NEWS

Cabaret at The Phluid Project February 21

Thank you Phillip Miner for inviting me to be part of your festive cast at the Apicha sponsored @apicha cabaret hosted by @phluidproject.

The night was fun and inspired. Thank you @malaya.lakas for the honor of reading the poem I wrote for you. Your strength and courage bless so many.

#everywherealien pop-up at Brooklyn Arts Fellowship Gallery February 17th 

Thank you Aaron Simms for having the courage to open the only black owned gallery in Brooklyn. Thanks for inviting me to host an open mic and to share my work. 

Thanks Brian Polite @polite.brian and Joel Francois @simplelifepoet for featuring. And mega thanks to all the old and new heads who came out. 

Black poetry Conference at Princeton

#blackpoetryprinceton February 15-16

I had the honor to attend and participate in the discourse among pure black poetry genius. Sonia Sanchez, Patricia Smith, Tracy K. Smith, Tyehimba Jess, Jessica Care Moore, Terrance Hayes, Jericho Brown, Mahogony Brown, Roger Reeves, Fred Moten, Nikki Finney, Douglas Kearney, and so much more.

Black History Month #bhm2019

Valentine’s Day 2019 I was honored to be asked to host 2 dope show at the iconic Nuyorican Poet’s Cafe curated by my friend and frequent collaborator Joel Francois. Myself Joel and Harlem born singer-songwriter Te’von @_novet opened for the incomparable Rudy Francisco @rudyfrancisco. All we killed it! The audience was awesome!!!

Thank you Rudy for letting us rock with you.

2/25/2019

São Paulo is awesome. The two weeks Pony and I spent with the House of Zion Brazil was nothing short of incredible. Thank you, House of Zion Brazil, Festa Amem, Luv 'til it Hurts and Esponja for hosting us. Thanks to the expert work of Coletivo Colotores we were able to get awesome footage of the work we did there. I got to conduct two performance workshops: one at the São Paulo Theatre School and the other in the periphery. I also opened The House of Zion Brazil's 2019 Vera Verao REVOLUTION NOW Ball with my poem 1986 chronicling 30 years of Black Queer activism and organizing in response to homophobia, transphobia, and HIV/AIDS pandemic. Pony conducted several dance and performance workshops and did the earnest joyful work of continuing to lead, build, and inspire House of Zion Brazil with the legacy of the House Ballroom Community and the transference of his wisdom and expertise in leadership development, performance, and community building. Please check out the São Paulo page on the website for my special thanks.

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Please check my São Paulo page for special thanks!

1/11/2019

Thank you Universe for making a way for me to launch every where alien: a global art, culture, and content producing pedagogy and brand.

Every thing we do as human beings is a collective effort; it is only the language and logic of capital that would suggest otherwise. We are each products of our ancestors. I am a shimmer on a river rich and glistening with the love, joy, grief, courage, and sacrifice of countless friends, teachers, colleagues, mentors, misfits, lovers, cousins, aunties, uncles, brothers, and sisters. 

            We are all every where alien except in our own skin. 

This lens, this pedagogy is a geyser out of which many collaborative projects will emerge. Our aim is to transform our world by co-creating new futures one story at a time. 

For every where alien’s inaugural story, I am honored to tell, in the form of a narrative documentary, the story of Zion—a house in the House Ballroom scene founded in New York City by Pony Zion and spread to Brazil.  Pony and I leave to São Paulo Brazil on Monday January 14th as part of a Luv ’til it Hurts residency to begin filming this project.  We are grateful for the stupendous institutional and personal support we have received thus far and look forward to an astonishing time as every where alien partners with the House of Zion, Festa Amem, Luv til it Hurts and Coletivo Coletores to do the rock scrabble collaborative work of creating a future more suitable for all us humans with alien souls one project at a time.  

To find out more about every where alien and this project go to the every where alien tab on this website and peek around. 

Love,

Brad

Ntozake Shange died October 27, 2018. I was with my close friend

and renown poet jesssica Care moore celebrating her birthday in

Brooklyn, New York when we heard the news of Ntozake’s passing.

Her death hit us hard. We had the honor of sharing quality time

with Ntozake back in March in Miami at the Maroon Poetry Festival

convened by Aja Monet to honor the elder revolutionary poets,

writers, visual artists, and activists of the Black Power and Black Arts

movements. Ntozake was so vibrant and powerful and eager to hear

the younger poets. I’m honored to say Ntozake got to hear me read.

She said, “Brad your audience is waiting for you”. Her words echo

in my heart.

I am here because her life, work, and legacy are standard bearers

of this black poetics tradition. I am here because her pen game bows

to no one. I am here because she understood, perhaps better than any, this work

is a genre splitting full-bodied enterprise that demands a thriving spirit of

collaboration with fellow creatives.

I was honored to attend her funeral service in

Washington D.C on November 12, 2018.

Thank you Ntozake

Zake

she is the stardust dew pooled high on the tall grass of morning

she is the reddened ambition wrapped round the petal of a rose

she is a pile of bravery seeding a unicorn rainforest

she is a giggle un-collapsed and shaking

she is a woman’s voice set free and wild dancing double-Dutch &salsa

            in &outside the plastic structure of a poem

she is what a poem cld be without trying.

she is the liquid that knew herself to be fire

she is the music of a whole city on a page

she is the wanderlust of everything feminine

she is the sound of bright soprano birds making love in a tree

she is our first introduction to wet-kissed wind

hers is the tongue that touches you everywhere

she is the first memory of any noun with or without a good reason

           to practice living outside the lines

she is the lyric of brown fairytales told in yellows and purples

and greens and blues

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she is causing a scene!

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she is a lover’s recurring dream

she is apple pie tied to a tie-dye crust

she is a rocket giving birth for the very first time

she cannot be missed

she is everywhere inside us

Laughing at all the rules.

                  --bw

copyright 2018