Next Reading: Tuesday, May 21st at 7:00 p.m. with A. Van Jordan

Whether you’re a page poet, slammer, performance artist or refuse a label, we want to hear your new stuff on our open mic. We look forward to sharing summer (and great coffee) with you and invite you to join this free open mic and monthly reading series!

To kick off our summer fantastic season, we welcome A. Van Jordan, author of The Cineaste, as our next feature reader at Skazat!

Sign up! 7:00 p.m.

7:15 p.m. – Open mic

8:00 p.m. – Featured Reader

A. Van Jordan is the author of four collections: Rise, which won the PEN/Oakland Josephine Miles Award (Tia Chucha Press, 2001); M-A-C-N-O-L-I-A, (2005), which was listed as one the Best Books of 2005 by The London Times; Quantum Lyrics, (2007); and The Cineaste, (2013), W.W. Norton & Co. Jordan has been awarded a Whiting Writers Award, an Anisfield-Wolf Book Award, and a Pushcart Prize. He is a recipient of a John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship, and a United States Artists Williams Fellowship. He is a Professor in the Dept. of English at the University of Michigan, and teaches in the MFA Program for Writers at Warren Wilson College.

Next Reading: April 16, 2013 Airea Dee Matthews at 7:00 p.m.

It’s National Poetry Month! Come celebrate with us, won’t you? Whether you’re a page poet, slammer, performance artist or refuse a label, we want to hear your work on the open mic and we want to see you in the audience for our feature reader!

 

Sign up! 7:00 p.m.

 

7:15 p.m. – Open mic

 

8:00 p.m. – Featured Reader

 

This month join us for the exceptional AIREA ’DEE’ MATTHEWS!

 

Dee is a two-time Women of the World Poetry Slam finalist, a former Detroit Grand Slam Champion and a popular performance poet on the national touring scene. Named one of Detroit’s Best Poets by CBS, she is pursuing her MFA in Poetry at the University of Michigan where she was awarded a Helen Zell Fellowship and the Michael R. Gutterman Prize in Poetry. Her short fiction, which earned her a Pushcart Prize nomination, has appeared in SLAB literary magazine.

 

She has featured at the Bowery Poetry Club (NY), The Max Fischer Theatre, Music Hall, The Fillmore Theatre and other select international venues, wowing audiences with her deeply moving performance collections. Her work combines her abiding love for 17th century verse with a modern voice and keen eye on current events. Her style, by turns, has been described as aching, chilling and fierce.

 

Our May feature will be A. Van Jordan! 

Next Reading: February 19th at 7:00 p.m.!

Don’t forget that we’re Skazat!ing on the third Tuesday of the month now!

Whether you’re a page poet, slammer, performance artist or refuse a label, we want to hear your work on the open mic and we want to see you in the audience for our feature reader!

Sign up! 7:00 p.m.

7:15 p.m. – Open mic

8:00 p.m. – Featured Reader

This month join us for a talented double feature of HALEY PATAIL & CARLINA DUAN!

Carlina and Haley have a new joint collection out on Red Beard Press entitled Electric Bite Women.

Carlina Duan, born in 1993, was a fierce 8.9 pound, black-afro-headed baby. She was a member of the Ann Arbor Youth Slam Team in 2011, as well as one of the founding editors of the Neutral Zone’s Red Beard Press. Carlina is currently a sophomore studying English and Creative Writing at the University of Michigan, where she has won two Hopwood awards, fallen in love with the color of brick, and boogied in a wolverine onesie through the plum-dark hours of night. She has been published in the 2012Bear River Review, as well as Xylem Literary Magazine. She is a member of Ann Arbor Wordworks and the 2013 University of Michigan Poetry slam team.

 

 

 

Haley Patail was born on an unseasonably warm April day in 1992. She was a member of the 2010 Ann Arbor Youth Slam Team, the 2011 University of Michigan Slam Team, and is now a member of Ann Arbor Wordworks. She is a junior studying Linguistics and Poetry at the University of Michigan. She was published in the Ann Arbor News, as well as in the new collection Electric Bite Women with Carlina Duan, and in the upcoming Spring 2013 issue of Xylem Literary Magazine.

