The Golden Thyme Coffee Café and the Saint Paul Almanac are pleased to announce the “Soul Sounds Open Mic,” hosted by Tish Jones! The “Soul Sounds Open Mic” series is held every Thursday, with a special pre-performance writing workshop on the first Thursday of each month.

June 19 Featured Performer – Too Black

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TOO BLACK, a graduate of Ball State University, is a poet and spoken word artist from Muncie, IN. The name TOO BLACK developed from wanting to challenge the perceptions of blackness and humanity in general.  Influenced by a wide variety of artist and historical figures, from Malcolm X to George Carlin, TOO BLACK brings a versatile perspective to the stage. TOO BLACK does an incredible job of utilizing hip hop and musical influences to relay his point and to relate to his audiences. Most of his works are highly informational, as a result of both his love for reading and his continued self-education through research. TOO BLACK’s delivery can be described as conversational with a “matter of fact” undertone. He has a working dialogue with the audience and draws from personal experiences and past and current events. A large amount of his poems are controversial in the sense that he speaks on subjects that most people might be afraid to discuss.  Issues of race, class, gender, education, and corruption are common themes throughout TOO BLACK’s poetry.

TOO BLACK has been performing poetry professionally for three years and has featured throughout Indianapolis, IN, and has headlined venues in IN, MO, CA, OR, OH, NY, MI, MD, IL, VA, D.C. and PA; including the historical Nuyorican Poets Cafe in New York City, Jus Words in Philadelphia, Soul Speaks in Chicago, Spit Dat, and Busboys & Poets in D.C., and several colleges and universities including UCLA, Oregon State, and Butler.  TOO BLACK is a part of poetry movement called Street Poets Collective.  The Street Poets Collective reaches from NYC to the Midwest and is growing a movement hoping to encompass the entire country in the upcoming years. Read more on www.tooblack.net

The event takes place from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. at Golden Thyme Coffee Café at 921 Selby Avenue (corner of North Milton Street) in Saint Paul. All ages are welcome, and there is no cover charge. Every first Thursday, a writing workshop will be held an hour before the open mic begins, from 5 p.m. to 6 p.m.

About Host Tish Jones

Tish Jones is a spoken word artist, writer, educator, organizer, and activist in the Twin Cities. She has worked as a teaching artist with Pillsbury House Theater, Intermedia Arts, Plymouth Christian Youth Center, MacPhail Center for Music, Minneapolis Public Schools (Arts for Academic Achievement), Kulture Klub, and many other arts organizations. She received the 2009 Artist of the Year Award from City Pages and was Female Spoken Word Artist of the Year at the Minnesota Spoken Word Association’s Urban Griots Awards in 2009.

About the Soul Sounds Open Mic

SSOM-poster-winter-2013-seasonThe Soul Sounds Open Mic is a platform for encouraging literacy within the Saint Paul community through leadership, mentoring, and relationship building. Unlike actors and many musicians, writers typically work in isolation, so building and supporting a literary community can be a challenge.

The “open mic” format, together with a featured performer, is designed to foster leadership; encourage connecting opportunities between established, emerging, and amateur writers; and help build, strengthen, and leverage other opportunities for the Saint Paul literary community.

Featured performers are recognized as leaders in the literary arts community and are offered an opportunity to build their own audiences. The “Soul Sounds Open Mic” also provides a space to connect writers who are spoken-word based and writers who are written-word based, within the context of being artists sharing a common literary heritage and practicing their craft in Saint Paul.

The First Thursday workshops before performances will explore specific poetic devices such as alliteration, assonance, metaphor, or specific forms of poetry to investigate when developing a piece. Workshop attendees will be encouraged to share the work created in the workshop at the open mic that follows.

Event Location

The event takes place from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. at Golden Thyme Coffee Café at 921 Selby Avenue (corner of North Milton Street) in Saint Paul. All ages are welcome, and there is no cover charge. The First Thursday writing workshop is held an hour before the open mic begins, from 5 p.m. to 6 p.m.

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