Pyro, Juan Reyna & Simone Davis in Verbal Measures: Voices from the Edge - Pt 1

http://inspiredwordnyc.com/

Pyro, Juan Reyna & Simone Davis @ The Inspired Word Presents Verbal Measures: Voices from the Edge, Thursday, Oct. 11, 2012, One and One, Nexus Lounge, Manhattan, New York City.

This is the first of six parts.

In 2005, Pyro became involved in the Twin cities Hip-Hop community through writing and performing Spoken Word poetry with a group of other local youth and community leaders. As a result, she then became involved with Brave New Voices in New York City in 2007 as well as in San Jose 2008. As a result of her hard work, she was given a full scholarship from the University of Madison, WI to be part of First Wave, a program geared towards Hip-Hop arts and community activism. Through First Wave she has been able to travel and performed music and original theater in multiple locations throughout the U.S. such as Madison Square Gardens and the New Amsterdam Theater in NYC as well as Mexico, Panama, and the United Kingdom. She is currently working and living in New York City.

Juan Reyna is an actor and a poet. He was born in the mountains of West Texas and grew up further down South in an area referred to by Tejanos as "El Valle," aka the Rio Grande Valley. He received his B.F.A. in Acting from Brigham Young University and has called Brooklyn his home for the last nine years. Juan recently completed both the Summer Shakespeare Intensive and Spoken Word Workshop at the Stella Adler Studio of Acting. Juan enjoys volunteering as an assistant to teachers at the Vajradhara Meditation Center in Prospect Heights. When he is not there, you can find him walking his rambunctious boxer dog, Texas, around Prospect Park.

Simone Davis is a writer and performer homegrown on the California poetry scene. She served as the captain of the University of California Slam Poetry Team for 3 straight years, placing 5th place at Nationals 2 years in a row, earning a spot on final stage with a collaborative piece entitled "Hip Hop Scotch". She jump-started the SickSpits Poetry Collective and hosted the rowdy open mic series in Davis, CA that now packs over 300 monthly attendees. Simone was also a member of the 2006 Sacramento Slam Poetry Team. She has shared the stage with artists such as Amir Sulaiman, Talam Acey, Marc Bamukti Joseph, Zion I, Immortal Technique, and Quincy Troupe. Since arriving on her home coast, Simone has performed in the run-off slam for the 2011 Nuyorican Slam Team and hosted a few open mics. She holds down a corporate job by day and a pen at night.

Before a packed house, Verbal Measures featured six dynamic performance artists - spoken word poet Simone Davis, writer/actor Shepsa, actor/poet Juan Reyna, actor Marisol Demonte, Hip Hop MC/poet Pyro, and writer Anabelle Gonzalez.

Straight from their mouths to your senses, these storytellers presented character-driven monologues spoken with a poetic twist. With stories of love to Alzheimer's to a dangerous game of hide-and-seek, these poignant artists will propel you to enchanted places and beyond - brought to you from the streets of Brooklyn, la frontera de Texas, a Philly home, the campos of the Dominican Republic and the California coastline.

A rich, spicy gumbo of voices, delivered from the poetic edge.

The Inspired Word is one of the country's hottest open mic spoken word poetry/performance series. Produced by longtime journalist and former Village Voice columnist Mike Geffner, it happens weekly in downtown Manhattan, New York City.

Video by Mike Geffner.

Find The Inspired Word blog @ http://inspiredwordnyc.blogspot.com/ and follow The Inspired Word on Twitter @   / inspiredwordnyc   and Instagram @ inspiredwordnyc.

Stay Inspired!