Next Reading is TONIGHT: Tuesday, February 19th, 2012 @ 7:00 p.m.

Hey Skazat Folks! Join us this evening on our brand new day of the week as we welcome open mic’ers from all over, everywhere and bring you, as always, a great feature poet for your amazement.

The only thing that’s changed is the day of the week. Other than that, come to Sweetwaters at 123 W. Washington at 7:00 and get your name on the open mic list!

The Schedule:

Sign up! 7:00 p.m.

7:15 p.m. – Open mic

8:00 p.m. – Featured Reader

This month join us for Chace “Mic Write” Morris!

Chace “Mic Write” Morris is an accomplished poet/emcee/songwriter hailing from Detroit, MI.  In 2010, Chace became both the Detroit Grand Slam Champion & Rustbelt Individual Slam Champion, as well leading that Rustbelt team to collective victory.

Chace has been featured in the Metro Times’ list of Top 5 Poets in Detroit, has opened for such acts as Talib Kweli, The Last Poets, & RZA from the Wu Tang Clan, & is a member of the acclaimed Detroit Hip-Hop group Cold Men Young.

Currently a writer-in-residence with the InsideOut program, Chace teaches poetry workshops in local schools. He is also neck-deep in finishing his first written collection of poetry “The Robocop Prologue” as well as his first solo musical project “Morris Code”. When not writing, Chace likes to drink absurd amounts of tea, argue which Faygo pop flavor is the best & dominate in Rock, Paper, Scissors.

Next Reading: Fiona Chamness – Monday, January 21, 2013 at 7p.m.

We’re kicking the new year off with a poetry/musical feature that you don’t want to miss!

Whether you’re a page poet, slammer, performance artist or refuse a label, we want to hear your work on the open mic and we want to see you in the audience for our feature reader!

Sign up! 7:00 p.m.

7:15 p.m. – Open mic

8:00 p.m. – Featured Reader

This month join us for poet/musician/all-around awesome person Fiona Chamness!

Fiona Chamness is a writer, poet and performer from Ann Arbor, MI. She was part of the 2008 Ann Arbor Youth Poetry Slam team featured on HBO’s Brave New Voices and is coauthor (with Aimée Lê) of the poetry collection Feral Citizens, published in 2011 by Red Beard Press. She has performed and taught workshops at Dartmouth College, the University of Michigan, Washington University, and in poetry slams and reading series around the country. She has poems published in PANK, Blood Lotus Journal, Muzzle Magazine and Radius Lit. Her first full-length music album, Dispatches From the Well, was released in October 2012. She is currently in her fourth year at Oberlin College.

Next month’s feature: Chace “Mic Write” Morris

Next Reading: December 17th at 7:00 p.m.

Hey, want to take a poetry break from all the holiday hullabaloo? Of course you do. Join us at Skazat! to read on the open mic, or just kick back wiith a mug of something warm from Sweetwaters and enjoy.

Whether you’re a page poet, slammer, performance artist or refuse a label, we want to hear your work on the open mic and we want to see you in the audience for our feature reader!

Sign up! 7:00 p.m.

7:15 p.m. – Open mic

8:00 p.m. – Featured Reader

This month join us for Chicago-turned-Michigan writer Nate Marshall!

Nate Marshall is from the South Side of Chicago. He is the star of the award winning full-length documentary “Louder Than A Bomb” and has been featured on HBO’s “Brave New Voices. He received his BA in English and African American Studies at Vanderbilt University. His work has appeared in The Spoken Word Revolution: Redux, Vinyl Poetry, The Vanderbilt Review, on Chicago Public Radio and in many other publications. He is also a rapper.

Next Reading: November 19th at 7:00 p.m.

What are we thankful for this November? Poetry, of course! Join us at Skazat! to read on the open mic, or just kick back wiith a mug of something warm from Sweetwaters and enjoy.

Whether you’re a page poet, slammer, performance artist or refuse a label, we want to hear your work on the open mic and we want to see you in the audience for our feature reader!

Sign up! 7:00 p.m.

7:15 p.m. – Open mic

8:00 p.m. – Featured Reader

This month join us for metro Detroit writer John Freeman!

