Climbing PoeTree presents a multi-media two-woman show about unnatural disaster and a great shift in universal consciousness.

 Trust me, you don't want to miss it.

When I saw Climbing PoeTree perform at the Empowering Women of Color Conference at UC Berkeley earlier this year, I was overwhelmed with a call to action. Their passionate art comes alive and inspires the soul to reach out to the world...to turn challenges into opportunities...to join the movement and build community. 

Hurricane Season interweaves spoken word poetry, sound collage, shadow art, dance, film and animation to explore critical issues facing humanity through the kaleidoscope of Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath, namely: land rights and housing rights; water access and food justice; over-policing and mass-incarceration; state violence and militarization; racism, classism, sexism, and homophobia; environmental justice and climate change; globalization, migration, and economic justice. It is centered on building bridges, creating safety nets, and finding solutions through art to the interconnected problems our communities face—how can we become agents for change rather than victims of circumstance?

A “solutions-cipher” follows every show, where audience members participate in a dialog featuring local grassroots organizations, visionaries, and healers. The objective of the post-show “solutions-cipher” is to address the issues surfaced in Hurricane Season on a local level, to cross-pollinate creative strategies for self-determination, and to turn the passion generated in the show into action manifested in the community. 

Get invovled in your local city and don't miss this amazing tour! 

John Ashbery, one of the most celebrated poets of our time, will be named the first poet laureate of mtvU today. I’ll admit I’ve never read anything by Ashbery, but maybe that makes me the target audience of mtvU’s new laureate program, which Ashbery hopes will “broaden the audience for poetry.”

“Tonight these styles that you will hear will do for you what they did for me, I mean, hopefully.  Give you a sense of self, no longer so lonely.” 

Kevin Coval, the first of four performers at Campus Progress’s annual Spoken Word event, started the night off with this pledge/prospect for the audience.  I think everyone in attendance that night would agree this promise was thoroughly fulfilled by each artist.