Hello Friends-

"Been soo long.  Missing you baby" (who knows this song?)

The first person to email me will receive two free tix to THE GEMINI SHOW, JUNE  9th and 10th at fidget space featuring some amazing guest artists from PHILLY, NYC, and DC.

I have some exciting news. I have officially been accepted into the ICPP or the Institute for Curatorial Practice in Performance at Wesleyan University.  I'm so excited to attend this program.  Don't worry, it's a low res program so I will continue to dance and make dances in Philly and NYC.  More on ICPP below.

http://www.wesleyan.edu/cfa/icpp/

The official launch for Notes on An Urban Kill-Floor will take place in Brooklyn, NY at the Observatory Gallery on May 22 at 7pm.  More information below.  Hope to see you there.  I am also organizing readings in Philly and DC, so if you are interested in learning more about those inbox me.  

http://observatoryroom.org/2011/04/09/notes-on-an-urban-kill-floor/

In celebration of the new book, here's a free download of Animal in Cyberspace. Hope you enjoy!  Let me know what you think.

http://issuu.com/philadiction-movement/docs/animal_in_cyberspace?showEmbed=true

Lastly, I'm putting KPG or Kosoko Performance Group to rest.  My last show under the KPG moniker will be at the Kelly Strayhorn Theater in Pittsburg, PA on Sat. May 15, 2011.  The Philadiction-Movement, my newest incarnation will launch in June 2011 with its inaugural showcase THE GEMINI SHOW: AN EVENING OF DIRTY, DARING DUETS at fidget space in Philly. Details on that show coming soon.

The Philadiction is a platform to house my vision as it strives to create community around writing, teaching, curating, and practicing the art of making live performance without genre limits and contraints.  

much love!

jaamil

Hello Friends-

I wanted to let you all know that I started a second kickstarter campaign for this project because it's more expensive than I thought to launch a collection of poems.  The book is being formatted as I write this and will be sent to the publisher any day now.  I should have them by mid-May, so expect your copy by June.  If any of you can contribute $5 to the cause, here's the link.  http://kck.st/f92HBd  I would deeply appreciate it. 

The new project has 42 backers. Is 73% near completion, and has only 8 more days before it expires.  Please show your support today.

much love

jaamil 

Here's a poem from the collection...  Let me know what you think.  The line breaks are off because of weird formatting on this interface, but you can still read it.  

Entry

Late May and Spring Peepers are making love.  Last night we heard them as we stepped over  fallen twigs, tree roots, and kicked dandelions.  The wind felt like December although we both  knew the season pulled us closer to June.

At the lake we lie in search of the moon—you  in your usual silence and me left wondering  your contemplations: wounds you’ll never  let me heal. But I know you were not  made to feel this anesthesia. The stars, I say,

are where raindrops turn themselves into light,  where time shoots memories into flight. But  our minds know all too well of lost memories,  of unkept reveries like hotel signs that read vacancy.  Know entirely too well about the unmakings

of dreams, the places between what is and what is  not. Or maybe I want to say that we don’t know  enough, that there can be a way to remain for us,  to stay, like this, with our faces facing skyward  and the rest of our lives blazing across our eyes.

Happy 2011!

The Chameleons are coming out on January 22@9P and 23@5P to the Painted Bride in Philly for the 2nd Annual Kosoko Performance Group Gala Performance Showcase. This year's theme is American Chameleons. Please come and brings friends and enjoy the 10% discount at ISTANBUL Grill located right next door. There is also free parking.

About the Show:
Hosted by choreographer & theater artist Christina Zani, American Chameleons will showcase a mixed bill of energized, high quality, post-modern performances. New York based performer Brandin Steffensen will perform the Philadelphia premiere of NEWS commissioned from world renowned dance artist and choreographer Deborah Hay. Bessie Award winning dance artists Michelle Boulé and Hilary Clark will premiere two dynamic new works. The evening will also showcase the wildly engaging dance theater antics of Drunken Monkey by hip hop dancer/choreographer Vince Johnson. Performance artist/dancer iele paloumpis will make their Painted Bride Art Center debut with the live performance of Give It, Take It; while Kosoko Performance Group will complete the showcase with the dance autobiography An Expectation of Violence. Visit www.kosokoperformance.org to learn more.

For More Information:
Facebook Link
http://www.facebook.com/event.php...

Eblast Link
http://www.reverbnation.com/c/fr5/artist_166919...

