BLACK QUEER EMANCIPATION OPEN MIC at The VORTEX

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2. BLACK QUEER EMANCIPATION OPEN MIC

In honor, acknowledgment, and to celebrate the spirit and memory of Black Queer folk during PRIDE with Juneteenth in mind, please join host Ebony Stewart and the community onstage at The VORTEX for an open-mic night on Monday, June 17th. Bring your poetry to share or simply come and witness the free-flowing words of those highlighted within this marginalized community. We will also hear from featured poets, Shasparay Irvin and Akeem Olaj. Open Mic registration begins at 6:30, with performances starting at 7pm.

Ebony Stewart is an international touring interdisciplinary poet, writer, and performance artist. Her work speaks to the Black experience, with emphasis on gender, sexuality, womanhood, queer-positivity, and race, with the hopes to be relatable, remove shame, heal minds, encourage dialogue, and inspire folks in marginalized communities. As one of the most decorated poets in Texas, Ebony is a respected coach and mentor, one of the top touring poets in the country, and a Women of the World Poetry Slam Champion. The mental health advocate and former sexual health educator also has a Master's in Social Work and is soon to be the hood’s favorite therapist. As a playwright, Ebony’s one-woman shows, Hunger and OCEAN have received B. Iden Payne Awards and the David Mark Cohen New Play Award. She is the author of BloodFresh, Home.Girl.Hood., and Love Letters to Balled Fists. Her work has been featured in AfroPunk, Button Poetry, Teen Vogue, The Texas Observer, and Houston Public Media. Let us not forget, the only poet to perform at the Seattle 2018 Pride Festival before 200,000 people, was Ebony Stewart. She is the #storyoftheblackgirlwinning.

Akeem Olaj is a Father, Poet, Actor, Playwright, Architect, Martial Artist and Activist from, New Orleans, La now based in Austin, TX. He's won 1 International slam, 3 National Poetry Slam championships And 6 regional slam Titles. He’s opened for Big Fredia, Alfred Banks, Ledsis, Adia Victoria, Oscar nominee Andra Day, Tank and the Bangas,Kendrick Lamar, Ciara and Faith Evans. As a speaker/activist Akeem has spoken or given workshops at over 75 colleges and conferences across the country on topics ranging from domestic violence, Black Lives Matter, HIV awareness, LGBTQ Rights, the effects of Spoken Poetry on people with speech impairments, Black Survival during Louisiana Reconstruction, and Southern Art. He has been featured in rigorous-mag.com, the black youth project, CBS Evening News, USA Today, Button Poetry, Write About Now, All Def Poetry and Blavity.

Shasparay (she/they) is a Black, fat, and queer performing artist, born and raised in Austin, Tx. She is the Founder and Artistic Director of the annual Black Arts Matter Festival and is the 2024 Austin Poetry Slam Grandslam Champion. She was also the 2022 4th Ranked Woman Slam Poet in the World (W.O.W.P.S). Shasparay completed a Master's in Arts Administration at the Wisconsin School of Business Bolz Center and holds a B.S. in Theatre from UW-Madison. She was a recipient of the First Wave Hip Hop and Urban Arts Full Tuition Scholarship, a speaker at the 2016 TEDxYouth Austin conference, and is a National NAACP ACT-SO Gold Medalist. Shasparay has been a finalist in national and regional slam competitions such as Women of the World Poetry Slam, Stone Wall International Poetry Slam, Southern Fried Poetry Slam, Texas Grand Slam, and is a two-time Lip Stick Wars Poetry Slam Champion.  She has been featured on platforms such as the New York Times, Button Poetry, Huffington Post, Youth Speaks, and Buzzfeed. Lastly, she is an AudioVerse award-winning cast member of the highly acclaimed horror anthology podcast Old Gods of Appalachia.