Pick up the latest edition of the Toledo City Paper and check out the winners of this year’s fiction/poetry contest.

Get a taste of these great entries LIVE this Thursday at Wesley’s (on Adams St., Downtown Toledo).  Festivities start at 6:30pm.

The SLAM portion of this contest will take place that night with your hosts Imani Lateef and Sara “City” Lopez.

Please come out and show your support!

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Saul Williams Tries Out The Radiohead Sales Model With Help From Nine Inch Nails’ Frontman Trent Reznor

Known for his blend of poetry and hip-hop and his leading role in the independent film Slam, Saul Williams is the newest artist to toss aside the tradional album release and follow in the footsteps of Radiohead. Trent Reznor announced today that he’d be distributing the next album by Saul Williams, “The Inevitable Rise And Liberation Of NiggyTardust” via the internet. The album’s official site,niggytardust.com, launched today and is now taking pre-orders for its Nov. 1 release. Fans can either get it for free or “directly support the artists involved in the creation of this music” and throw Williams five bucks.

Fans who choose to pay nothing get the album as 192KBps MP3s, while those who cough up $5 also get higher-quality MP3s and FLACs of the album. (Everyone gets a PDF with art and lyrics as well.) As Reznor notes, Williams is “not the household name (yet!) that Radiohead is,” so he might not bring in the windfall 10 million dollars plus in cash that most suspect Radiohead has already generated in sales.

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Last week I reminisced about Sekou Sundiata (1946-2007). His signature piece, Space, I heard for the first time on a CD called Flippin the Script: Rap Meets Poetry. Produced by the legendary Bob Holman, this CD is a virtual open-mic recorded over 2 years at the Nuyorican Poetry Cafe. It was released on Mouth Almighty/Mercury; the first ever spoken word/poetry record label.

The following is a play list with a few liner notes from me. It’d be dope to have a Read List like this one Tuesday:

1. Introduction - Bob Holman
2. Harlem Sweeties - Seventeen
a dope rendition of a classic Langston Hughes’ piece…
3. Processions - Tish Benson
I’ve always thought that Def Poetry Jam’s Georgia Me was a knock of this poetess who is far more prolific and engaging
4. What I Got Is Gonna Last - Kool Kim
Kool Kim is from a rap group called the UMCs. their biggest hit was called Blue Cheese.
5. Love Poems - Bob Holman
all of my friends are hip to the fact that i used to recite this short piece at the end of every poetry night back in the day.
6. Open - Sonja Sohn
Sonja is the chick from the Underground classic Slam. She also plays a cop on the HBO cop drama the Wired
7. Kickin’ It All Around - Dasez
8. Space - Sekou Sundiata
the crowd participation on this piece is Crazy!! if you’ve ever been to our night and experience my Poem “Pretty”…well…it pales in comparison to this definitive performance poem
9. Nigger-Reecan Blues - Willie Perdomo
puerto rican poetry is some of the most powerful poetry in the known universe. Willie Perdomo is its Sourcerer Supreme!!
10. Os-Sos-Saros - Edwin Torres
11. Supreme - Samantha Coerbell
12. My Baby’s Mother - High Priest
13. What Is Hip Hop? - Greg Tate
this is the Only piece of poetry i’ve ever known Greg Tate to write/perform. this fact is amazing considering how extensive a library he’s created writing for the Village Voice. on top of that, the piece is Dope as Hell! and very timely considering the state the hip hop community is in.
14. Regurgitations - Mikah
that’s Mikah 9 from California’s Freestlye Fellowship; the group that birthed the mcee Aceyalone
15. No Respect For Life - Essence Donn
16. Every Time I Say Now - Seventeen
17. Why Lie? - Sha-Key
18. Well? - Everton Sylvester
19. Howl In Japanese - Nakagaki Hisafumi (A.K.A. ‘Howlin’ Tommy’)
20. Letter Word Terminology - Murder One

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The Toledo City Paper is holding their Annual Poetry/Fiction contest this month! This years contest has an exciting twist! The Hylife is participating in a very big way. City and I will share hosting duties for this year’s City Paper Poetry Slam on November 8th at the Contest Winner’s Reception.

I encourage all of our Hylife Poetry Peeps to participate. Please!! This goes out to Ms. T, Jaime, MC Nugget, Toby, Pineapple_16, Sweets, Mercury Rising! All Yall!!! Please represent this year!!

Visit the Toledo City Paper for details and updates.

Download the Contest Rules Here or click on the icon below.

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Will Evans really blessed us with his presence Tuesday!! Thanks alot Will. And a Xtra Special thank you goes out to our Hylife Poetry Audience who not only came out but made sure he had gas money to make it home and also bought copies of his CD: Measure.

He said he hates poets who perform pieces that aren’t on their CD. Ironically, he did just that to the bemusement of our crowd by performing a piece that paid homage to the late Sekou Sundiata (pictured above). It was a piece that celebrated the drummer Clyde Stubblefield (James Brown’s famous “Funky Drummer”).

Sekou was the reason I decided to get into performance poetry. I heard him on a spoken word CD the likes of which i can no longer find!! It featured a who’s who of some of my favorite New York (NuYorican) Poets; Sekou, Willie Perdomo, Tish Benson, Bob Holman,…) Thats why when Will asked if anyone in the audience knew who Sekou Sundiata was i may have been the only one that answered…i dam sure was the LOUDEST!

Sekou performed this signature piece, SPACE: A Monologue . on that CD and it changed my whole perception of Poetry Forever!!! The version on the cd was a live recording complete with crazy crowd participation. It was the type of connection i’ve always strived for…And i’ll be Damned if Will didn’t pull that shit off with his piece!!!!

Listen to Will Evans perform his piece For Clyde Stubblefield in his best Sekou voice on his Myspace Page (http://www.myspace.com/spokenwilliam).

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Will Evans (Toledo, OH)
OCTOBER 9, 2007 @ Club Prestige. Doors Open @ 8pm. FREE ADMISSION. Donations are Welcome. Check Out Will Evans on Myspace

Sample Poem:
Why Tyra is Fat Live

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Pictures c/o R.M. Rayford
Special thanks to Jaime and Pinapple 16 for representing Hylife Poetry with distinction.

Check out the coverage of this year’s Artomatic 419 Lite in the Sojourner’s Truth.
Find More Pics of Artomatic 419 Event Here>>>

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