Showing posts with label collaboration. Show all posts
Showing posts with label collaboration. Show all posts

Friday, March 13, 2015

Los Angeles Poet Society is LIVE at the Poetry Circus!

Los Angeles Poet Society - a community organization PROUD to run away with the circus!
(any time, Nicelle Davis, any time!) 
:)

Our new Los Angeles Poet Society banner making its debut!




I'm the president and also a client...haha LAPS Founder and President, Jessica M. Wilson



The Poetry Circus @ Griffith Park Merry-Go-Round

February 28 of 2015

by Juan Cardenas


The Los Angeles Poet Society had the great honor of being part of The Poetry Circus at the Griffith Park Merry-Go-Round on February 28 of 2015, as a Featured Presenter representing an array of Poets and Literature aficionados in Los Angeles County by displaying their books on our own official Los Angeles Poet Society travelling table. LAPS is offering this community service FREE OF CHARGE; this means we can sell your books and give you full commission for absolutely nothing in return, just your love and appreciation. We want the table to serve you! So send us your books, brochures...we will display and sell whenever we attend literature events. 

The night at the Poetry Circus turned out to be precisely what you imagine a full traveling Poetry Circus is. While you rode the Merry-Go-Round, trapeze acrobats, marching band music, freak show and abnormalities, juggling jungle animals, sword swallowing, fire spitting, weird funny clowns all performing in their most serious silliest fashion all through the visual projection of Literature and Poetry. Sounds crazy enough? Animals transformed into different shapes and shades as they rode the poet’s stanzas, jokes and silliness applauded through uncontrollable tears of laughter. A mixture of cheer and laughter from kids all of ages filled the cloudy night, as Justin Wallace Kibbe and his collage of moving poetry evoked sighs of awe across the distance.
The event organized by Nicelle Davis was a great success though the reflection of the amount of people in which it attended, both whom were there to see the amazing line up of Poets, Writers and performers featuring and those who were there to experience the Merry-Go-Round’s joy ride of incredible speeds. 

Poet features included wordsmiths and literature Maestros Lauren Ann Bogen, Brendan Constantine, Yvonne de la Vega just to mention a few. Of course, no Circus can ever exist without clowns, so Post Mortem Movement Theater showed up and along with their mime-like athletic and expressive dialogue made us both laugh and shriek in amazement as we saw them abstractly enjoy killing each other to the sounds of gypsy circus music with their imaginations.


Nicelle, what's in store for next year!

We can't wait! 
Love, the Los Angeles Poet Society

LAPS President with the VP, Juan Cardenas!




Binbon, the Mime of Los Angeles Poet Society aka the Director of Spanish Literature, Alejandro Molina with LAPS Member, Joe Willis! 




CPITS Poet Students! 


Brendan Constantine reads on the Merry-Go-Round!

Lovely MC, Nicelle Davis!

Brendan Constantine 


Art display by Just Kibbe


Enjoying my first ride on the Merry Go Go!





Beautiful Yvonne de la Vega!


Art by Just Kibbe


The Post Mortem Dance Group



Our friend from the Poetry Store!

Tuesday, December 2, 2014

Celebrating Music! Tikal Sun! The Metaphors!

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Picture of Tikal Sun‘s Nelson Alburquenque (above) and Juan Cardenas (also from Tikal Sun) and poetess Jessica Wilson Cardenas of The Metaphors (bottom picture).
There are times that I need an escape. Times when I feel that I’m overwhelmed with the mundane routine of work, paying bills, making end’s meet, trying to stretch every dollar to make it in this economy, traffic on the 101 and the 405, Carmageddons, global warming, nuclear radiation, children illiteracy and the zombie apocalypse á la Walking Dead. I worry a lot, that is very true, so I need a release, an escape, a musical escapade to help me deal with it all.
I recently discovered SoundCloud through a friend of mine who hangs his recordings on it (look him up under Matt Vibes, soulful voice that covers such artists as Marvin Gaye, Sublime, Bill Withers, Sam Cook among others) and I was hooked. I found myself looking for different music and, quite honestly, I was tired of my own songs on my iPhone as well as I Heart Radio, Spotify and Pandora. I needed something fresh and new. I began looking for my friends’ recordings like Michael Ray De Los Angeles, Cunaomusic, Jenuine Poetess, Matt Vibes, Ceasar Avelar, Jason Brain, Iris de Anda, TranSe among many others that I run into my open mic crawl and found myself falling in love with their poetry and music all over again, getting fresh ideas for my own poetry (and yes, you can also find me under Victor Sotomayor).
And then I found Tikal Sun. Electric guitars, flute, drums, indigenous instruments that recreate rain soundscapes, tambourine and more… Tikal Sun is always evolving; its eclectic sound can be compared to Jimi Hendrix, The Doors, Enigma and whales… Sorry, I’m getting whales right as I’m listening to Navajo Windcry on SoundCloud as I write this article, so my apologies. And just for the record I’m not high, I swear!
Tonight is a very special night for Tikal Sun is playing a long set of their best songs (Ubuntu Goddess! Totem! Taíno! New songs!) at the Brass Monkey located in Koreatown at 659 Mariposa Avenue in Los Angeles preceded by music and poetry by The Metaphors with Jessica Wilson Cardenas and Juan Cardenas at 5:30PM. Last time I was at Brass Monkey I felt as if I was somewhere down South, nowhere near Los Angeles so I’m ready to be transported to different realms and musical dimensions tonight.
Be adventurous! Take a hallucinogenic acid and fall down the rabbit hole where music is colorful, where guitars roar, where flute musical notes float above the eucalyptus trees, where a tambourine and drums summon spirits. Yeah, it’s that kind of Sunday. And, once again, I’m not high, people!!! Wait, did you guys just see that pink and purple elephant over the Hollywood sign… Well, did you?
Do yourselves a favor and listen to Tikal Sun on SoundCloud, you will thank me later. Tikal Sun is: Nelson Alburquenque, Juan Cardenas, Levon Arzuyan, Joe Willis and Matt Gottesman.

