Dancing on Hurt Feet is an innovative performance poetry project featuring the work of three unique women. In a powerful offering, the show is a platform for voices from the margins to emerge and take center stage. It is a celebration of black womanhood that embraces individuality with integrity, solidarity, and humor. In an era of complacent popular culture escapism and an almost entirely absent female voice from the most influential and most internationally exported form of music (hip hop), this project offers an alternative. From the recent series of murders of black and brown people at the hands of the police, to the Ferguson protests, to the “Bring back our girls” tragedy, to the rising domestic sex-trafficking epidemic of teenage girls of color nationwide, it is imperative now more than ever to create a space for the feminine voice: the mothers, wives, daughters and sisters who need to be heard. This project allows difficult issues to be addressed head-on with the vibrancy, intensity and fluidity of free verse poetry.
Individually, all of the featured poets have performed at countless colleges and universities, toured internationally, made numerous television appearances, and had a lasting imprint on their communities as poets, performers, and teachers. Their potential as a collective has the ingredients for a pivotal shift in the world of socio-cultural driven theatre.f
Dancing on Hurt Feet presents a message that is both timely and necessary. Through thought provoking, introspective, and vulnerably honest poetry, this show creates an opportunity to redirect the conversation surrounding womanhood and offers a powerful and encouraging testimony to the healing power of art.
Tuesday, December 13th @ 7PM. Doors open @ 6:30PM.
The Culture Project at The Lynn Redgrave Theater
49 Bleecker Street
NYC
Tickets:
$20 – General Admission
$15 – Students
MEET THE ARTISTS
GINA LORING
Gina Loring is a poet, vocalist, songwriter and professor. As guest artist of the American Embassy, she has traveled to Kuwait, Russia, West Africa, Denmark, Turkey, Greece, Ireland, England, and Tunisia. Of African American, Eastern European Jewish and Muskogee Creek Native American descent, she is currently procuring a poetry workshop series focused on the teenage demographic of post-colonially marginalized indigenous communities throughout the world. She was featured on two seasons of HBO’s Def Poetry, BET’s Lyric Cafe and TVOne’s Verses and Flow, and was one of the winners of Queen Latifah’s CoverGirl Persona Contest for female lyricists. With a B.A. from Spelman College and an M.F.A. from Antioch University Los Angeles, Gina is currently an adjunct professor in the Los Angeles community college school district and a volunteer creative writing teacher with Inside Out Writers, working with incarcerated teens. Her work is featured on two De La Soul albums and The Brand New Heavies album, “We Won’t Stop,” and she was a writer/ performer on Norman Lear’s nationwide “Declare Yourself” poetry tour. She lives in Los Angeles and she believes in mermaids.
Visit her at: www.ginaloring.com
JAHA ZAINABU
Jaha Zainabu is a poet, freelance writer, storyteller, photographer, painter, and muralist from Long Beach, California. Her self-produced one woman show, Journey, toured for two years in Los Angeles, California, Seattle, Washington and New York City, New York. She has two books of poetry published, “The Science of Chocolate Milk Making”, and “The Corners of My Shaping”, and has released three spoken word albums, “Journey”, “Jaha Live”, and most recently, “Simple Like a Daisy.” Jaha’s poetry and stories have been heard on many stages across the nation, from The Getty Museum in Los Angeles to The Nuyorican Poet’s Café in New York. Jaha has also made a name for herself as a guest poet and speaker in many churches. She regularly performs at colleges and universities such as Vanderbilt University, California State University Long Beach, Dominguez Hills and Los Angeles, Howard University, University of Utah and many others. Her television credits include BET’s Lyric’s Café and Robert Townsend’s Spoken. She was the artist-in-residence for The Girl Blue Project in Los Angeles for three years, and is currently the artist-in-residence for WomanPreach in Philadelphia. Jaha is using her powerful voice to speak about issues of domestic violence, homelessness, poverty, and social justice. Jaha’s motto in her workshops, stories, poetry, art and life is USE YOUR VOICE, TELL YOUR STORY. Jaha currently produces a monthly storytelling show called Red Stories in Los Angeles. Visit her blog at: www.jahasworld.blogspot.com.
AJA MONET
Of Cuban, Jamaican, and Puerto Rican descent, aja monet is a poet originally from Brooklyn, NY. at the age of 19, she is the youngest person to win the legendary Nuyorican Poet’s Cafe Grand Slam title. as an educator, aja monet uses poetry to empower and encourage holistic healing in youth education. she was awarded the YWCA of the City of New York’s “2014 One to Watch Award”—an award established in honor of Monet’s work to empower women and eliminate racism. a graduate of Sarah Lawrence College, aja monet received her BA in Liberal Arts and was awarded the The Andrea Klein Willison Prize for Poetry. she also received her MFA in Creative Writing from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. in 2012, she collaborated with poet Saul Williams to edit a poetry anthology of this generation’s political and personal anthems entitled, Chorus (Simon & Schuster). she has published several books and chap books independently, including The Black Unicorn Sings (Penmanship Books), in homage to poet audre lorde. her first full collection of poems is forthcoming with Haymarket Books in Spring 2017. aja monet currently resides in little Haiti, Miami where she works to merge poetry, arts, and culture in community organizing. For more information, please visit: http://www.ajamonet.com
