Music:
Member Since: 3/22/2006
Band Website: raquelevita.com
Band Members: Raquel Evita Saraswati: Spoken word artist, activist and scholar.
Influences: Meshell N'degeocello, Sonia Sanchez, Letta Neely, June Jordan, Sweet Honey in the Rock, Thich Nhat Hanh, bell hooks, Cornel West, Jeannette Winterson. Other influences include SmartWater (yes it really does work), injustice, misogyny, honesty and beauty.
Raquel Evita's favorite book is Wounds of Passion: a Writing Life by bell hooks. Art & Lies by Jeannette Winterson runs a close second. Raquel first read Wounds of Passion in one sitting, pencil jotting notes in the margins.
"Poetry sustains life. Of this I am certain. There is no doubt in my mind that the pain of poverty whether material or emotional can be eased by the power of language. I know this intimately. For in that misunderstood childhood of mine, I found that sanctuary in poetry. It restored me, allowed me to come back from the space of woundedness and sadness to a recognition of beauty."
-bell hooks, Wounds of Passion: a Writing Life
Sounds Like: The lovechild of Lauryn Hill, June Jordan, Sade, Alix Olson, Si*Se, Ivy Queen, the crew from 'I was Born with Two Tongues' and Jeannette Winterson.
Really though: Raquel Evita sounds like no one else. Except when she was "the woman who loved to make vaginas happy" in the Vagina Monologues.
For bookings, please email [email protected]; or contact this profile.
Raquel Evita has been featured as a spoken word artist for the following audiences: Tufts University, GenderCrash, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, QWiLLTS @ MIT, Simmons College, Critical Breakdown, Take Back the Night Boston, Take Back the Night- Colleges of the Fenway, Jamaicaway Books Latin Jazz and Poetry Night, the Sistah Summit, SlamTHIS, WAM! Slam, the Black Butterfly Luncheon, Wellesley College, UMass Boston, the Audre Lorde Fellows, Harvard University, Coalition Against Sexual Violence- Harvard University, Harvard College, Gabrie'l J. Atchison Productions shows, Diaspora, Wesleyan University, the Nuyorican Poets Cafe, WGBH, The Center for New Words, New Words Bookstore, K'vetch, Candyland, Bella Luna, The Milky Way, the Lizard Lounge, SlamTHIS, the Harriet Tubman House, Writers with Drinks, Faces of Survivors, the Massachusetts State House, Blackout, Women United in Response: a Hurricane Katrina Benefit Concert, Women in Recovery, the Cambridge Women's Center, Cambridge YWCA, Pinned Down by Pronouns, THREE:TWO:ONE Queer Artists @ ArtMarket, The Jaded Lounge, All Asia/GRRLRush, Taste of Peace/Students for Peace, etc.
Check out the amazing Smadar! www.myspace.com/smadarlevi
Type of Label: Indie
