Danez Smith Features at the Lit Slam!

To heck with your weekend plans, what are you doing this Monday night? It’s the third Monday, which means it’s time for San Francisco’s newest poetry startup, the Lit Slam. This week, our feature will be Twin-Cities powerhouse Danez Smith.

Danez Smith is a poet, performer, and playwright from St. Paul, MN. Danez, A Cave Canem fellow, his work is published or forthcoming in PANK, Vinyl, Phantom Limb, Orange Quarterly, and elsewhere. Danez recently graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madisonas a founding member of the First Wave Hip-Hop Theatre Ensemble. A Slam Champion of the Minneapolis and Madison Poetry scenes, Danez has established himself as a performer, writer, teacher, and personality in his many worlds, recently placing 6th in the world at the Individual World Poetry Slam. His One-Man Theatre Production “For Those Who Pray In Closets” is receiving critical acclaim and standing ovations wherever it is performed. Danez has travelled across the country and the globe to Mexico, Panama, Switzerland, and England to perform poetry and theatre. A young artist walking and writing in the footsteps of Baldwin and Hughes, Danez seeks to continue to be a voice for hushed choir boys, the walking shadows, the joy, hurt, and journey of the black, queer men. Pulling from his artistic endeavors in music and theatre, his voice on the page sings of his old soul, his experienced youth, his treasured mistakes, and all the things that imagine him human.

PDF eBook from Bicycle Comics

Still not convinced? Try a free eBook of Danez’s new poem “Black.”Download it here or text the word “Danez” to 333888 on your mobile phone. (Texting us will add your phone # to our list; we’ll send you one text message per month letting you know about our show in the Mission.)

You can see Danez Smith on Monday, July 16, 2012, at 998 Valencia Street in the Mission District of San Francisco. $5 cover. 18+ with ID.

The Lit Slam is a live, performance-curated poetry publication. The audience serves as our crowdsourced editorial board, picking and shaping the contributors and their contributions. Our first anthology will be published in November 2012 by Bicycle Comics.