Date: Sat., Nov. 22
Time: 8pm
Admission: $5 Student, Seniors, Members $10 General
The Really Big Show: Words and Expression
Location: Galeria De La Raza
2857 24th Street, Mission District, Sf
Hosted and Curated by Norman Zelaya
Featuring: Arisa White, Amir el-Chidiac, Paul S. Flores, Karim Scarlata, Jaime Cortez, Lakin Valdez & DJ Aztec Parrot
In the great spirit of Ed Sullivan and Rodney Dangerfield, a cast of the best and brightest voices in the Bay Area have been gathered to present new works and add to the tradition of visionary, radical, contemporary and eloquent writings that San Francisco has long been known for. A night full of dialogue, inspiring lyrics, poignant thought, and as with all great writers, a sh–load of laughter. Hosted and curated by local denizen of 23rd Street barrio, Norman Zelaya, The Really Big Show will most definitely be a memorable night of words and expression.
Feature Biographies:
ARISA WHITE is a Cave Canem fellow and holds a MFA from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. Factory Hollow Press will be publishing her chapbook Disposition for Shininess in late 2008. She received a Poets & Writers grant in 2008 and was awarded the 2007 Pavel Strut Fellowship in Poetry from the University of Western Michigan. In 2006 she received the Archie D. and Bertha H. Walker Scholarship from the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown and a writing residency at the Atlantic Center for the Arts. Her poem “Who Invited the Monkey to Omen’s Party” was nominated for a Pushcart Prize in 2005..
AMIR EL-CHIDAC’s poetry and prose explores issues of identity, the body, the social consciousness of political expression, the censored tongues and the bordered chorus of oppression. Amir recently received an MFA in Writing and Consciousness from the New College of California. His work has been published in Riffrag, Mizna, Tea Party Magazine, and I Saw My Ex at a Party.
PAUL S. FLORES is a poet, playwright, novelist and nationally prominent spoken word artist specializing in bilingual and hip-hop performance whose plays Fear of a Brown Planet and REPRESENTA! were National Performance Network Creation Fund Commissions. Flores was featured on Season IV of Russell Simmons Presents Def Poetry on HBO, and his novel Along the Border Lies was awarded a PEN National Literary Award in 2003. He teaches Hip-Hop Theater and Spoken Word at the University of San Francisco Department of Performing Arts and Social Justice.
KARIM SCARLATA, filmmaker, writer, crabber, and observer of life has appeared on stages and in phone booths across this fine city of ours. For years he has been trying to leave the Bay Area but he cannot turn his back on this little berg that raised him, and by berg he means Goldberg his counselor from Camp Akava.
JAIME CORTEZ is a cultural worker based in the San Francisco Bay Area. His writing has appeared in a dozen anthologies. Jaime’s visual art has been exhibited at numerous California galleries. He was the editor of the anthology Virgins, Guerrillas & Locas. Jaime has lectured on art and activism at Stanford, Berkeley, UC Santa Barbara, University of Pennsylvania and the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts. He is currently preparing a manuscript for The Jesus Donut, his first collection of short stories, slated for publication in 2009 by Suspect Thoughts Press.
NORMAN ANTONIO ZELAYA was born and raised in San Francisco. He began writing short stories under the influence of his English teacher, Ms. Maryann Berry, who still serves as a mentor. After his time at UC Berkeley, Norman was offered the opportunity to create and host his own poetry reading series, Poems y Poemas at Café International. In graduate school, Norman met up with Darren de Leon and Paul Flores to form Los Delicados. Currently, Norman is working on his first novel, a story based in his childhood barrio. Norman is a recent alumni of the Intergenerational Writer’s Lab sponsored by Kearny Street Workshop and Intersection for the Arts.
DJ AZTEC PARROT is the founding producer and host of KPFA’s Radio 2050 since 2002. He began his DJ career in 1977 at the age of 12 and has steadily rocked it since. He has spun with the likes of Afrika Bambaataa, Dr. Dre, DJ Pooh, DJ Yella, 2 Live Crew, Uncle Jamm’s Army, G-Spot and SAKE ONE. An avid collector of vinyl records he mixes a rare and eclectic mix of music ranging from Old School funk, Xican@, 80’s New Wave, Ska, Bugalu, Indigenous Americana, and Revolutionary Moviemiento music. He has been producing independent radio shows since 1990, re-establishing Radio Aztlan at KUCR in Riverside, CA and most recently founding Radio 2050 at Pacifica’s mothership station KPFA in Berkeley.