ELEVATED! featuring Aja-Monet!

Collective Purpose presents…

ELEVATED!

1st & 3rd THURSDAYS

The premiere open-mic in San Diego is giving you the best poets, singers, and musicians.

Come out and get your fix!

Thursday, 4/2/09 @ 9 PM

Featuring: Aja-Monet!

This week's feature is the incredible Aja-Monet. A Cuban-Jamaican poet originally from East NY, Brooklyn, she now resides in Harlem , NY . At 21 years old, she is the youngest Grand Slam Champion of the Lower East side 's legendary Nuyorican Poet's Café. Her work is classically surrealist, engaging altogether Hip Hop, Soul, and literary audiences. Aja-Monet dedicates her time and energy working with inner-city adolescence, providing performance poetry workshops and opportunities. Aja-Monet is currently finishing up her B.A. at Sarah Lawrence College where she is studying Writing, Theology, and Psychology.

Come experience the resurrection of spoken word! Elevated! is a creative arts experience that is guaranteed to uplift, inspire and move you through spoken word, music, and visual art. Elevated! features nationally, internationally, and locally renowned poets. The open mic encourages up-and- coming artists to showcase their skills and talent. Come to listen, express, and get ELEVATED!

Eveoke Dance Theatre

2811 University Ave

San Diego, CA 92104

$5 at the door

ELEVATED! Celebrating Women's Herstory Month with Dr. Sharon Elise!

Collective Purpose presents…

ELEVATED!

1st & 3rd THURSDAYS

The premiere open-mic in San Diego is giving you the best poets, singers, and musicians.

Come out and get your fix!

Thursday, 3/19/09 @ 9 PM

Celebrating Women's Herstory Month!

The Feature for the night will be
Dr. Sharon Elise!

Doctor Sharon Elise is a professor of sociology at California State University, San Marcos, where she teaches courses in race and ethnic relations, gender, social movements, critical race theories, and community and social theory. Her current research interests are in the criminalization and "prisonification" of African Americans, changing racial and ethnic identities in diverse California, educational equity, postcolonial theory, and feminism. Dr. Elise writes and performs poetry with the spirit of passion and purpose, her words hold truth towards her activism through education and the community. Dr. Elise served on the first SLAM team representing San Diego and holds title of SLAM winner for the first city-wide slam held in San Diego (1998).

Come experience the resurrection of spoken word! Elevated! is a creative arts experience that is guaranteed to uplift, inspire and move you through spoken word, music, and visual art. Elevated! features nationally, internationally, and locally renowned poets. The open mic encourages up-and- coming artists to showcase their skills and talent. Come to listen, express, and get ELEVATED!

Eveoke Dance Theatre
2811 University Ave
San Diego, CA 92104

$5 at the door

collectivepurpose.org

WORLD PREMIERE IN SAN DIEGO:


~HIP HOP SAVED MY LIFE~

Artistic collaboration of dance company, bkSOUL, and spoken word poets, Collective Purpose, HIP HOP SAVED MY LIFE explores the power of love and Hip Hop music.

San Diego, CA – Fresh off of their successful partnership on The Movement, bkSOUL and Collective Purpose are presenting a new collaboration, HIP HOP SAVED MY LIFE. Presented by Sushi Performance & Visual Art and choreographed by grace shinhae jun (Artistic Director of bkSOUL), HIP HOP SAVED MY LIFE is both a tribute and a narrative to the Hip Hop experience in urban America. The spoken word poetry of Ant Black, Kendrick Dial, and Rudy Francisco (Collective Purpose) explores, through love, critique and celebration, the unique perspectives of Hip Hop music as the voice of the marginalized, global bridge-builder, and empowerment narrative.

A combination of Hip Hop and modern dance, the movements of bkSOUL’s dancers are choreographed to the poetic flow of Collective Purpose’s lyrics. With the background of beats and music familiar to the Hip Hop listener, the presentation is dynamic and moving, imploring the audience to undergo a fantastic journey from the beginning of the Hip Hop movement to its current mainstream appeal. Infusing messages of progress and hope in the lyrics and the dancer’s movement, the presentation addresses the pop-culture undertones of racism, misogyny, violence, and endless entertainment present in Hip Hop’s current form.

Hip Hop Saved My Life premieres on Thursday, March 26, 2009 at Sushi’s performance venue located in downtown San Diego at 390 Eleventh Ave. The performances run nightly through Sunday March 29, 2009. All performances begin at 8 pm, except Sunday night, which starts at 7 pm. Tickets for all shows are Pay-What-You-Can and can be purchased at the Sushi location!

Formed in 2001, bkSOUL (http://www.bksoul.com/) is a diverse community of artists who share culture, language, and soul. Grounded in rhythm and beats, and drawing from the traditions of Hip Hop and modern dance, bkSOUL redefines Hip Hop through body, sound, and spoken word. As children of Hip Hop culture, bkSOUL’s artists seek to embody social justice and activism, fighting racism and inequality collaboratively.

Collective Purpose (http://www.collectivepurpose.org/) is a group of spoken word artists. Founded in 2005, they are committed to their mission to elevate, edutain (educate & entertain), and enlighten the community through words and performance. They intend for art to do more than entertain, it has the power to affect, heal, and transform the community into a place of inclusion, tolerance, and understanding. Collective Purpose utilizes creative expression in the hopes of inspiring others to become truth seekers, truth speakers, and positive change agents.

An integral part of the West Coast cultural landscape, SUSHI-A Center for the Urban Arts, earns national acclaim for the San Diego arts community and provides a forum for artists to reflect the rich diversity of our multifaceted ethnic, cultural, sexual, and personal backgrounds. Its new home is located at 390 Eleventh Ave. at J St. in downtown San Diego. For more information on the shows and tickets, visit www.sushiart.org or call 619.235.8466.

ELEVATED! Kickin' off Women's Herstory Month with Megan Rickman!

Collective Purpose presents…

ELEVATED!

1st & 3rd THURSDAYS

The premiere open-mic in San Diego is giving you the best poets, singers, and musicians.

Come out and get your fix!

Thursday, 3/05/09 @ 9 PM

Celebrating Women's Herstory Month!

The Feature for the night will be Megan Rickman!

Coming into The Spoken Word scene smoking, literally, Megan Rickman first touched down at Slam Richmond in January of 2007, She came, She Slammed, She Won...Since then she's became a staple on the richmond poetry scene, Working with Lyric Ave, Tuesday Verse's, Redemption Production, Soul fire music and many more. Now, she has started her own production company with her friend and partner Roscoe Burnems. They founded Think Deep with the plan of bringing the VCU and Poetry communities together. She is also coaching the Teen Slam team that will be attending Brave New Voices in the coming year.

Come experience the resurrection of spoken word! Elevated! is a creative arts experience that is guaranteed to uplift, inspire and move you through spoken word, music, and visual art. Elevated! features nationally, internationally, and locally renowned poets. The open mic encourages up-and- coming artists to showcase their skills and talent. Come to listen, express, and get ELEVATED!

Eveoke Dance Theatre
2811 University Ave
San Diego, CA 92104

$5 at the door

collectivepurpose.org