On Monday, April 29 we are gathering at McGeary’s for the post-Word Fest edition of Poets Speak Loud hosted by Albany Poets VP Mary Panza. This month our featured poet is none other than poet, artist, educator, open mic host, and Team Nitty Gritty 2012 member D. Colin.
D. Colin is a tremendous talent in the world of spoken word and we are very lucky to have her here in the area and part of our poetry community. She was a member of this first Nitty Gritty Slam team to represent Albany at the National Poetry Slam last summer in Charlotte. She also hosts her own monthly poetry open mic in Troy as part of the Troy Night Out arts walk.
I wrote my first poem in 6th grade comparing the beach and the moon as an assignment on metaphor and fell in love with poetry. Slam was introduced to me for the first time as an undergraduate at Southern Connecticut State University where I earned a BA in English specializing in creative writing. While I was there I was also the secretary for a club called Poetic Vibe that through slams on campus. I went on to earn an MA in Africana Studies from the University at Albany (SUNY) and I am currently finishing my thesis on Haitian poet Philippe Thoby-Marcelin for an MA in English also from SUNY Albany. Last year, I was privileged to go to the Voices of Our Nations Arts Foundation Annual Writing Workshop at University of California at Berkeley where I sat in a poetry workshop with Ruth Forman. I have performed in New York, New Jersey, Rhode Island, Massachusetts and Connecticut where I was born and raised. Now I reside in Troy, NY where I will be hosting my own poetry open mic called Between the Lines every last Friday of the month. I am also working on a spoken word CD focusing on my poems about Haiti where my family is originally from. Whether I am researching, reading, recording, translating, writing or performing poetry I like to say I am not a closet poet; poetry wears me out and I enjoy every minute of it thoroughly.
Poets Speak Loud is a monthly open mic for poetry and spoken word with a featured poet hosted by local poet Mary Panza at McGeary’s (4 Clinton Square, Albany) in downtown Albany on the last Monday of each and every month for the past eight years. Sign-up for the open mic is 7:00pm, we start around 8pm.
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