Dirty Gerund at Ralph's Rock Diner!

SARAH SAPIENZA is a hoot and a half.  This brilliantly sharp witted poet originally hails from Vermont, where she was a member of several youth (’02 and ’03) and adult (’03) Poetry Slam Teams. She also holds the distinction of being the first person to represent Vermont at the Individual World Poetry Slam Championships. Sarah has spent her early twenties moving all over the country for love, poetry and the perfect weather.  An early (read: young) arts organizer, Sarah most recently co-hosted Seattle’s longest-running weekly show, the Seattle Poetry Slam.  New to the Worcester Metropolitan area, she teaches at-risk youth, guest hosts the Poets Asylum Sunday Night Series,  is learning to sew and thinks that shirt looks really good on you. We’re really excited to welcome her voice to our city and our stage! Her smart, snarky, sassy, rambunctious heart is sure to fit in with this whole thing we got going around here! We’re also wicked amped to announce that this Monday will be the world premier, book release party for her new collection of poems, “Things You Should Know Before We F#@k, A Primer.” with copies available for purchase and signing and oggling and perusing and reading at the Dirty Gerund  this Monday Night! Good Title! Sarah has already got her outfit picked out, has taken Tuesday off work, secured a driver and humbly requests your presence at the roof raising, wall adornment shaking, life affirming, mystery solving, cocktail infused barrage of hug words we’ve come to expect and dance to!

MUSICAL GUEST SPOTLIGHT - Boston Poet & Novelist, JADE SYLVAN has graced our stage before with her poems. But this Monday, we’ve invited her to share her post-apocalyptic indie/ironic/sexy/hip hop musical alter ego project, MADAME PSYCHOSIS to wax zombie funk this post Halloween Hangover Monday! Her tongue in cheek lyrical style of verse ruckus is sure to raise the dead along with any and all eyebrows. You can check out this rip-roarin’ music HERE or find out more at www.jadesylvan.com.

GUEST VISUAL ARTIST – Dirty Gerund Regular, Poet, Photographer, Artist and Super-Friend JOSHUA WOZNIAK a.k.a CAIRO stepped to us at last Monday’s Show and asked when he could throw down paint on stage at the DG. We said, next Monday buddy, bring it! And he accepted! This will be the third week in a row, where we’re bringing another kind of collaborative talent to our show. There may even be some face painting going on! Bring them duckets to bid on the art auction! Going once! Going twice! Nice!

BONUS RUCKUS – The “POOP YOUR PANTS SCARY” HAIKU CHALLENGE – bring 5 spooky monster, zombie, real life is scary enough, etc. haiku’s. There will be some head to head action, with a nifty prize on the line! Extra street cred for those in costume or willing to zombie mutter their words!

Curator NICK DAVIS is Frankensteining us a House Band for this Monday’s show! Yosh and Chicken have used science & voodoo to fuse the Monster Mash with the Mashed Potato and somehow ended up with The Twist! Jeff Siegrist will be pleased. Show will be video taped with highlights finding their way into our Wednesday Recap! We could use a snack-time volunteer, bat-channel us if you’ve got half-price Halloween Candy taking up space in your crib! Let’s get epic! Nick says he misses you already or something like that! Hard to tell with all them poems in his mouth!

We leave you with some Zombie Apocalypse!

This Monday the Dirty Gerund welcomes a young good word writing upstart to our stage from Boston. A student of America’s shorthand history, DEREK JG WILLIAMS grew up studying comic books and the backs of baseball cards. His writing has been featured at venues throughout the Northeast and published both in print and on the web. Derek’s work bridges the gap between academia and performance. At its crux is complex imagery and compelling storytelling. He is a proponent of hand claps in songs, thinks the designated hitter should be banned from baseball, and is celebrating the release of his self-titled EP of poetry. For a free download from his new EP, try this link:

FEATURE MUSICAL GUESTS for the evening will be HEELAN POWERS, the dynamic duo consisting of two of Worcester’s hottest underground skateboarding punk rock hooligans Bruce Heelan and John Powers who have been making an impact all across the seven hills. Combing humor and catchiness they put on a show that is unlike anything else you will see anytime soon.

