2011 Grant Recipients

2011 VERVE GRANT RECIPIENTS

MICHAEL LEE has been gracefully crashing through life in Minnesota since 1988. He is a poet, performer, fiction writer, and youth worker. He owns the fanciest hats. He writes poems on their brims because that makes sense. He can describe a dead horse astoundingly well. If more contests were about describing dead horses he would win more things. He writes poems and sets them on fire to hear what they sound like. He is loud. Poems have wheels. He can pedal good. Grammar chimney for sale. Moreover, since 2010 Michael has reached Final Stage twice at collegiate nationals (CUPSI) representing The University of Minnesota placing third in the country in 2010 and then fourth in 2011. During the 2011 tournament he was selected as the “Best Individual Poet”. Michael also won the 2011 Great Plains Poetry Pile Up, and placed top 20 in the world at the 2010 Individual World Poetry Slam. Michael was the youngest finalist for the 2010 LOFT Literary Centers' Mentor Series in Poetry and Creative Prose, and most recently was the 2011 Minneapolis grand slam champion. Michael also performs and conducts poetry workshops at rehabs, homeless shelters, colleges and high schools. He is currently a youth counselor at Avenues For Homeless Youth, a homeless shelter located in Minneapolis where he learns far more than he teaches; here is blessed to be able to conduct bi-weekly poetry workshops and share his passion with others willing and excited to share their talents and stories. Michael writes and performs out of love and passion, yes, but also necessity. He is constantly filling up with hot water. His fingers are faucets. His mouth is a faucet. He believes everyone’s ears and eyes are tubs and that he must travel the world emptying himself so others are full and all are well.

NAADIRAH THA GREAT (aka Libby G.reenthumb, government name Libby Edelston) is a fierce mc/poet/revolutionary/spoken word artist/entrepreneur from North Minneapolis. Born and raised in the now demolished housing projects, Naadirah knows firsthand what it is to struggle. Yet, she has never let her adversities hold her back. To quite the contrary, she has allowed her struggles to become her inspiration to create. Growing up, Naadirah's mother played such soulful greats as Nina Simone, Nancy Wilson, Roberta Flack and Curtis Mayfield (to name a few). Their tremendous gifts inspired Naadirah to harness her own. Naadirah began writing in the form of short stories as a little girl, which evolved to poetry as a teenager. At 18, she realized her gift for writing rhymes (hip-hop songs and spoken word). This was nothing short of an epiphany- and Naadirah has been rhyming ever since. Though poetry was her beginning; hip-hop is definitely her passion. However to simply label her a rapper would be an injustice. Yes, Naadirah is absolutely a prolific mc, but she is also a very powerful & profound poet. And she has been gifted with the wit to combine street science with high science; going as far as identifying these dualities with individual names. Her positive, pan-Afrikan, revolutionary side is Naadirah; while the harsher, criminal-minded side she has coined as Libby G.reenthumb. In addition to being an artist, Naadirah is a natural teacher. She has worked for the past six years with the students of We Win Institute in Minneapolis in developing their own writing abilities. Naadirah's versatility makes her appealing to all generations. She does shows consisting exclusively of poetry and spoken word, as well as rap concerts and hip-hop open mics. She performs at various clubs and venues in Minneapolis, St.Paul and Chicago. She also frequently performs her spoken word at several Minneapolis Public Schools and school-related functions; and has performed at five consecutive Annual Spokesman-Recorder Graduation Celebrations and eight consecutive Annual We Win Kwanzaa Celebrations. Naadirah successfully released her first mixtape in 2009 “Antiban; The Mixtape Volume 1”, which she sold in Minneapolis, Chicago and New York City, as well as on Itunes. In 2010, she made guest appearances on several national mixtapes, and collaborated with several national and international mcs. Currently, she is working on collaborations with several local and international artists, and beginning to work on her first official ep. Contact: antibanintl@yahoo.com, www.facebook.com/antiban, www.twitter.com/antiban, www.myspace.com/antiban

AIMEE RENAUD strives to be full of joy. Winner of the Urban Griots New Spoken Word Artist of the Year Award in 2009, and proud member of the 2009 Twin Cities Youth Slam Team sent to compete at the Brave New Voices National Competition, Aimee sometimes likes to read her poetry out loud, and hopes to spend the next year learning how to effectively foster her creative tendencies. At the moment, her projects are focused on sparking dialogue around the subject of oppressive language and its role within performance art. When she isn't getting paid to sling espresso for motorcyclists, Aimee can usually be found playing with boisterous kittens, devouring the pastryarchy, daydreaming of the South, answering a crisis line, reading books and/or craigslist missed connections, serenading cute people with her ukulele, talking about gender/feminism/activism/TheFuture/magic, traveling everywhere, sending letters, and generally feeling free.

RODRIGO SANCHEZ-CHAVARRIA is a writer and spoken word poet of Peruvian heritage heavily involved with Palabristas, a local Latin@ poets collective. He is a graduate of the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities and an involved activist in the Latin@ community. He writes about fatherhood, the duality of two cultures in English, Spanglish and Spanish, and issues pertaining to his community and life experiences. He has performed with Yellow Rage, Los Nativos, Chicano Messengers of the Spoken Word and Big Quarters. He also takes the power of his work to local high schools, colleges, and universities, both in the Metro Area and in Greater Minnesota, in which he engages in conversation with students in regards to the art of spoken word and how they can use it as tool of liberation. He released a spoken word CD in 2006 titled “Desconocidos” with the collaboration of other local poets and is featured in the Palabristas Chapbook titled “Outside the Lines.” His most recent publication is the “Writing Life” Chapbook, in collaboration with photographer, Andrew MacDonald, with support from a Minnesota State Arts Board Grant. For more information email rscspokenword@gmail.com or visit www.mnwordslinger.com

JAKE VIRDEN is a writer, performer, organizer and aspiring educator. Performing in the Twin Cities as a poet and mc for 6 years has provided Jake the opportunity to share space with amazing people from all walks of life. Jakes passion is participating in popular education as means for iunderstanding the problems facing out communities and envisioning pathways toward people power.

Born in 1984 East St. Paul and being raised in North Minneapolis CHAUN WEBSTER is a son of the city and has been shaped by her ruff edges and bold colors. Being only twenty-six years old yet mentored by Poet/Activist Ewuare Osayande Webster finds the frame for his poetry as much in the Black Arts Movement as in Hip-Hop. July 2009 marked the launch of Free Poet’s Press, the small publishing company Webster began in order to create space for Black and Brown artists to produce work unentangled by the traditional funding streams. Truly guerilla media, Free Poet’s Press is committed to radical poetry, politics and people power. In Osayande’s introduction to Webster’s debut book of verse, fuck poetry: bread is the politik of the hungry, he states, “At times his poems call for retribution and utter visions of battle-cries, bullets and blood. At other times they convey a palpable frustration of being powerless to defend against the everyday acts of violence by the ‘Leviathan’ that violates our senses, if not our very bodies, on the daily. At all times, they offer us an authenticity in expression and execution that leaves us inspired or convicted or both.” Webster and his wife Verna Wong currently live in Brooklyn Park with their two sons Taj Amiri Zonghao and Zion Sundiata Haki. For more on Chaun and Free Poet's Press visit www.freepoetspress.com