Writer Wednesday says Goodbye to Bob's Espresso Bar...


"All good things must come to an end", the saying goes. I was fortunate enough to stumble upon Bob's Espresso Bar on a Writer Wednesday night back in July and I met wonderful people like Jessica Wilson Cardenas, Juan Cardenas, Nelson Alburquenque, Teesh "Brown Sugar", Billy "Stupendous" Rodriguez, Zach Zephyr, E. Cathy Cole, Pogo Saito, The Whale, Tony Bates among many other artists that have delighted me and audiences have come every Wednesday to escape from the stress of everyday life and share poetry, comedy, music and soul.

But all things must come to an end and our dear Robert Romanos, owner of Bob's Espresso Bar and better known for his acting role in 1982's Fast Times at Ridgemont High along with Sean Penn, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Ray Walston, has decided that it's time to close the curtain to a dream that came true for him, a dream of opening a coffee shop where artists would come together and share their poetry, their music, their comedy and their magic. The time has come when Bob must say farewell to pursue other dreams of his own.

I've written a poem that I was fortunate enough to share last Wednesday at the second to last Writer Wednesday (last Bob's Espresso Bar Writer Wednesday will take place on November 12th starting at 6:45 till 9:30) and I was happy to say that I got Bob himself to come to the mic and say a few words to the audience. His rare speech moved most everyone to tears for we know how much he's invested in Bob's Espresso Bar, the friends he's made along the way, the unforgettable performances that he's seen in his (?) years of listening behind the counter. Everybody loves Bob.

And so I will share the poem titled Bob's Last Curtain Call, inspired by Bob's Espresso Bar and its family of artists and friends:

Robert "Bob" Romanos and Victor Sotomayor

Bob's Last Curtain Call

We all shine on!
Like the Luna
Like the stars
Like Tikal Sun
We are all stars
In the same constellation
Of cosmic talent
We will shine on
And on and on…
“All good things
Must come to an end”,
Or So they say…
All good things
Must come to a close,
Last curtain call
To the sound of a flute
Charming whoever
Has ears to listen and look!
Last curtain is now upon us…
Ukuleles,
Harmonicas,
And stupendous electric guitars
An Aggravated poet and another constant one
The sound of whales migrating south
The cry of the dolphins
That swim out to shore
A white bunny that refuses to come out the magician’s hat,
En-tranced and confused
“All good things must come to an end.”
Tikal Sun has now set in the horizon
Beyond Navajo Sands of time
Tapestry of wonder and awe,
Limitless source of symphonies and sounds
Bob’s Espresso Bar
Like this place there’s no par
A hub connecting
The Hollyweird with the Valley Girls
Connecting minds
Connecting souls
An amazing technicolor rainbow over Lankershim boulevard.
A depot of traveling performers
A stop along the way
Musicians and poets
Bring with them
Their illusions and disenchantments
Their struggles and triumphs
Their joys and sorrows
Orphans must stick together now
We are the dawn of a new sun
A new moon
A constellation of stars
Our own little non dairy Milky Way
Bob’s last curtain call
Is now upon us
A bittersweet moment
That welcomes new beginnings
New adventures
New venues
But we shall never forget
These precious moments together
You see, these memories will never be taken away,
They will remain in our hearts.
Fast times are comin’
Stupendous!!!
Bring them on!!!
We are all stars
A new constellation
A non dairy
Fat free
Chocolate flavored
Milky Way
And we will shine on
From another galaxy
Far, far away
(I hope you have your GPS)
Orphans must stick together now
We are the dawn of a new sun
A new moon
A constellation of stars
Our own little non dairy Milky Way
Bob’s last curtain call
Is now upon us
A bittersweet moment
That welcomes new beginnings
New adventures
New venues
But we shall never forget
These precious moments together
You see, these memories will never be taken away,
They will remain in our hearts.
Fast times are comin’
Stupendous!!!
Bring them on!!!
We are all stars
A new constellation
A non dairy
Fat free
Chocolate flavored
Milky Way
And we will shine on
From another galaxy
Far, far away
(I hope you have your GPS)
Let’s raise our glasses
And sing a loud cheer
For this is not the end, baby,
This is just the beginning!!!

©2014 Victor Sotomayor 

Photos by Victor Sotomayor

Thanks, Bob, we shall never forget!!!