BONUS ART RUCKUS – Since last weeks Art Experiment went so well with Ashley Tucker we’re bringing in another hot young visual talent when we invite Casey Dugan to the easel. CASEY DUGGAN is a 22 year old local artist who lives just outside of Worcester. He has had several shows in Worcester since graduating High School in 2007. Casey’s work is often fueled by politics, social constructs, humanity, and exploring natural lines. Check out more of his exciting work at http://hearshot-kid.deviantart.com/

BONUS RUCKUS: “KEEP IT CASUAL” ROMANCE CHALLENGE!! Win a Free Dirty Gerund T-shirt in this head to head game where you will go face to face with your opponent and read very romantic lines of poetry. The one that keeps a straight face the longest totally wins. Elimination style so up to six people can sign up!!  Feel free to bring your own game winning odes to love and erotica!!

Also this week we will be joined by Feloni0us Funk playing the backing beat to all plus Yosh and Chicken will be slinging the drinks and we got snack time wide open to any volunteers that want to show off their baking prowess!We got a lot o show this week and should be crazy fun!! Bring your family and friends. Two $ suggested donation!!

Okay! lots to cover for this Monday’s Show at the Dirty Gerund! First off we’re welcoming two poets from the Minneapolis/St. Paul Area in Minnesota! ALICE SHINDELAR is a fresh voice in the Twin Cities spoken word community, who is already turning many heads with her bold wordplay, strong subject matter, and deceptively coy delivery. She is a 2010 VERVE grant recipient and will be using the grant to tour the country this fall. See her perform HERE Alice hosts a bi-weekly workshop called Talk Story Salon for poets, story tellers, emcees,and performance based writers of all kinds and is an editor for the erotica magazine Whole Beast Rag. Alice is also a filmmaker and aspiring screenwriter. Her film A Gentleman Never Sweats traveled the US and Japan with the 2009 Bicycle Film Festival. She’s joined on tour by EZRA STEAD, a.k.a TOM SWIFTY, has been rapping and saying poems in public for over eight years. Ezra went to the semi-finals stage as part of the 2007 Soap Boxing Slam Team, the first ever National Poetry Slam Team from St. Paul. He also recently made Group Piece Finals with the 2010 Minneapolis Slam Team, his third National Poetry Slam appearance as a member of that team. He currently raps with the Hip-Hop trio Matching Wits, who will be releasing Volume 2 of their mixtape series this month, and he just released his full-length solo debut, Tom Swifty, which will be available at all stops on this tour. Volume 1 of the mixtape, Matching Wits Talks To Teenagers, can be heard in its entirety at: myspace.com/ezraone

BONUS RUCKUS – The “Old McDonald Had a Farm, E-I-E-I-WOAH!” Poem Quiz Show! Nick’s had farm animals on the brain recently (maybe it was all the snack-time bacon he had last week) and wants to let you in on that crazy food pellet action! Monday Night, he’ll have a series of short poems, written from the perspective of his favorite barnyard mentors, be the first to chime in and guess who he’s quackin’ about gets a point! First to three wins a coveted new edition DG T-Shirt! Bonus points for also knowing the style of poem he’s writing in (sonnet, haiku, etc). With our game shows, there’s always a CATCH when buzzing in at the DG, we’ll let you in on the silly details during the show!

MUSICAL GUEST – You may have caught her, strumming sweet guitar and melodies a few weeks back as part of DANNY BALEL’S Poetry Feature. She played so fine, we asked her to come back and rock a set mid-show. TERRI DELETETSKY‘s a poet & songwriter, first making a name for herself at Clark University. She’s gone on to join the popular poetry theater fusion troupe ARTICULATION and fronted local act THE G-SPOTS! She’ll be visiting us with a few guest musicians in tow and can’t wait to hear ‘em jam!

BONUS BONUS RUCKUS – While stalking ya’ll on FaceBook this week, I happened upon some photos, posted by talented local painter, ASHLEY TUCKER. Me and Nick were impressed with her work and asked her to rock some paints on stage this Monday Night! We’re commissioning whatever comes from this interactive experiment and might very well auction off the piece to a lucky Gerunder who’s got the benefactor bank roll!

FELONEOUS FUNK continues to back that verse up on the open mic! Yosh & Chicken are daring, and daring us to get this show wrapped up before midnight! Help us help ourselves by getting to Ralph’s at 9pm to sign up! We got a lot of show planned so, leave your 18 page epic for another week. Thank You and We Appreciate the foliage. That shit looks so FESTIVE!