April Ranger @aprilranger - Tumblr Blog

Posts

April Ranger Fall Shows

10/10/2015 - Saturday - Poetry & Pie Night, Rochester NY - 7 pm

Message me for address - [email protected]

10/14/2015 - Wednesday - SUNY Oneanta - 8 pm

Waterfront Room of Hunt College

11/2/2015 - Monday - Union Square Slam, Bar 13 - 7 pm

35 E13th St, New York NY

photo credit Samuel Ranger

#aprilranger #poetry #poet #eastcoast #newyork

behindthediva

Page Break

Poet interview series for NaPoWriMo

By Leslie D. Rose

April 21, 2015 (21/30)

Photo by richbeaubien

Poet Carrie Rudzinski (Los Angeles) discusses how a childhood love accidentally overshadowed her career aspirations and brought her great success.

Carrie Rudzinski loves travel… loves film… stumbled into poetry.

“Poetry is this unexpected path in my life that I did not anticipate becoming a career,” she said. “I started writing poems because I needed to find a way to be honest about my emotions and it’s turned into something that pays my bills.”

Rudzinski said she started writing poetry at age 11. But it was “Poetry As Performance,” an interdisciplinary course she took during her first semester at Emerson College that introduced her to spoken word – three years later she began competing in poetry slams.

“I love slam,” she said. “I am definitely a competitive person individually, but I also enjoy being able to work and collaborate with a team. Sure slam can be a box for writers, but it can also be this space that allows you to do something strange or unique or personified, and you can let it stand completely on its own.”

Rudzinski earned her degree in film production in 2009, but she hasn’t had much time to utilize her field of study as she said poetic doors just keep opening for her. In 2013, she started on an attempt to allow film back into her life as a possible profession with a move to Los Angeles.

“I’ve recently made the conscious decision to try and incorporate film into that life of mine,” she said. “It’s been a difficult transition because I can’t give 100% to either art form – it’s really been an interesting task to attempt to balance them.

I’m just continually blown away that this is actually my life – it’s not perfect and it’s definitely hard, but right now I’m an artist living off of my art.”

And she said she keeps getting more and more opportunities to continue and grow, including the opportunity to pursue a third dream – travel.

“I’ve been to 17 countries so far,” she said. “I’ve been really fortunate that I have been able to pair poetry and travel together. Film and travel are currently butting heads in my life but I think my end goal is figuring out a way to marry all three in a way that allows me to continue developing in these art forms and travel.”

While she is attempting to combine her three loves, as are poetry travel – poetry and film are automatic mash ups for her.

“I think poetry and film share a bone structure for me in their endless possibilities and emotion,” she said. There have been times when I’ve struggled with bringing a poem to life because I actually see it as a film in my head.

There’s one piece in particular that I have that is so visual, it almost needs its own creative genre blend. And I think working towards finding these new imaginative spaces is something I’m really interested in.”

But one thing Rudzinski has never been interested in is changing her voice and she hasn’t suffered any from her unwavering self love.

She ranked 4th at the Women of the World Poetry Slam in 2014, 7th at the 2013 Individual World Poetry Slam, has represented Boston, Denver and Los Angeles over the course of 11 national poetry competitions and has been published several times, including three books of her own.

And that’s quite a ride for someone who considers themselves an introvert. Rudzinski also notes that she loves deeply and does not settle for anything less than an extraordinary life – her work serves as testimony.

But even with accomplishments comes doubt.

“Doubt is definitely something I’ve dealt with as an artist – ‘is my voice important?’ is a question I have asked myself all too many times,” she said. “The best advice I can give to someone who is dealing with finding their voice, developing their craft, or someone who is doubting their talent is to be honest. Writing your truth as honestly as you can is why you should be writing. If you can be honest with yourself and with your pen on a page, your voice as an artist is going to follow.”

Rudzinski said she also finds it important to be able to say who and what has influenced and helped to shape one as an artist.

“Not only as a way to give thanks, but as an important way to see what your path has been, because those influences are going to change as you age and grow and your voice is going to develop over time naturally. And the more true and honest you can be with yourself and what you sound like, the more freedom you give yourself to nurture your own talent.”

Truly a juggling act, Rudzinski said she simply finds it most important that she is living through her art – everything else will simply fall in place… because it already has.

carrierudzinski

Click for more information about Carrie Rudzinski.

