The Mahogany Urban Poetry Series Returns With A New SeasonChris Webber visited. The Last Poets performed there. KVIE channel 6 ran a story on it.The Sacramento Bee,Sacramento Observer, and News and Review covered it. The Sacramento Monarch's graced the open mic.Jose Montoya stopped through from tim to time. The Sacramento Poetry Center reached out to it. Sacramento City College, Sac State, and UC Davis students got extra credit for going. It was the original home of the Sacramento Slam team. Poets came from Oakland, Los Angeles,Atlanta, New York, Florida, Jamaica, Germany, France, Canada,and many other places to feature, or just participate in the evening. The Mahogany Urban Poetry Series put Sacramento on the map. But after lasting for 5 long years, surviving ownership changes, (The venue was originally called Jamaica House, then it became Sweet Fingers), and the normal pains of trying to keep up with the times, Mahogany closed it's doors. The owners of Sweet Fingers' Jamaican Restaurant, the last restaurant to play host to Mahogany, decided to pack up and move to the Bay Area. So the venue that kept the poetry flame alive for the urban community ended after creating a new standard for poetry in Northern California. The culture at Mahogany was that each week there would be a featured poet, usually on tour from out of town, the open mic, and rare music provided by DJ Rock Bottom. Khiry Malik Moore served as the main host, with several guest hosts stepping in from time to time.The beginning of the evening would feature a tribute to the ancestors, including Angela Boyce, who created the Sacramento Slam Team, and leaving it to Moore before she passed away. Poets get called to the stage by the audience screaming "Speak Poet, Speak!!" A majority of the poets in the sacramento scene got their start at Mahogany, or an affilated venue. Some regulars were: Rodzilla the Blackademic (who got his start at Mahogany), Zebra Killa, He Spit Fire, Ike Torres, Cleo Cartel, Ifa Modupe, Lateka Stanley, and Supanova.Mahogany was known as a place where the audience would tell you the truth about your poetry. Even outside of slam night, which took place every last Wednesday of the month, the audiences would come with high expectations of the poets.If you featured at Mahogany, you deserved to.If you didn't get a feature at Mahogany, it meant you still had some work to do. Comedians would come through to try out new work. Most notable is Mike E. Winfield, who is now featured on HBO and Showtime alongside the likes of Jamie Foxx, and Cedric the Entertainer. Musicians would also come through to try out a new set or two. Bobby Martinez was one of them, and his band "The Benny's", is one of Sacramento's most sought after and prolific.Mahogany will return to existence on May 7th,2008. Poets have already lined up to travel to California and feature at Mahogany. HBO Def Poet Will "Da Real One", Taalam Acey, Ainsley Burrows, poet Queen Sheba, and Shanelle Gabriel are already on the calendar.Mahogany will also be the home of the 2009 Sacramento Slam team.I edited my profile at Freeweblayouts.net , check out these Myspace Layouts! Myspace Graphics
