Musicality of Poetry Festival VIITen Pak/Kick Off Featuring 5A Artists

This event kicks off our celebration of the Guild Complex?s Tenth Anniversary. We will offer a Ten-Pak celebration the last Wednesday of every month through November 1999. Each Ten-Pak will present an artist or act that appeared at the Complex over the last decade, a voice or act that has never appeared at the Complex, and a taste of what we do, including poetry, prose, music, performance, multi-media, books, and visual art all on the same night. Tonight we feature artists represented by 5A Artists Management.

Frances Calloway Parks is the author of gour self-published books: Imani, Imani:Faith, the Journey Inward (1996), Writing From the Heart (1996), Consider The Possibilities, 1994, The Dream and Writing From the Heart (1996), all from Victory Services Ink. As a poet Ms. Parks has also appeared at universities throughout the country, as well as DuSable Museum (Chicago), The Green Mill and Chicago Cultural Center. Ms. Parks also continues to lecture around the United Stated as a whole life and wellness practitioner.

Nina Corwin has been featured at Chicago?s Green Mill, and the Albuquerque Poetry Festival, as well as radio and TV appearances on National Public Radio, WZRD and Chicago Cable Channel 19. Her poetry has been published in Emergence III, Tomarrow Magazine, The Spoken Word Anthology, WISdom Magazine, as well as numerous professional mewsletters. Nina?s work often addresses issues of trauma and abuse. Kent Foreman wraps jazz, gospel, and theater together in tight poetic arrangements that speaks to ancestry, spirituality, creativity and reality, using his voice as an instrument. The elasticity of his artistic vision keeps him on the cutting edge of what has made poetry a captivating wildcard. In 1994, his poem ?Chicago? was selected as the winner of the Chicago Historical Society?s Carl Sandberg Award. Two of his poetic plays, ?Summer in The City,? and ?It?s About Time,? produced by his mentor Oscar Brown Jr. Kent has toured with Max Roach with whom he recorded the song ?Suffragette,? and performed with Jack DeJohnette and Maurice White.

Brian Gary Kirst. As a performance poet, Kirst has led workshops for various children?s organizations, and served four terms on the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs? CAAP Grant Board. He has performed at such venues as Mad Bar, Guild Complex, Enid, Oklahoma Gallery and Mary Arachie Theatre. His most recent work is part of the Pride Series at Chicago?s Bailwick Repertory, (where he was recently named an Artistic Associate) Undercover In The House of Love.

Avery R. Young was a founding member of the performance poetry group Innervisions. He has been a featured poe at performance venues, colleges, and radio outlets throughout the Midwest and East Coast most notably The Guild Complex (Chicago), Nuyorican Caf‚ (NYC), Museum of Contemporary Art (Chicago), Timbuktu Poetry Slam (Philadelphia) and House of Blues (Chicago). Avery is also highly regarded as a youth speaker/motivator. Nikki Mitchell (winds), George Blaise (guitar), Jauqo III-X (bass), and Virus X.