October 17, 2008

6:00 pm

6:00 pm

International Arts & Artists invites you to come
HOME this Friday, October 17th!

Sign-up for poets is at 6 p.m.
The open mic begins at 7 p.m.

$5 for non-members of International Arts & Artists
Free for members of IA&A
Free for performing poets

Hosted by Fred Joiner, curator and host of the American Poetry Museum’s Intersections at the Honfleur Gallery and poet-in-residence at Busboys and Poets, Shirlington. This month’s feature poet is Dwayne Lawson-Brown.

As a poet, break dancer, emcee, HIV educator, and crochet artist in the District, Lawson-Brown has a story to tell us through his carefully crafted poetic works. Lawson-Brown has worked and volunteered for Metro TeenAIDS for the past seven years. During his time there, he launched an open-mic poetry night called FreeStyle, an evening for young people to come to the center and sing, rap, or read poetry. Currently a Senior Corps member at City Year involved in the H.O.P.E. (HIV Outreach Prevention Education) project, Lawson-Brown’s approach to poetry is inclusive and soft-spoken, encouraging audiences to reexamine their perceptions of the young African American male identity with a candidness that makes all feel welcome in his presence.

Lawson-Brown also participated in the Urban Poets Society, a collective of spoken word poets that traveled to local D.C., Maryland and Virginia high schools to bring spoken word poetry, hip-hop culture through music and dance, poetry workshops and performances to youth in the area in 2004. The ideal follow-up act to last months’ feature poet at HOME, Drew “Droopy” Anderson, Lawson-Brown regularly co-hosts the Spit Dat! poetry open mic series at Mocha Hut on U St. with Anderson, one of the city’s most dynamic poetry venues, on Thursday nights. A true representative of the D.C. community and its literary arts, Lawson-Brown spends most of his spare time teaching classes for high school students about HIV prevention and how to become peer educators.

HOME is on every THIRD Friday of the month at Hillyer Art Space.

9 Hillyer Court NW | Washington, DC | 20008 |
T. 202.338.0680 | Gallery Hours: 10am - 5pm Monday,
10am - 7pm Tuesday - Friday, 11am - 4pm Saturday,
Otherwise by appointment
www.artsandartists.org/artspace.html

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