Wednesday Night Open Mic Hosted by Jonathan B. Tucker 4.17.19
Date and Time
Apr 17, 2019 9:00 pm
Location
450K
450 K St NW, Washington, District of Columbia, 20001
Apr 17, 2019 9:00 pm
450K
A Busboys and Poetry Event hosted this week by Jonathan B. Tucker
Born in Washington, DC and raised in Crofton, Maryland, Jonathan B. Tucker (JBT) is a poet, organizer, educator, DJ, photographer, and dreamer passionate about poetry, youth empowerment, racial and social justice, and finding purpose through service to others. He has received numerous awards and artist fellowships, and has performed and taught at schools, libraries, detention centers, museums, and conferences around the world. His poems have appeared in Howard University’s Amistad Journal alongside the late Amiri Baraka (Howard University, 2011), in Etan Thomas’s anthology Voices of the Future (Haymarket Books, 2012), and on the stages of the Kennedy Center and the South African State Theatre. JBT represented DC at the National Poetry Slam in 2009 and 2010, and coordinated and co-coached the DC Youth Slam Team with nonprofit org Split This Rock Producing and hosting poetry programs for over a decade, JBT now runs an international arts exchange program between DC and South Africa.
FEATURING: South African Award Winning Poet Busisiwe Mahlangu
BUSISIWE MAHLANGU is a poet, performer, and TEDx speaker born in Mamelodi, Pretoria, South Africa. She explains her work as a space of healing and growth for herself. Her poetry is mostly described as hard-hitting and raw, as she uses her work to hold space for conversations around poverty, mental health, education, healing, domestic violence, and being and staying alive
She has shared her poetry across South Africa with performances at the Naked Word Festival (Cape Town 2017), Open Book Festival (Cape Town 2017), Words In My Mouth Slam Week (Mpumalanga 2017), Vavasati International Women’s Festival (Pretoria 2016), Nirox Words Festival (Johannesburg 2017), Lead SA Changemakers (Johannesburg 2017), Poets In Autumn (Johannesburg 2018), Ram Jam Soul Sundays (Johannesburg 2016), TEDxPretoria (Pretoria 2017), and the South African State Theatre (Pretoria 2019). Busisiwe was part of the cast of ‘When Poetry Hits The Fan’ (2016) directed by Bobby Gordon and ran for a week at Wits University. In 2016 she staged her poetry production, ‘Rusty Knife’, at the Current State of Poetry at the Joburg theatre assisted by Zewande Bhengu with direction.
W/ SPOTLIGHT: 2019 DC YOUTH POET LAUREATE GABRIELA OROZCO
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For two hours, audiences can expect a diverse chorus of voices and a vast array of professional spoken word performers, open mic rookies, musicians and a different host every week. Expect to be moved, expect a packed house, expect the unexpected, but above all come with an open mind and ear.
$5 Cover. No refunds. Ticket purchase limit of 4 per person. Guests must have their wristbands (tickets) on upon entering the event.
Seating is available on a first come, first seated basis. No saved or reserved seats are allowed. Failure to check in within 30 minutes of advertised start time may result in a forfeiture of seats.
