweet and edgy, emotional and intellectual, all at the same time.

These events are open to the community, providing an opportunity to work on original material in front of live and deeply supportive audiences. OSF has been producing poetry slams and open mics since 2007.

To post a comment, you must register and login.