Lea, with bassist, Will and Kristen on djembe, filled the Dupont airwaves with soulful sounds. Sprinkled in were Ronnie, Laurie, Mo, Jeff, Dylan, Ellie, Damian, Jessica, Mario, Kristy, Ann, Ted, Jorge (from Word of Mouth days!), Kristen and Chris. Duets by Jeff and Dylan and Laurie and Jessica. Joe Kennedy provided color with his flute and Graciela gave us a little belly dancing healing. We are grateful to everyone who created tonight’s show. It’s not just the artists, but all the amazing energy that comes from the audience that makes 3rd Monday’s in Dupont magical. Thanks for coming out!

The heat was on and not just because of the humdity! Christylez Bacon and Slice D were sic — beatboxing, strumming, drumming and spittin rhymes. Sidewalk chalkers in da house - creating artistic delights. Lacy was shaking that booty and balancing the hoops. A young breaker threw down some moves. Johanna, Vicky and Joe provided additional rhythm — and of course poets. A personal highlight was Elizabeth Croydon but she was not alone — amazing creations spewed forth Chris, Jeff, Laurie, Lois Thundercloud, Damian, Dana (boobs!), Ronny, Gayle, Joyce Robinson Hall (FREE DC), Ted, Zaccai, Godson, JT, Mark, Lacy, Ilene, Jay and K-lo Flow (b-more in da house) all represented DC poetry magic. And the crowd….the shizzle bizzle.

Don’t miss August 18 — or next Lyrical Ambush — Mo will be the MC so you know it’s gonna be fun. We’ll announce the musical feature once we have it lined up!

Blessings and gratitude to all who came — physically and in spirit!

It was recently the 27th anniversary of the Proposition One Vigil outside of the White House. Prop One is an anti nuclear grassroots movement, that has been doing the vigil since june 3rd 1981 when William Thomas though most know him as just Thomas sat down and then later Concepcion Picciotto (just known by her first name) sat down with him and well there begins some history and here is my poem about it that was written for their big 25th celebration

In 1981 a man sat down

he sat down on the cold white house ground

all he wanted was honesty and wisdom but the president 

couldn’t make a  nuclear proliferation treaty 

cause he kept building tanks missiles and bombs 

didn’t care if the world was soon to be gone

then very soon a lady sat down

she sat down on the cold white house ground

she joined up with the man, Thomas his name, 

Concepcion hers, they weren’t playing a game

they built up many signs, some big and some small

they drummed and fasted throughout the fall, but the cops came and took them away

said you will not have a better day, but they all came back 

and stayed there through years of tragedies tears and presidential fears

they stood up tall and they will not fall 25 (now 27) years and thats not all

For more info about the vigil and whatnot

http://prop1.org/

The rain can’t wash away the guerrillas! Clearing up just in time for us to have a spectacular evening! Poets were spitting their words  — seasoned vets Mo, Ted and Jeff were joined by newcomers Willow, Ronnie, Chris and Timothy Tattoo. Special shout-out to all the women who answered the call, Lyndi, Lacy, Kristen, Laurie and especially Cherie whose beautiful voice touched the soul. Vishal Kanwar, Sriram Gopal and Kristin Arant got the circle bumping with fusion music featuring the live Tablas, flute and various percussion instruments laid against some hot beats. The sidewalk chalking was sic with Cesar & Wendy leading the charge. Folks are digging our new format incorporating musical features into our Ambushes. Pulling in quite an audience, including a full out dance party to end the evening last night’s Open Mic exceeded our wildest expectations. We create the vehicle and YOU create the show. Much love, blessings and gratitude to all that came out and all those there in spirit. Next Lyrical Ambush is Monday, July 21, 7pm! You won’t want to miss it!

Tonight, the SF Collaborative Arts Insurgency celebrates its 5th anniversary with its weekly lyrical ambush outside the BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) station at 16th & Mission Streets. The crew's been rocking since 2003, and recently got noted by a series of weekly papers, including SF Weekly, the Bay Guardian, and even The Onion!

In addition to the weekly open mic, some cats from the scene also hold down the 16th & Mission Review, a monthly poetry anthology. To submit your work for publication, email submissions to Brandon at seven7htangent [at] gmail.com. Also, an initiative organized by some of the CAI's founders saw the third annual Poems Under the Dome just a few weeks ago, featuring an evening of poetry inside SF's elaborate City Hall.

Anytime you're in SF, pass by 16th & Mission on Thursday night. We'll be out in force from 9pm until around midnight…..

Alexandra Geller

Untitled

As far as all us know, love and sin

Walked side by side in world from the beginning:

Serpent's temptation in the garden of Eden

Turned Eve and Adam into human beings.

Thank you, the cunning serpent, for your gifts:

Apple and passion, untold good and evil,

And has remained for many centuries

The might of sinful pain and gorgeous feelings

Read the rest of this entry »

Project the mind - it resonates with thunder;

Reject the mind - around you t burns.

Intrepid joy - impassioned restless wonder -

The heart-suffused and life-rich way to learn:
Intrinsic conflaggrations, hard to pity

Or to respect, or even yet to see -

The nature's splendor reaching into city

To render its inhabitants half-free

Until joy drops, and out appears concept

And meaning - this, if only for some!

And from beneath the axioms, a rocket

Ballasts into the space, explodes and is gone

And then - another time, another meaning,

The meaning is constructed from all sides

And forms the structure that informs the seeming

Which then becomes the vision of mankind -
 

And then come other meanings and perceivings

Constructed like dynamic SQL…*

The culture wisens, thickens as it's dreaming

And builds to levels more removed from hell.

* For the non-computer types: SQL is a tool that lets the people work with data. Dynamic SQL is SQL statements created by program based on conditions.

The Biggest Mud in History

About Rush Limbaugh

A finger and a pudgy head

On billboard on the road -

It says on it, "Reality Check"

And on the radio

Insults, abuse and poison

And malice of all kinds:

Hideousness, lies and noise and

Attack on people's minds.

 Read the rest of this entry »


    

As former GPI poet now living in sunny Australia, I would like to congratulate all of you for making GPI as big as it is today.

Shahid, Laurie, Jessica, and the rest of you, you rule.

I'm including here addresses to my own writings, which I've continued as a new husband and father:

http://ibshambat7.blogspot.com (weblog)

http://www.geocities.com/ilya_shambat2005/poems.htm (poetry)

http://www.myspace.com/ibshambat (my space)

http://www.geocities.com/ilya_shambat2005 (translations)

Hope you continue growing and become the next big thing in poetry and politics!

The GPI has been staying active despite wrapping up the DuPont Circle lyrical ambushes for the winter. We host the weekly open mic at Busboys & Poets from time to time (most recently on October 30), and also did a joint set with singer/songwriter/Ukele-hip-hop artist Jon Brahman at a group house in Mt. Pleasant on November 20.

Opportunities to perform still abound, and we're specifically looking for someone to take over compiling events from our calendar to distribute weekly to 700 subscribers on our listserv. Hollah at us if you're down at dcguerrillapoetry-discuss@lists.riseup.net!

Also, just to keep your inspiration flowing, check out this article in The New York Times:

Art . . . did not arise to spotlight the few, but rather to summon the many to come join the parade — a proposal not surprisingly shared by our . . . teacher . . . . Through singing, dancing, painting, telling fables of neurotic mobsters who visit psychiatrists, and otherwise engaging in what Ms. Dissanayake calls “artifying,” people can be quickly and ebulliently drawn together, and even strangers persuaded to treat one another as kin. Through the harmonic magic of art, the relative weakness of the individual can be traded up for the strength of the hive, cohered into a social unit ready to take on the world.