December 09, 2017 7:00PM - 10:00PM at Pentagonal Brewing Company
Reads by five of the strongest voices of Southern California and a spoken word open mic for you to take the stage. Prose, poetry, comedy. 7 – 10 p.m., December 9th, at Pentagonal. Bring a notebook and your thirst. Liquid courage available at a discount for those who sign up to speak. (To sign up, comment or message Bean (host).)
Featured artists:
Chris Vannoy
Ted Washington
Alex Bosworth
Michael Klam
Jimmy Jazz
Bios:
Chris Vannoy is a Beat Hall of Fame inductee who recently read at Dylan Thomas's house. Vannoy has been recognized for his writing efforts, winning a San Diego Book Award for best book of poetry one year and he took second place another year. He has read for Quincy Troupe’s events and won many poetry contests, including a $500 prize for one at the La Paloma Theater in Encinitas. He was even a vocalist at one time for the band Wormhole. “I have been famous,” Vannoy said. “But fame is fleeting. I’d be even better but I started 20 years too late!”
Ted Washington is an artist, author, poet and reluctant businessman. He now lives in San Diego, after spending time as an apprentice draftsman for a beer brewery in St. Louis, an Internal Revenue Service employee in Springfield, MO, a retail sales representative in Denver, CO, and temporarily homeless vagabond turned baker on the beaches of Venice, CA. Ted is the founder of Puna Press and the performance group Pruitt Igoe. Pruitt Igoe was awarded a Synergy Foundation grant and performed in Harlem, New York City. Ted Washington won the BRAND 37 purchase award, with the Glendale Library acquiring one of his artworks for their permanent collection.
Alex Bosworth's writings are heartily recommended by 9/10 vikings who have ingested psychedelics. One reviewer thanked him for rescuing 32 of her cats from a burning building that resulted from her trying to catch a spider, and he apologized for not catching the 33rd.
Michael Klam, Poet Laureate of Ocean Beach, organizes and hosts the Poetry & Art Series at the San Diego Art Institute in Balboa Park. The series began in 2001 and features acclaimed musicians, visual artists, dancers, and poets. Klam has published five books of poetry, translated mouthfuls of red confetti and the hunt for God’s skull, a collection of poems by Miguel Barbosa and edited A Year in Ink, Volume 6 of the San Diego Writers, Ink Anthology. His book, Emma and the Buddha Frog (Puna Press), was a San Diego Book Awards finalist. Klam’s next collection of poetry, The Cheapest Flight to Paradise, was released by Puna Press in 2017. Klam’s freelance work has appeared in San Diego CityBeat, The San Diego Daily Transcript, Voice of San Diego, and La Prensa San Diego.
Jimmy Jazz was a major force in building the San Diego Poetry Slam. He has edited the Pirate Enclave Zine since 1999. He is the writer of six novels: The Sub, House of the Unwed Mother, The Cadillac Tramp, Rube Goldberg Suicide Machine, Where Life is Inappropriate and Home Despot. His latest work is called The Book of Books.