Kickstarter

Katherine George & David Fasanya from Urban Word NYC in Generation Now. Photo by Calli Higgins.

Check out the great press for Poetic License!

nytheatre.com interviews Co-Artistic Directors Jeremy Karafin and Alex Mallory!

On the Radio: Joell Jackson and Eboni Hogan talk Foreign Bodies on WBAI "No Questions Asked" - listen to the whole interview! Special performance at 14:10!

We hope you will join us for the remaining festival performances! 

Kate Foster & Anna Gothard in How To Stay. Photo by Calli Higgins.

We can't wait to see you this week!  

Join us tonight after Obamatry for our kick-off party with DJing by Underground playwright Edy McWilliams and preview performances by Caroline Rothstein, Kate Foster, Joanna Hoffman, Urban Word NYC poets David Fasanya and Katherine George and Girl Be Heard! performer Dominique Fishback! Show starts at 7, party at 8:30! Drinks, food, music, performance & more!

TONIGHT: Celebrate Inauguration Day & MLK Day with

OBAMATRY
a spoken word remix on the 44th president of the United States of America
a new work written & performed by Darian Dauchan
Produced in association with Bowery Arts + Science, Ltd.
Directed by Jennifer McGrath
Monday, January 21 @7PM followed by our kick-off party!

TOMORROW:

Our 6@6 Reading Series kicks off with
Shatter The Sky by Sean Christopher Lewis
Slam poet Gods and Punk Rock furies. Take three plays from the Oresteia and throw them into a modern blender: A verse play about violence, its cycles and what it means to challenge fate.
featuring Jenny Aaron, Makeda Abraham, Amanda Berry, Victory Chappotin, Samantha Cooper, Madeline Fendrick, Zoë Flowers, Ryan F Johnson, Mary Moore, Alyson Leigh Rosenfeld, Temesgen Tocruray, Nicole Ventura, and Leal Vona
Tuesday, January 22nd @6PM

Generation Now
15 youth performers from viBe Theater Experience, Earsay Youth Voices, Girl Be Heard, and Urban Word NYC perform a collection of coming-of-age stories & perspectives on the world as 2020 approaches.
featuring: David Fasanya and Katherine George, directed by Nicco Annan (Urban Word NYC)
Jaira Cantor, Dan Pepito, Rene Jaquez, Nataly Tacuri, Sindy Lucio, Dailyn Despradel, Yonie Montes (Earsay Youth Voices)
Dominique Fishback, Monica Furman, Tiff Roma, Noelia Mann, Sophie Walker (Girl Be Heard!)
Cheyenne Cherise Deago and London Grant (viBe Theater Experience)
Tuesday, January 22nd @ 8pm
Student Tickets $5

followed by
How To Stay
a new cabaret-in-development by Kate Foster
with Dalton Ridenhour, Anna Gothard and Brooklyn duo Into Doubt
A coming of age, coming out, coming home story with poetry, monologue, vocals, piano, ukulele, and classic musical theater from the 1940s.
Tuesday, January 22 @10PM

UPCOMING:
Breaking Our Silence featuring Joanna Hoffman, Storm Thomas, Charan P Morris, and Elliott D. Smith
4 vibrant LBTQ poets share their experiences of coming out, finding love and crashing through the barriers of shame and silence to emerge into a new world.
Wednesday, January 23 @8PM

Black Girls Don’t Smile Mosaic in Front of Strangers
written and performed by Mahogany L. Browne
Come witness the transformative journey of a woman in the heart/cracked globe of a city where apples, lights and love seek refuge. Where the stereotypes are challenged and blackness finds safety in a woman's smile.
with dance choreographed & performed by Keomi Tarver
directed by Kamilah Forbes
co-presented with Hip Hop Theatre Festival
Thursday, January 24 @8PM

