Following a brief yet refreshing hiatus, Smart Gals’ Speakeasy returns with its third annual Dead Poets Slam. Year one, the Suicide Poets stood down the Natural Death Poets by but a few points. Year two, the Men took on the Women. Smart Gals’ Speakeasy returns in 2008 with the ultimate social challenge: East Coast vs. West Coast. What better way to wrap up Poetry Month?

Sunday, April 27th, 2008
7:00 - 9:00 p.m.
Mt. Hollywood Underground
4607 Prospect Avenue, Los Feliz
Admission: $15.00
Information and passwords:
323.302.2257 or www.smartgals.org
(not just for chicks)

Can SoCal Bukowski tackle easterly Sexton? Will e.e. give it up to Creeley? When Langston Hughes engages in a smack down, there is no sure victor. The Dead Poets Slam levels the creative playing field by forcing seasoned performers to throw down anonymously. The words speak for themselves and our panel of “celebrity” judges—Chris Davidson, Nevin Schreiner (WGA), Rita Williams and Tau-Mu Yi—
(swayed by a vocal audience) determines the winner.

Hosted by Noël Alumit, with DJ Mike Robinson spinning East vs. West Coast tunes, and featuring performances by smooth Shirley Anderson, Shawn Michael Howard, cutthroat Kathleen Coyne, Katy Hickman, slammin’ Joan Spitler, Lory Tatoulian, Felicia Taylor E., Vince Waldron, Lori Yeghiayan, and local live poets Imani Tolliver and Brendan Constantine, the Dead Poets Slam never disappoints.

Animator Mark Englert has designed the evening’s commemorative artwork, part of Smart Gals’ original Bookmark series.

Pleasing, nonalcoholic refreshments and savory comestibles will be provided. Should you desire a more spirited beverage, by all means bring it along but do stash it discreetly in a brown paper bag.

Password: “There is something about a poet that leads us to believe he died.”

Why socialize on a Sunday? Because mingling is good for your mental health.

Who’s Who

Mark Englert has been lucky enough to work with companies like Image Comics, Microsoft, Devil’s Due, Hasbro, Kunoichi on such properties as Capes, Mighty Man, Savage Dragon, Invincible, Loaded Bible, Hack Slash, G.I.Joe, My Little Pony and Tonka. He’s written, penciled, inked and/or lettered various comic books, worked on concept and presentation artwork for Microsoft, DVD covers for My Little Pony and toy packaging for Tonka. He currently lives in Hollywood, California. markenglert.com

Noël Alumit wrote the novels Letters to Montgomery Clift and Talking to the Moon. He toured with his solo shows The Rice Room and Master of the (Miss) Universe. He works for MAKE ART/STOP AIDS, an international network of artists, scholars and activists dedicated ending to global AIDS. He can be reached via his blog: thelastnoel.blogpsot.com.

Shirley Anderson has performed physical theater with Theater Movement Bazaar (LA), Plasticene and Lookingglass Theater Co. (both Chicago) for many years. She performs original literary adaptations of American women writers, original prose and poetry featured at poetry slams, open mics, theaters, colleges, benefits and the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. She has performed, written and directed at Sacred Fools Theater and trains with Burning Wheel and the SITI Company. She is a graduate of Northwestern University.

Brendan Constantine’s work has appeared in numerous journals, most notably Ploughshares, The Cortland Review, RUNES, & ArtLife. His book-length collection Letters To Guns is due out in the fall from Red Hen Press. He is currently poet in residence at the Windward School in west Los Angeles.

Kathleen Coyne has created roles in LA, Off-Broadway and toured nationally. She has received 2 personal artist grants from the LACAD. An Associate Artist with Cornerstone Theater Company she created Traveling in Time-Stories of L.A. for the Geffen Contemporary. As a member of Imagination Workshop Kathleen leads acting workshops with mental patients and prisoners.

