Next WORD PERFORMANCES Show Set for 4/23 at The Lost Church

Word Performances is an intimate reading series of poetry, prose, comedy, fiction and memoir where words are the lead, dance is featured, and music makes a cameo.

Featuring:

- Tina D'Elia, writer; actor, coach; The Rita Hayworth of this Generation
- Jon Siegel, spoken word artist, writer, leader of Viracocha
- John Panzer, writer, scholar at UC Berkeley; former race car drive, formerly homeless
- Brynn Saito, poet, winner of the Benjamin Saltman poetry award
- Ginger Murray, editor-in-chief of Whore! magazine; storyteller
- Tomas Moniz, storyteller & songwriter; founder & editor, Rad Dad
- Leigh Donlan, former ballerina; teacher, writer on dance
- Cybele Zufolo Siegel, poet, writer, dancer, and performer.
- and wordsmith Todd Siegel.

Musical finale by the riveting Mark Growden Trio is set for Wednesday, April 23rd. Starts 8:00pm, pretty sharp at The Lost Church (65 Capp St. @ 16th / Mission). Produced and curated by Cybele Zufolo Siegel & Todd Siegel. BUY TICKETS. $15. Buy in advance to guarantee entry. The last show sold out! For more information, visit the Facebook Event.

BIOS

Tina D'Elia is an actor, writer, acting coach, and consultant. In 2012, Tina had a successful run of her one-woman-show: The Rita Hayworth of this Generation, at Shotwell Studios in San Francisco. Tina has performed excerpts from this show at the National Queer Arts Festival, in 2010. Tina's film/TV credits include: The Pursuit of Happyness, Groucho and The Mugging. She was nominated for Best Actress in a Comedic Role in the 48 Hour Film Festival, and Mechanic's Daydream (Best Stunt Award), Tina co-starred in the NBC TV drama, Trauma.

Tina co-wrote the narrative short film: Lucha, based on her short story and won the Best Short Film Audience Award in the LGBT International Film Festival and was nominated for the prestigious Iris Prize Award (Cardiff, Wales). Tina worked for ten years at Community United Against Violence (CUAV). She was the recipient of the Ollin Civil Rights Award from Instituto Familiar de La Raza.

Jon Siegel is a writer, actor, spoken word artist, designer and visionary. He owns and operates Viracocha SF which is a hotbed of performance arts in the city on Valencia and 21st Street in the Mission. He is a writer, poet, photographer and community organizer; and has hosted many events such as Poetry Mission. He's also been a contributing member to 16th St & Mission's "Collaborative Arts Insurgency" group. He is the author of "Ironing The Pants of Time" and a fistful of popular anthologies.

John Panzer is a junior at UC Berkeley, where he won the 2013 Samuel C. Irving Prize for American Whit & Humor. John is a former race car driver, fundraising executive, good catch, and homeless addict; John Panzer writes from a broken heart. His poetry and creative non-fiction memoir, chronicles the tears he is responsible for, the challenges and joys of two men trying to love each other, as well as the humor and heartbreaking misery of Tenderloin life.

Brynn Saito is the author of The Palace of Contemplating Departure, winner of the Benjamin Saltman Poetry Award from Red Hen Press. She also co-authored, Bright Power, Dark Peace, a chapbook of poetry. Brynn's poetry has been anthologized by Helen Vendler and Ishmael Reed; her work has also appeared in Pleiades, and the Drunken Boat. Brynn is the recipient of a Kundiman Asian American Poetry Fellowship, the Poets 11 award from the San Francisco Public Library, and the Key West Literary Seminar's Scotti Merrill Memorial Award. She holds degrees from Sarah Lawrence College (MFA, creative writing), New York University (MA, religious studies), and UC Berkeley (BA, philosophy).

Ginger Murray is the editor in chief of Whore! magazine, a columnist for the SF Weekly Exhibitionist and a performance storyteller. She did a stint as talking head on the History Channel, an interview subject of "In Deep" with Angie Coiro and a strutter upon the stage with La Pocha Nostra and Red Hots Burlesque. She was published by the 16th street Mission press, Out of Our, and Sparring with Beatnik Ghosts. She is an avid lover of bad girls, radical idiots and deep thinkers.

Tomas Moniz is the founder, editor, and writer for the award winning book and now magazine: Rad Dad. He just released a novella, Bellies and Buffalos which is a tender, chaotic road trip about friendship, family and Flamin' Hot Cheetos. He is co-founder of the successful monthly reading series Lyrics and Dirges as well as the more rambunctious open mic, Saturday Night Special. His most current zines Dirty and The Body is a Wild Wild Thing are available, but you have to write him a postcard.

Former ballerina Leigh Donlan Butler was Children's Ballet Mistress at the Washington School of Ballet and Director of the Athenaeum School of Ballet. She studied English at the University of Oregon and Professional Writing at Georgetown University. Leigh teaches and writes about dance in the San Francisco Bay Area and blogs for Ballet to the People.

Mark Growden Trio - Mark Growden is a singer, writer, multi-instrumentalist, composer, record producer, visual artist, workshop leader, and the founder and artistic director of The Calling All Choir. Growden has released several critically acclaimed albums, including Saint Judas, which was awarded "2010 Rekkid of the Year" and ranked in the 2010 Village Voice Critics Poll. Growden has toured extensively, performing at The Fillmore, Great American Music Hall and The San Francisco Opera, Snug Harbor in New Orleans; The Knitting Factory and Tonic in New York. Growden's one man show "Spare the Rod" - directed and co-written by Remy Charlip - played to sold-out audiences.

Mark has composed original musical scores for a number of Dance and Theater companies, including Joe Goode Performance Group and Alonzo King's Lines Contemporary Ballet. Mark and his collaborators won the Isadora Duncan Award for Best Original Score for a New Dance Piece. He has also scored several films.

Todd Siegel is highly playful with language, writing live poetry within text messages and simply cannot stop himself from perpetual phrase turning while wandering with friends & his infinitely lovely wife, Cybele - with whom he co-produced this Word Performance series.. In perpendicular, he's been designing user experiences, recently with Tempo AI, all while relentlessly endeavoring to innovate merch solutions to drive more revenue to music artists with Merchluv.

Cybele Zufolo Siegel was an Adjunct Instructor of Literature and Poetry at the New York Institute of Technology and the Borough of Manhattan Community College. She is a grant recipient of the National Endowment for the Humanities. Cybele studied ballet at the School of American Ballet and was a dancer with the New York City Ballet Co. for seven years as a youth. She has degrees from Columbia University (MA) and UC Santa Cruz, and studied in France, performed in Japan, and has appeared in films and recorded voice overs. Cybele's writing was published in Out of Our Poetry magazine, Sparkle and Blink, Quiet Lightening, and was featured at Sacred Grounds and in We, Monsters at Viracocha.

Cybele and Todd are the founders of the Word Performances reading series.