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The Suppression of Sound
November 20, 2013 @ 7:30 pm - 10:00 pm
$10 – $15
An Evening of Poetry and Music
An evening of poetry and sound by Thomas Sayers Ellis and saxophonist James Brandon Lewis. This eclectic duo has been performing together for nearly two years and was recently given the thumbs up by poet Amiri Baraka (for their mixture of free Jazz, GoGo, Be Hip Bop Hop and deep Groove) when they opened for him in New York City. The combination of Mr. Ellis’s bold, lyric activism and meditations on race and American culture are pushed and purposely punished by Mr. Lewis’s muscular and exhaustive tenor. A highlight of the performance is Mr. Dynamite Splits, a searing tribute to the Godfather of Soul, James Brown.
Thomas Sayers Ellis – poet
James Brandon Lewis – saxophonist
Raina J. León – poet, opener
Bios:
Saxophonist James Brandon Lewis ’ debut CD Moments (2010) received stellar reviews and was featured on jazzreviews.com, revivalist/okay player, ejazz news, George Mason University radio and All about jazz.com. James is currently working on his second album Divine Travels featuring William Parker, Gerald Cleaver, and poet Thomas Sayers Ellis to be released by Sony’s Okeh Label in early 2014. James Brandon Lewis was recently heralded by Ebony Magazine as “7 Musicians 30 and under to watch”.
Photographer and poet Thomas Sayers Ellis is the author of Skin, Inc.: Identity Repair Poems (Graywolf Press 2010) and The Maverick Room (His poems have appeared in numerous journals and anthologies, including The Open Door, Tin House, Grand Street, Poetry, The Nation and Best American Poetry (1997, 2001, 2010). He is the recipient of a Whiting Writers Award and has been awarded residencies at the MacDowell Colony, the Fine Arts Work Center, and Yaddo. Mr Ellis is the Poetry Editor of The Baffler and currently a Visiting Writer at the University of San Francisco where he teaches in the Graduate Writing Program. More at: tsellis.com
Admission: $10-15. Doors at 7:00 Show at 7:30.
Tickets will not be sold in advance for this event. Please arrive at the Red Poppy when doors open to purchase tickets.