Foreign Bodies by Eboni Hogan
Directed by Nicole A. Watson
Featuring Eboni Hogan, Samantha Cooper, Ayo Oneké Cummings, Karen Eilbacher, Joell Jackson & Teniece Divya Johnson
Lighting & Projection Design by Brad Peterson, Sound Design by Sean Hagerty
Documenting six months of pure madness in Accra, Ghana - an ongoing battle with mental illness, whirlwind romances, endless nights of bar-hopping, and one unruly appendix.
Friday, January 25 @8PM & Sunday, January 27 @2PM

faith written and performed by Caroline Rothstein
One woman's gut-wrenching struggle to cope with the expectations and turmoil of coming of age.
Co-presented by Timberline Knolls in association with NORMAL
Directed by Alex Mallory
Lighting Design by Brad Peterson, Sound Design by Sean Hagerty
Saturday, January 26 @8PM followed by a special post-show panel
as

From Table to Stage by Warrior Writers NYC
written & performed by Marie DeLuc, Anthony Gonzales, Nicole Goodwin, Jennifer Pacanowski, Joseph Wade, and Donte Wright
Original Veteran writing in a staged, multimedia performance that explores a range of experiences from recruitment to homecoming, from surviving war to the quest for life.
Sunday, January 27th @8pm

And the 6@6 Reading Series
(all shows @6PM, all tickets $5 at the door!)

Tuesday: Shatter The Sky by Sean Christopher Lewis
Slam poet Gods and Punk Rock furies. Take three plays from the Oresteia and throw them into a modern blender: A verse play about violence, its cycles and what it means to challenge fate.

Wednesday: The Will To Knowledge by Takeo Rivera
A ghost writer caught in a love triangle. An exploration of race, desire, trauma and queerness.

Thursday: Love in a Time of Blood Quantum by Tanaya Winder featuring an all Native American cast
The relationship between a man and a woman in light of historical trauma and contemporary issues that affect Native American communities such as blood quantum, alcoholism, rape and suicide.

Friday: Braided Sorrow by Marisela Treviño Orta , directed by Norma Medina
A young girl comes to Juarez, Mexico to find work, but becomes enmeshed in the series of lethal traps awaiting young female workers for which that city is now infamous.

Saturday: She Who Struggles by LaTonia Phipps, directed by Ilana Becker
Gentrification. Rejection. Forgiveness.

Sunday: Untitled conceived and directed by Natalia Duong
featuring writing by Angie Chau, Tom Deedy, Janis Butler Holm, Lan Ngo, John Phalen, Alice Shapiro, Chris Soucy, julie thi underhill and Andrew Pham
Developed around the excavation of memories of war, family, grief, anger, and love long interred by women of the Vietnamese diaspora
Co-presented with Project Agent Orange

Follow all of our festival updates on facebook & twitter at www.facebook.com/poetictheater and @poetictheater and join the conversation with the hash-tag #poeticlicense13!

75 ARTISTS... 15 SHOWS... 7 DAYS... 1 FESTIVAL

Poetic Theater Productions presents

POETIC LICENSE
2nd Annual Festival of New Poetic Theater
January 21 – 27, 2013
The Wild Project – 195 East 3rd Street

Use the code PLFriend for $10 Discount Tickets! (Online only, all readings $5)
Poetic Theater Productions presents Poetic License, our second annual festival of new poetic theater, January 21st through January 27th, 2013. All performances will take place at The Wild Project, 195 East 3rd Street. Tickets range in price from $5 to $15 and can be purchased at the door on the day of the performance or online at www.poetictheater.com/festival.

This year's line up includes 45 LGBT, youth, Black, white, Latina, Veteran, Native American and Asian American artists writing about war, mental health, identity, love, politics and memory in Juarez, Ghana, Iraq, Afghanistan, Vietnam, and all over America.