Chris Davidson’s poetry has appeared or will appear in Burnside Review, Caesura, Chiron Review, and Dust Up. He has participated in several Smartgals events. (At the last Dead Poets Slam he read Emily Dickinson and registered the lowest score of the night.) He lives with his family in Seal Beach.

Katy Hickman’s most recent play, Nomenclature, was produced last year at the Road Theatre in North Hollywood. Her latest enthusiasms include advocating for universal health care, implementing gray water technology, and finding new ways to make math more appealing to her eight year-old.

Shawn Michael Howard is a graduate of NYU's Tisch School of the Arts (BFA theater/acting 1992) he has been working in film, television and theater since 1991. He lives in Echo Park and loves Elijah, Shayne, Jax and chess.

Mike Robinson has DJ’ed extensively in New York City and beyond. His award-winning animations have been screened internationally.

Nevin Schreiner is Los Angeles-based writer, whose script for Flight 93 received both an Emmy nomination (2006) and the WGA Award (2007). He teaches screenwriting at the University of Southern California School of Cinematic Arts.

Lory Tatoulian has been performing her comedic one-woman shows and cabarets across the country. Her show, Sitting Twisted,Talking Straight, made its Off-Broadway debut in 2001. Her more recent shows include, Autosapiens, Sketched, and Pomegranate Whisky. She is also a Staff Writer for the Armenian Reporter International Newspaper.

Felicia Taylor E. is happy to work with Smart Gals again! She’s also performed with: Deaf West Theater, Los Angeles Music Ctr., La Mirada Theatre for Performing Arts and Lewis Family Playhouse. As a singer, she’s performed in concert with and under the direction of recording artists Undra Johnson and Jennifer Holliday.

Imani Tolliver is a poet, visual artist and educator. She has been a consultant for museums, educational institutions and is honored to serve as the 2007/2008 Poet Laureate for the Watts Towers Arts Center in Los Angeles, California .

Amy Trulock is the creator of HipYoungParent.com. Her alternative children’s internet radio station has been featured in the Wall Street Journal and the LA Times. When not sporting her apron collection at Smart Gals events, she is also a Fids & Kamily awards juror, and guest blogger for the JuniorSociety.com.

Vince Waldron Playwright, director and Emmy Award winner Vince Waldron wrote and directed the play American Splendor, and is author of three books, including Be My Baby, co-written with Ronnie Spector. Vince has also mentored for The Virginia Avenue project, a non profit that encourages partnerships between theatre professionals and local teenagers.

Rita Williams came of age in the cold and rugged mountain terrain of Steamboat Springs, Colorado. By the age of thirteen, she had lost most of her family and was left to be raised by her aunt Daisy, the last surviving African American widow of a Civil War Union Soldier. After attaining her MFA from the California Institute of the Arts in Theater, she became an actress, musician, and college professor. Her previous work has appeared in LA Weekly, Saveur, O at Home, Utne Reader and O, The Oprah Magazine. Currently, she is a professor at the University of Southern California’s Masters of Professional Writing Program. She also teaches a writing course at Media Bistro in Los Angeles. If the Creek Don’t Rise, published through Harcourt in 2006 is her first book.

Lori Yeghiayan is a proud Smart Gals veteran having appeared in The Dead Poets Slam Speakeasy of 2005, curated the Armenia/LA Speakeasy of 2006 and performed in numerous Are You Interested?s since 2000. She holds an MFA in Theatre/Acting from UCSD.

Tau-Mu Yi studies complex biological systems at UCI. Of course, he is a Smart Gal regular and appreciates the creativity and activism of Smart Gals everywhere.

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Smart Gals Productions is a 501(C)3 not-for-profit, public-benefit arts organization dedicated to creating original gatherings in unlikely places, and to building the greater arts community of Los Angeles. On the last Sunday of every month, Smart Gals brings together curious, likeminded people via their socially progressive underground salon, The Speakeasy, now enjoying its fifth year.