-----------------------------------------------------------POETRY---------------------------------------------------------

I'm excited to announce that some exciting new publications are ahead for poems featured in Notes on an Urban Kill-Floor. Also, I'm entertaining the thought of a spoken word album in collaboration with my good friend, music producer Mikaal Sulaiman. I've been writing songs and the like so I'm hoping 2011 will be the year to make this a reality. Hear one of our tracks below.

thanks so much for your support!
xo
jaamil

Hello Friends:

I'm excited to report that my friend, the super talented choreographer and writer Miguel Gutierrez has agreed to write the forward for Notes on an Urban Kill Floor. If you don't know him you can check out his artwork here:

http://www.miguelgutierrez.org/

Also, I'd like to celebrate all of you who supported the book by inviting you to a private "KPG Toast Event" before our 2nd Annual Performance Party (American Chameleons: A Showcase) at the Painted Bride hosted by the love of my dance life, the fabulous Christina Zani.

Toast and Poetry Reading is at 8PM on Sat. January 22, 2011
9PM Showcase Performance
at the Painted Bride Arts Center
230 Vine Street, PHL, PA

Please PSVP at jaamil@kosokoperformance.org,
Buy your tickets for the opening night gala performance:

http://ticketing.theatrealliance.org/tickets/reserveTickets.aspx...

Hello Friends-

I just wanted to send a huge thank you to everyone who came out to support the premiere of my new work in the Live Arts Festival this year: Or Maybe My Mother was An American Chameleon? I made this piece in less than a month, which is the fastest I've ever had to work on something. It was really great to see many of you there. The houses were packed from what I could tell, and people had really nice things to say about the piece.

"I am going to be thinking about your work for a long time.
I can't wait to have real time to talk to you about it.
Thank you. It was stunning. Beautiful. extremely moving.
And you are QUITE the writer. Gorgeous."

--Karen Gatz

If you care about what reviewers think, I've attached a couple.

http://citypaper.net/fringe/2010/show.php/id/2/

http://phillyist.com/2010/09/14/phillyist_goes_to_the_festival_8_ka.php

The book, Notes on An Urban Kill-Floor is coming along smoothly. I'm pretty excited about the author of the forward for this collection, which I will announce once confirmed. I hope to market this collection with a couple book reviews, a launch party, an ad in some major poetry papers, and New York publisher (fingers crossed.) More on that soon.

PS I'm in DC right now at the DeVos Institute for Art Management at the Kennedy Center. I'm learning so much. It's an amazing program. I still can't believe I was selected to be here. I attended the National Symphony Orchestra Ball this weekend and I'm looking forward to attending the Kennedy Center Honors in December.

Thanks again for everything!

I love Y'all

Jaamil

Hello Friends:

I just wanted to tell you that the LIVE ARTS BOX OFFICE is open and tickets are on sale for American Chameleon, my newest dance work commissioned by the Philadelphia Live Arts Festival. It's a part of 8: eight choreographers / eight new works. Thank you for helping to make this work possible. I'm super excited about this crazy piece. Director of the work, Brian Osborne calls it "ripe with great composition...its wildly explosive and hilarious."

It's an experience. Hope to see you there. http://www.livearts-fringe.org/details.cfm...

Much Love
Jaamil

Thank you so much for your support of this project. And for giving such generous gifts. Many of you gave far more than I expected. I'm so excited to publish the book. I will keep you all updated as the project progresses. So much love.

You All Rock My Boat-
Jaamil

Pushed

Call it roulette, the game
my cousin and I would play
under the bunk-beds
or in the closets. Barely
four years old and curious
for touch, we pushed
against each others'
small bodies, fingers reaching
like needy tongues for food.

A lude appetite.
Two toddlers practicing
for pleasure on one another.
Playing '2 Live Crew' mix-tapes,
Teddy Ruxpin was a pimp
and Barbie a whore
folding her legs back
like a boneless acrobat.

What were we saying
when our breaths rubbed up
against words we didn't know?
The half-words
that rose from between
our young pink lips,
pushed out, without
much meaning at all.
We'd create our own language.
"Mmmmm, tha's ta fuks ha.
Mmmmm. tiese, lik lik."

Or perhaps, call it chance,
the risk we'd take to explore
the heat that pushed
between our legs,
pushed the excitement
of getting caught. I wonder

what it meant
to gamble at virginity;
patiently incubating puberty
and contagious as fire,
pushed into an experiment
with pre-adolescent desire.
I still wonder,
what were we saying
in the half-words,
in the crevice
between language and the body?

Well, this project has 30 more days. I will continue to promote until the very end. If any of you have ideas as to how to get people interested in this project, please let me know.

I could really use your help. If you could forward this project to 2 people who are interested in supporting the arts and who can afford it, that would be great.

Here's a video I made. http://www.kosokoperformance.org/videos

Also, please forward me your full name and contact, so that when the book comes out. I can let you know.

Thank you all so much for getting me this far. Only 84% more to go. I still have 55 more days and the heat is on. Please forward the link to three friends who you think might enjoy my poetry. I know this will be a really great piece of work. Help me share it with as many people as possible.

http://kck.st/9zXuGW

Thanks so much for everything!

much love

Jaamil
www.kosokoperformance.org