Lift your hands, lift your pens! Get Tix.

Local Poets Guild has tix to give away for Urban Verbs on Friday June 17th. Carlos Contreras says, “[For the tix giveaway,] How about [calling for submissions] something along the lines of a time when people “came back, or went to, music” we’ve all had those moments in the car, shower, after a break up, the day of a raise… that that song just makes sense!  Music moves us!  It flows through our lives’  and makes us all members of the same club….. we believe hip hop is a cultural dialogue that builds communities…. something that speaks to the heart of music being able to do that…”

This is how you can get free tix to Urban Verbs on Friday night: Write us and tell us how music moves you. Let us in on a particular instant or story. It’s a very loose prompt— a time when music mattered. And you can write in with poetry or prose. You can even tell us how music impacts your poetry. (I may do that myself for fun as Eminem inspired a pile of hard core geeky form poems from me.) Anyhow, the deal is simple. We have ten tickets to give away to Friday night’s performance.  That’s right, 10!!! You can save yourself $12 dollars. You can simultaneously enter dialogue with your community on this website. Hope you’ll participate. Just email responses to localpoetsguild at yahoo dot com as soon as you can…. and the first ten responses get tix and we’ll set you up for Friday night the 17th. (We’ll also post responses online on the website.)

[Note: This prompt is for adults. Youth can get free tix direct for Sunday's show which is subsidized by various donors. If you need info on how to get tickets for youth, query me and I'll point you in the right direction.]

For more information on what Urban Verbs is, the official scoop, see previous post.

Here’s what Urban Verbs is to me: an example. A beautiful example of what happens when three people–Contreras, Bellamy, & Diles–come together and trust each other enough to tackle large subjects of disenfranchisement and reclamation. Urban Verbs is a triumph of spirit, an offering of sustenance to the community–all achieved through the hard work of collaboration. Not to mention, the show does what I’m most fond of: reap interdisciplinary bounty with music, film, performance, and poetry. It’s a joy to watch–and in many ways, Urban Verbs is an explicit call for more arts action from the community. Poets step up. Go see the show and get inspired to try what your own authentic voice requires.

LG

[Photos taken at the Projects 3614 High Street by Antonio Rael. Thanks!]

Urban Verbs is Coming — (and tix giveaway starting tonight)

Last weekend, I had a chance to see the sneak preview of Urban Verbs, which was as fresh as it was the first time I saw the production at 516 ARTS. Hakim Bellamy, Carlos Contreras, and Diles flat out wow and are not mistaken (in my mind) when equating god and art, music and love, life and poetry. Integrating hip-hop, documentary film, poetry, and performance, the show is thought-provoking and engaging–a very solid effort with community creativity at its heart. Urban Verbs is a collaborative effort with vision. I commend it heartily.

Local Poets Guild has garnered some tickets that we’re going to be giving away on the website—watch for my next post or come out tonight to Triptych where I’ll announce it. (We’ll ask you to do a little writing.) Later I’ll also tell you more about why I think this show is important.

Meanwhile, here’s the OFFICIAL SCOOP:

Urban Verbs is a video, audio, visceral performance piece that is dialogued entirely in poetic verse. Comprised of Hakim Bellamy, Carlos Contreras, and Diles, the three are a collaborative of individual artists across many disciplines including literature, music, audio/sound engineering, film, visual art and theater. Urban Verbs is an alternative interpretation to the brainless, heartless, materialist, violent, sexist, homophobic, self-involved popular perception of Hip-Hop.  They aim to create a progressive narrative around Hip Hop culture and facilitate the practice of EVERYONE telling their story through Hip Hop as a form of love, a form of intelligence and a way of better living. To increase the respect and acceptance of Hip Hop as a legitimate and visionary art form and worthy of academic inquiry, to be an example of how one can feed their family and live their dream through Hip -Hop that builds rather than Hip-Hop that destroys – To fashion Hip Hop into the tools that bring people together, stops wars, makes babies and raises them!

All Shows at The Filling Station in the Barelas Neighborhood of Albuquerque (1024 4^th St. SW)

June 17^th 7pm Show Urban Verbs + Live Art Creation/Auction & DJ

June 18^th 8pm Show Urban Verbs + Live Keg & Musical Guests BrokenBreadWinner

June 19^th 1pm Show Urban Verbs (Curbside Classroom* Version feat. Q & A)    

For Fri. Tix

For Sat. Tix         

Thanks also to Antonio Rael who photographed the preview show at the Projects. You can find his photography page on FB. I just used one image here—but more coming as I let you know how to get tix and give my two cents on the project. Don’t forget to come to Triptych 7:00 pm at the Projects is where I’ll launch the getaway.

–LG