John Freeman was born and raised in Detroit. He received his BA in Literature from University of Detroit Mercy and his MFA from Bowling Green State University. He is the recipient of the Howard P. Walsh Award for Literature as well as the Ariel Poetry Prize. He has also been nominated for the Pushcart Prize. His writing has appeared in many journals including Commonweal, Nimrod, The Journal, /nor, The Cortland Review and Drunken Boat. He is the lead singer and guitarist of Detroit-based Celtic punk band, The Codgers, and can be found playing live music most weekends at the Gaelic League and other establishments in Detroit’s historic Corktown neighborhood. He currently teaches at Oakland University.

Next Reading: October 15th at 7:00 p.m.

What better way to welcome Fall than to come read on the open mic at Skazat! or buy a mug of something warm at Sweetwaters Cafe and Tea at 123 W. Washingon, sit back and listen in?

Whether you’re a page poet, slammer, performance artist or refuse a label, we want to hear your work on the open mic and we want to see you in the audience for our feature reader!

Sign up! 7:00 p.m.

7:15 p.m. – Open mic

8:00 p.m. – Featured Reader

This month join us for local legend, Dennis Hinrichsen!

Dennis Hinrichsen is the author of seven books of poetry.  His most recent is Rip-tooth, winner of the 2010 Tampa Poetry Prize.  His other works include Kurosawa’s Dog, winner of the 2008 FIELD Poetry Prize, and Detail from The Garden of Earthly Delight, winner of the Akron Poetry Prize.  New work can be found online at Interrupture, Linebreak, and Solstice and in The Portland Review.  He lives and teaches in Lansing.

Next Month, join us for metro Detroit writer, John Freeman!

Next Reading: September 17, 2012 @ 7:00 p.m.

Skazat! returns from its brief summer vacation with a bang. Come on down (up, over, around) to Sweetwaters Cafe and Tea at 123 W. Washington to join our awesome reading series. Whether you’re a page poet, slammer, performance artist or refuse a label, we want to hear your work!

Sign up! 7:00 p.m.

7:15 p.m. – Open mic

8:00 p.m. – Featured Reader TYLIAS MOSS!

Thylias Moss’s books of poetry include Tokyo Butter (2006), Slave Moth: A Narrative in Verse (Persea Books, 2004), Last Chance for the Tarzan Holler (1998), and Small Congregations: New and Selected Poems (1993). She is the developer of Limited Fork Theory, which involves “poetry as a complex adaptive system” and multimedia “acts of making.” She has also written a memoir, Tale of a Sky-Blue Dress (1998), two plays, and a book for children. Among her honors are a MacArthur Fellowship, a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Dewar’s Profiles Performance Award, a Witter Bynner Award for Poetry, and a Whiting Award. She lives with her husband and two sons in Ann Arbor, where she is a professor of English at the University of Michigan.

Next Reading: July 16th, 2012 @ 7:00 p.m.

Come on down (up, over, around) to Sweetwaters Cafe and Tea at 123 W. Washingon to join our awesome reading series. Whether you’re a page poet, slammer, performance artist or refuse a label, we want to hear your work!

Sign up! 7:00 p.m.

7:15 p.m. – Open mic

8:00 p.m. – Featured Reader

This month join us for local legend, Sarah Messer!

Sarah Messer has received fellowships and grants from the Provincetown Fine Arts WorkCenter, the Wisconsin Institute for Creative Writing, the NEA, and the Mellon Foundation. In 2008-2009 she was a fellow in poetry at the Radcliffe Institutefor Advanced Study (Bunting) at Harvard. She is the author of a hybrid history/memoir, Red House (Viking), and a poetry book, Bandit Letters (New Issues). Her work has appeared in the Paris Review, the Kenyon Review, Gulf Coast, and Ploughshares, among others. She teaches at the University of North Carolina at Wilmington, and runs One Pause Poetry, a reading series in Ann Arbor, Michigan (www.onepausepoetry.org).

 

Next Month:
We’re taking the traditional August break to give folks a chance to prepare for the coming academic year and retreat from the heat. SO JULY WILL BE THE LAST TIME YOU’LL SEE US UNTIL SEPTEMBER!!!