FEATURING:
the return of 2012 Poetic Theater Productions' sell out shows from Culture Project's 2012 Women Center Stage Festival:

Foreign Bodies by Eboni Hogan
Directed by Nicole A. Watson
Featuring Eboni Hogan, Samantha Cooper, Ayo Oneké Cummings, Karen Eilbacher, Joell Jackson & Teniece Divya Johnson
Lighting & Projection Design by Brad Peterson, Sound Design by Sean Hagerty
Documenting six months of pure madness in Accra, Ghana - an ongoing battle with mental illness, whirlwind romances, endless nights of bar-hopping, and one unruly appendix.
Friday, January 25 @8PM & Sunday, January 27 @2PM

and

faith written and performed by Caroline Rothstein
One woman's gut-wrenching struggle to cope with the expectations and turmoil of coming of age.                                                                                                                    
Co-presented by Timberline Knolls in association with NORMAL
Directed by Alex Mallory
Lighting Design by Brad Peterson, Sound Design by Sean Hagerty
Saturday, January 26 @8PM

along with

OBAMATRY
a spoken word remix on the 44th president of the United States of Americaa new work written & performed by Darian Dauchan
Produced in association with Bowery Arts + Science, Ltd.
Directed by Jennifer McGrath
Monday, January 21 @7PM

Generation Now
15 youth performers from viBe Theater Experience, Earsay Youth Voices, Girl Be Heard, and Urban Word NYC perform a collection of coming-of-age stories & perspectives on the world as 2020 approaches.
Tuesday, January 22nd @ 8pm
Student Tickets $5

followed by
How To Stay
a new cabaret-in-development by Kate Foster
with Dalton Ridenhour , Anna Gothard and Brooklyn duo Into Doubt
A coming of age, coming out, coming home story with poetry, monologue, vocals, piano, ukulele, and classic musical theater from the 1940s.
Tuesday, January 22 @10PM

Breaking Our Silence featuring Joanna Hoffman, Storm Thomas, Charan P Morris, and Elliott D. Smith
4 vibrant LBTQ poets share their experiences of coming out, finding love and crashing through the barriers of shame and silence to emerge into a new world.
Wednesday, January 23 @8PM

Black Girls Don’t Smile Mosaic in Front of Strangers
written and performed by Mahogany L. Browne
with dance choreographed & performed by Keomi Tarver
directed by Kamilah Forbes
co-presented with Hip Hop Theatre Festival
Come witness the transformative journey of a woman in the heart/cracked globe of a city where apples, lights and love seek refuge. Where the stereotypes are challenged and blackness finds safety in a woman's smile.
Thursday, January 24 @8PM

From Table to Stage
co-presented with Warrior Writers NYC
written & performed by Marie DeLuc, Anthony Gonzales, Nicole Goodwin, Jennifer Pacanowski, Joseph Wade, and Donte Wright
Original Veteran writing in a staged, multimedia performance that explores a range of experiences from recruitment to homecoming, from surviving war to the quest for life.
Sunday, January 27th @8pm

And the 6@6 Reading Series
(all shows @6PM, all tickets $5 at the door!)

Tuesday: Shatter The Sky by Sean Christopher Lewis
Slam poet Gods and Punk Rock furies. Take three plays from the Oresteia and throw them into a modern blender: A verse play about violence, its cycles and what it means to challenge fate.

Wednesday: The Will To Knowledge by Takeo Rivera
A ghost writer caught in a love triangle. An exploration of race, desire, trauma and queerness.

Thursday: Love in a Time of Blood Quantum by Tanaya Winder featuring an all Native American cast
The relationship between a man and a woman in light of historical trauma and contemporary issues that affect Native American communities such as blood quantum, alcoholism, rape and suicide.

Friday: Braided Sorrow by Marisela Treviño Orta , directed by Norma Medina
A young girl comes to Juarez, Mexico to find work, but becomes enmeshed in the series of lethal traps awaiting young female workers for which that city is now infamous.

Saturday: She Who Struggles by LaTonia Phipps, directed by Ilana Becker
Gentrification. Rejection. Forgiveness.

