mothertongue will celebrate its eleventh birthday with an anniversary fundraiser featuring local spoken word leaders Silvana Straw and Michelle Parkerson, along with rising talent Maureen Andary this Thursday.  The event will include an open mic where all women are encouraged to sign up and share their creative words.  To sign up on the open mic list today, email dmevennou@gmail.com.  You may also sign up for the open mic on the night of the show.

Silvana Straw is a writer, performer, and D.C.’s original Poetry Slam Champion. She has performed in venues throughout the U.S. including Galleria de la Raza in San Francisco, the Nuyorican Poets Café and Out North Theater in Anchorage.  Her work has appeared in publications such as Gargoyle, Indiana Review, Short Fuse Anthology, and Ethno-Techno: Writings on Performance & Activism. Over the past 25 years, she has been the founder and producer of numerous performance poetry events in DC, including Poetry Bonanza at the Black Cat in the 90s, and has served as a coach/instructor with young artists, most recently with the 2008 DC Youth Poetry Slam Team.

Throughout the 1990s, Straw collaborated with Michelle Parkerson—writer, award-winning filmmaker, university professor and performance artist from Washington, DC.  Parkerson received the 2007 Black Lily Film and Music Festival Living Legend Award and is currently in development on her first dramatic feature film, Loving Eunice.  She is the author of a book of poetry and short fiction, entitled Waiting Rooms.  Her work has appeared in several anthologies of Black and Gay & Lesbian literature over the years.   Parkerson’s performance art has drawn standing-room only crowds in Washington, DC and beyond, including her production of DIVAS! with Brenda Files and Women of Substance with Kimberli Boyd and Kwelismith, which was featured at the National Black Arts Festival in Atlanta.

Washingtonian Maureen Andary developed her writing style over her years at NYU earning a degree in Literature with a concentration in Creative Writing (Poetry).  Having traversed genres, her 2008 debut album, Nostalgia, was funded through a Young Emerging Artist Grant from the DC Commission on the Arts & Humanities.  She is also a member of folk/pop duo The Sweater Set which has performed at the Shakespeare Theatre’s Harman Center for the Arts, the Arts on Foot Festival, the Fort Reno Summer Concert Series, and many more venues throughout town.  Andary will be sharing her poetry along with musical styling.

mothertongue is a community-based organization founded in 1998 by Karen Taggert and Ruth Dickie to provide a safe space where all women and girls may have their creative and artistic voices heard. Over its 11 years, mothertongue has continued to provide regular women’s spokenword events and writing/performance workshops with the help of a dedicated group of volunteers. For more information, contact Danielle at dmevennou@gmail.com.

Details:

Thursday, November 12
The Black Cat
1811 14th St NW
Doors: 8:00 p.m.; Show: 9:00 p.m.
Entry is free, with a suggested donation of $5 to support mothertongue’s continuing work.