For booking: [email protected]

Twitter: @shutterdove

Tumblr: www.carrierudzinski.tumblr.com

#poetry #carrie rudzinski #national poetry month #poetryslam

An exciting group of poets! I’m honored to read with them tomorrow!

#poetry #nyc

For Jeff

For Jeffrey M. Potter-Watts

Dear Friends, as part of grieving and honoring my dear friend and mentor Jeff Watts, I’ve written a short piece about how he shaped my life.

Jeff/ Mr. Watts was introduced to me in the year 2000 as our new theatre director while holding auditions for Pygmalion in the Lawrence High School gymnasium. I was fifteen years old, full of spunk, imagination, and an earnest attempt at worldliness. Mr. Watts seemed to arrive from another era, dressed in black dress shoes, a vest, and doling out phrases like, “It would behoove you to arrive on time and warm your vocal chords.” Although he didn’t actually wear a pocket-watch chain draped across his chest, he seemed to, in spirit. What I mean is, Jeff’s aura was both punctual and nostalgic. His demeanor was disciplined and wistful.

Wistful. Jeff was the first person I ever met who cared about words more than I did. He had a favorite word! “Wistful,” he’d say to us, rolling the word out of his mouth like it was his own name. “Wistful sounds exactly like what it is. Everyone write down a list of your favorite words: words that please you, words that sound good when you say them.” He encouraged every student, and unveiled joy from words like “cantankerous” and “warble.”

My sister and I reminisced today about his favorite vocal warm-up, “Moses supposes his toeses are Roses / Moses supposes erroneously / for Moses, he knowses his toes aren’t roses, as Moses supposes his toeses to be.” Jeff was a total perfectionist, and wanted us to succeed, which is why he taught us all of his vocal techniques. He was also completely silly and zany. One thing I learned from him is that work ethic and playfulness are not antithetical: if you want to create art, you must have both, and he lived these values daily.

Jeff was a professional theatre artist: Director, Writer, Costume Designer, Actor and Producer. He treated us all with the respect and high expectations of fellow professional artists, naming us “Lawrence Theatre Company” instead of calling us the Drama Club. Because Lawrence was mainly a sports school known for football and basketball, I like to think of the theatre kids as a kind of rag-tag arts-team, á la The Mighty Ducks before he came along and whipped us into shape. He’d hate that kind of sports-movie analogy, and tease me for it, I know, but I can’t resist.

High School was painful and confusing for me, like it is for anyone with nerve-endings and a soul. I had few friends, and longed to live in a bohemia of great artistic minds. More than anything else, though, I wanted to belong. When I met Jeff, my parents’ divorce was a fresh and ongoing wound, so home life sometimes felt like a house with no floors. The theatre became my sanctuary, my second home. After rehearsals, a few of us would gather around Mr. Watts while he packed up, and we’d listen to him talk. He’d recount the day’s events, or another play he had directed, and we were spellbound and grateful. There was a true ritual to any time spent with Jeff, a real sense of oral tradition, and he made me feel accounted for, just by including all of us in his vision.

And of course I loved him. For many reasons:

His unabashed disdain for realism. “Realism,” he’d scoff, and roll his eyes. “I want magic.” It is wonderful, especially at a young age, to encounter someone who knows himself.

I loved his insistence that he was apolitical, despite his consistent Brechtian approach to theatre. And it’s true; I never heard him utter a political opinion, but his plays were all about justice, compassion, and grace. These ideas continue to guide me in my own life, personal and political.

Jeff was the first person with whom I had Real Intellectual Debates. He valued my mind, and made me believe in my own capacity for intelligence and growth. We continued to have intense discussions about Feminism and Art even while he was in the hospital in New York City last winter. He was open-minded, and learned from me, he said.

I loved his bright-blue wide listening eyes, and how he’d nod his head vigorously while he listened.

I loved his almost-maniacal cackle.

I love how he went on daily “constitutionals” and actually used the word constitutional.

He was the only person to call my brother Sam “Sammy.” He came to my Mom’s house and decorated Christmas cookies with us and became part of my family. When it was time to apply to college, I knew I wanted to study acting, and he helped both me and my sister work on the monologues that got us into Emerson College.