Sunday: Untitled conceived and directed by Natalia Duong
featuring writing by Angie Chau, Tom Deedy, Janis Butler Holm, Lan Ngo, John Phalen, Alice Shapiro, Chris Soucy, julie thi underhill and Andrew Pham
Developed around the excavation of memories of war, family, grief, anger, and love long interred by women of the Vietnamese diaspora
Co-presented with Project Agent Orange

Join us for our festival kick-off party next Monday, January 21 after Obamatry! Featuring a live DJ & excerpts from festival shows!

Follow all of our festival updates on facebook & twitter at www.facebook.com/poetictheater and @poetictheater and join the conversation with the hash-tag #poeticlicense13!

Our sincere thanks to the 116 backers who donated $4000 to Poetic License! We are thrilled to have reached our goal with the festival less than two weeks away! 

We will begin sending out rewards and collecting some information we need to send them to you over the next couple of weeks. 

In the meantime, please check out the website (www.poetictheater.com) and take note of which productions and readings you don't want to miss! You can purchase $10 discount tickets online with the code PLFriend! 

To get you started, here's some information about our 6@6 Reading Series (Tuesday-Sunday at 6PM!): 

Tuesday, January 22nd
Shatter the Sky by Sean Lewis
Slam poet Gods and Punk Rock furies. Take three plays from the Oresteia and throw them into a modern blender: Orestes is on the run after his incestuous affair with Electra is discovered, their Uncle Menelaeus is seen as weak after the Trojans stole his Helen. He's not going to make the upstart make him look bad... and on the country side A CHEAP GREEK CHORUS is turning peasants into Gods and friends into enemies... A verse play about violence, its cycles and what it means to challenge fate. 

Wednesday, January 23rd
The Will to Knowledge by Takeo Rivera (playwright of Poetic Theater Productions' award-winning spoken-word choreopoem, Goliath)
An exploration of race, desire, trauma and queerness, The Will To Knowledge is the story of a ghost writer caught in a love triangle, discovering what it means to steal a narrative and how trauma is inherited. 

Thursday, January 24th
Love in a Time of Blood Quantum by Tanaya Winder
An investigation of the relationship between a man and a woman in light of historical trauma and contemporary issues that affect Native American communities such as blood quantum, alcoholism, suicide, and reservation rape. 

Friday, January 25th
Braided Sorrow by Marisela Treviño Orta
The story of a young girl who comes to Juarez, Mexico to find work, but becomes enmeshed in the series of lethal traps awaiting young female workers for which that city is now infamous. 

Saturday, January 26th
She Who Struggles by LaTonia Phipps
JoAnne's entire world changes when Rita moves onto her block in gentrified Harlem. JoAnne, part of one of the only two black families left, states, "We have a right to keep our block looking like us." With all their differences we come to realize that these two woman actually have something in common... their sisters. 

Sunday, January 27th
Untitled new poetic movement piece conceived and choreographed by Natalia Duong
Developed around the excavation of memories of war, family, grief, anger, and love long interred by women of the Vietnamese diaspora
Co-Produced with Project Agent Orange

For the full festival schedule, see the festival page at www.poetictheater.com/festival. 

Happy New Year from Poetic Theater Productions! 

We have received pledges of $3,240 from 91 generous backers! Thank you to everyone for all of the support! We're not done yet though: we need to reach $3750 by 11:59PM on Tuesday night in order to receive any of the pledged funds to support Poetic License- and the counter on our Kickstarter page has switched from days to hours! If you haven't donated yet or know someone who would like to support our festival but hasn't yet, now is the time! If you can post the Kickstarter link to your Facebook or Twitter page to help give us an extra boost, we would sincerely appreciate it! If you have already given but feel like you have a little extra cash in the new year, and would like to increase your pledge by $5 to help us get there, you can do that as well!

Here is the link to the festival line-up, schedule, and ticket info!
www.poetictheater.com/festival
To be taken directly to the calendar for ticket-purchasing, click here! (if you received a festival pass as a reward we will email you with all the information you need later this week!)

We are so close to 100 backers - we are so grateful for the incredible wealth of support we have received from all of you! 

Thanks again! 

Sincerely,
Alex, Jeremy and the rest of the Poetic Theater Productions Team