On August 28, 2007 Poetry Jam Collective and Rounder Records released Next On The Mic, a compilation CD of spoken word accompanied by improvisational music. The album was recorded live in Cambridge, MA at the Lizard Lounge Poetry Jam and with a live studio audience at Hi-N-Dry studios. The album will be sold exclusively online at www.rounder.com .
Every Sunday for more than 10 years, poets and musicians have gathered for the Poetry Jam at the Lizard Lounge , for what some call "church." The poets preach, teach, cry, pray, confess, inspire, slay demons and speak in tongues. Next On The Mic captures some of the best "sermons" delivered and features some of the most acclaimed performance poets in the U.S. in addition to up-and-comers: including award winning poets Patricia Smith, Quincy Troupe and Askia Touré; poetry slam champions Regie Gibson, Bryonn Bain (BET host), and Iyeoka Okoawo along with promising talents Nicole Terez and Eric Darby. The poetry is accompanied by the Jeff Robinson Trio who are called the "best poetry band in the land" by many outstanding performance poets.
The collaboration between the poets and musicians on the CD is inspirational and immediate. The musicians improvise to the images the poets present. Various themes are interwoven throughout the album, from music icons James Brown and Miles Davis to hope, war, sex and politics.
Next On The Mic is produced by actor/saxophonist Jeff Robinson who is also the founder of Poetry Jam Collective, an assembly of poets who collaborate nationally to produce events, recordings of spoken word, poetry, comedy and music. The collective originated at the Lizard Lounge Poetry Jam and is based in Cambridge, MA.
Patricia Smith's latest poetry book, Teahouse of the Almighty, was chosen by Edward Sanders as a 2005 National Poetry Series winner (Coffee House Press), and was also awarded the 2007 Paterson Poetry Prize. She is also the author of three previous books of poetry -- Close to Death (Zoland Books), Big Towns, Big Talk (Zoland Books) and Life According to Motown (Tia Chucha). Her poems have appeared in The Paris Review, The Chautauqua Literary Journal, TriQuarterly, and other journals, and in many groundbreaking anthologies--most recently Gathering Ground, The Spoken Word Revolution, The Oxford Anthology of African-American Poetry and Short Fuse: The Global Anthology of New Fusion Poetry. Her poem "The Way Pilots Walk" received a Pushcart Prize, and will appear in Pushcart Prize XXXII: Best of the Small Presses.
Listen to Patricia
Deltateach
Sex Machine Part 2
Dowmload Patricia From i-Tunes
Deltateach
Sex Machine Part 2
Buy CD From -
Rounder Records - Next On The Mic
Amazon.com - Next On The MicPoet, songwriter, author, workshop facilitator, and educator Regie Gibson has performed, taught, and lectured at schools, universities, theaters and various other venues on two continents and in seven countries. Most recently in Havana Cuba. Regie and his work appear in the New Line Cinema film love jones, based largely on events in his life. The poem entitled "Brother to the Night (A Blues for Nina)" appears on the movie soundtrack and is performed by the film's star, Larenz Tate.
Listen To Regie
When They Speak Of Our Time
Download Regie From i-Tunes
When They Speak Of Our Time
Buy CD From
Rounder Records - Next On The Mic
Amazon.com - Next On The MicNicole Terez was born and raised in Cleveland, Ohio. Her work has appeared in Can We Have Our Ball Back?, 580 Split, Gathering Ground, Folio: A Literary Journal, and the Indiana Review. She has received fellowships from Cave Canem and the Writer's Room and is a finalist 2006 Hurston/Wright Foundation Fiction Award. She earned an MFA from Brown University and currently lives in Boston.
Listen To Nicole
From The Road: Louisianna
Downtoad Nicole From i-Tunes
From The Road: Louisianna
Buy CD From
Rounder Records - Next On The Mic
Amazon.com - Next On The MicQuincy Troupe is the author of seventeen books, including eight volumes of poetry, the latest of which is The Architecture of Language, recipient of the 2007 Paterson Award for Sustained Literary Achievement. He received the 2003 Milt Kessler Poetry Award for Transcircularities: New and selected Poems (Coffee House Press, 2002), selected by Publishers Weekly as one of the ten best books of poetry published in 2002. Transcircularities was also a finalist for the 2003 Paterson Poetry Prize
Listen To Quincy
Diva
Poem For My Father
Download Quincy From i-Tunes
Diva
Poem For My Father
Buy CD From
Rounder Records - Next On The Mic
Amazon.com - Next On The MicIyeoka Ivie Okoawo is a Nigerian-American poet/singer residing in Boston. Winner of "Performance Poet of the Year" and "Slam Poet of the Year" for the 2003 Cambridge Poetry Awards, Iyeoka initially gained national attention in the National Poetry Slam. For the past 5 years she has been a strong member of the Boston Slam Team 2000-2004.As a member of the 2000 Boston Slam Team, she won fourth place overall in the individual competition.
Listen to Iyeoka
Third Degree Burns
Download Iyeoka From i-Tunes
Third Degree Burns
Buy CD From
Rounder Records - Next On The Mic
Amazon.com - Next On The MicDescribed by Cornel West as an artist who "…speaks his truth with a power we desperately need to hear," Bryonn Bain is Brooklyn's own spoken word champion and hip hop poet. Wrongfully imprisoned by the NYPD during his second year at Harvard Law, Bain sued the City of New York, was interviewed by Mike Wallace on CBS' "60 Minutes," and wrote the Village Voice cover story - "Walking While Black: The Bill of Rights for Black America" - which drew the largest response in the history of the nation's most widely-read progressive newspaper
Listen to Bryonn
Ignorance
Download Bryonn From i-Tunes
Ignorance
Buy CD From
Rounder Records - Next On The Mic
Amazon.com - Next On The Mic
Askia M. Toure' is one of the pioneers of the Black Arts/Black Aesthetics movement and the Africana Studies movement. Toure', a modern renaissance man, is also a political activist, having served with the Student Non-violent Coordinating Committee's Atlanta Project; and is a co-author of SNCC's "Black Power Position Paper" (featured in 1966, the New York Times), which influenced the movement of the Civil Rights Movement toward the Black Power revolution.
Listen to Askia
Miles Beyond 2000
Download Askia From i-Tunes
Miles Beyond 2000
Buy CD From
Rounder Records - Next On The Mic
Amazon.com - Next On The MicEric Darby is a nationally-recognized writer and performance poet, currently based in Boston, Massachusetts. He has competed in two Individual World Poetry Slams and five National Poetry Slams. He has been ranked in the top twenty in two NPS's, and was one of seven National Finalists in 2005. He currently co-hosts the Lizard Lounge Poetry Jam in Boston.
Listen to Eric
The Salty Dog
Download Eric From i-Tunes
The Salty Dog
Buy CD From
Rounder Records - Next On The Mic
Amazon.com - Next On The Mic"The trio was a surprise hit of the Boston Music Awards. And it's the glue at the Lizard on Sunday, weaving sinuous riffs that meld uncannily with the rhythm of the poetry."
Steve Morse, The Boston Globe
"The Jeff Robinson Trio is one of the most innovative and revolutionary bands of today that mixes the old with a new kind of flavor." - Abiodun Oyewole, The Last Poets
"Magicians! Wizards! The Jeff Robinson Trio is the best poetry band in the country" Marc Smith - founder of the Poetry Slam
Listen To The Trio
Amen
Download The Trio From i-Tunes
Amen
Buy CD From
Rounder Records - Next On The Mic
Amazon.com - Next On The Mic