My first winter break home from Boston I asked him to have dinner with me on New Year's Eve, and we went to Ruby Tuesday's in Waterville and ate chicken with mashed potatoes. I was thrilled to spend the evening talking with one of my favorite people, instead of being trapped at a lame party agog with noise-makers and Jäger. Some friends teased me about it being a date, but nothing romantic ever happened between us. He was a true friend, and always treated me like a strong woman. It's amazing how much easier it is to take yourself seriously when someone else has consistently reminded you of your own worth.

When I was considering moving to NYC, I called Jeff for advice. "Come, April,” he encouraged me. “You won't regret it. You'll grow, I promise. What have you got to lose?"

And he was right. I moved a year and a half ago, and have found a rigorous community of poets and theatre-makers. One of my favorite memories was seeing Jeff's play "Redemption of the Vampyre" at a theatre on 42nd Street. He had just undergone surgery, and days out of the hospital he was at work, staging a production. That's where this photo is from.

It feels unfair that he was taken from us so soon. I don’t have any eloquent way to end this small essay. I can’t imagine the shape of my life without him, and I hope to live my life in a way that would continue to make him proud.

#theatre #mentors #lawrencehighschool #maine

The Rapist Stood Up in Court and Said (after Jeffrey McDaniel) I am not a rapist. I dreamt those women were icebergs who needed my help. Before you judge me, consider what becomes of the dripping: ...

#poetry

mbecketta

image courtesy of @arissaoh

aprilranger

This is my favorite blog right now.

A poem in memoriam of Ferguson. By Rickey Laurentiis.

#ferguson #blacklivesmatter #poetry

bostonpoetryslam

I hear I’m looking regal again today but inside My heart is an emoticon with a slash for a face

Morgan Parker, “Book of Revelation,” published in Twelfth House (via bostonpoetryslam)

February Shows & Events

2/9 Emerson Poetry Project, Boston, MA

8 pm * 120Boylston Street

2/15 Poetry Workshop, Jamaica Plain, MA

2 pm *email for location

2/15 The Ranger Zone, Cambridge, MA

10 pm * ZuZu’s, 474 Mass. Ave

2/18 Page Meets Stage with Bianca Stone, NYC

8 pm * DL Lounge, 95 Delancey Street

2/21 Kiss*Punch*Poem, NYC

9 pm * Magnet Theatre, 254 W 29th St.

#poetry

Also, for those who haven't read Angel's book yet, and want a copy, you can purchase it here through Greenlight Books.

#poetry #angelnafis #greenlight bookstore #blackgirlmansion

How Each Sister Breaks The House by April Ranger

#poetry #angelnafis

This week, a Missouri grand jury decided not to indict Darren Wilson, the officer who killed Michael Brown. Writer Syreeta McFadden turns to Audre Lorde's poetry to make sense of this decision.

#blacklivesmatter audrelorde litanyforsurvival ferguson

buttonpoetry

Mahogany Browne - “Working Title” "The name of this poem is Everywhere Is Ferguson, or the name of this poem is When The Moonrise Sounds Like Gunshots, or…" Mahogany Browne, performing in New York City. Subscribe to Button on YouTube!

aprilranger

This.

#blacklivesmatter

mahoganylbrowne-blog

#blackpoetsspeakout — check us out www.blackpoetsspeakout.tumblr.com

Anita Sarkeesian has shown up for speaking engagements amidst terror threats before. But after learning that Utah State University was legally forbidden from restricting firearms at a Wednesday lecture over which she received a death threat, the nationally-known feminist writer and video game critic canceled her appearance. “Sarkeesian asked if weapons will be permitted at the speaking venue,” according to a statement released late Tuesday by USU. “Sarkeesian was informed ...

#feminism #gun violence

bostonpoetryslam

Lucky accidents seldom happen to writers who don’t work. You will find that you may rewrite and rewrite a poem and it never seems quite right. Then a much better poem may come rather fast and you wonder why you bothered with all that work on the earlier poem. Actually, the hard work you do on one poem is put in on all poems. The hard work on the first poem is responsible for the sudden ease of the second. If you just sit around waiting for the easy ones, nothing will come. Get to work.

Richard Hugo, “The Triggering Town,” from the essay collection of the same name (via bostonpoetryslam)

A video of my poem Sexual Consent In Revolt of Ceelo from the Vancouver Poetry Slam.

#poetry #consent #Ceelo

Trending Blogs

Recently Viewed Blogs

April Ranger