Sorry my beautiful peeps, I have not been updating my blog as I would have liked!
Many, beautiful things/life/events have been going on…so read more…

I will be performing my poetry with my 2 sisters, (Yes, I know I say everyone is my sister but these 2 are my biological sisters, we do have the same Mama and Daddy) Fuifuilupe and Sauliloa Niumeitolu in Berkeley, CALIFORNIA on Thursday July 16th, 2009! Come on out, you can’t miss this, if you are in the Bay Area!

Other upcoming performances:
***Tonight! Monday June 29th, 2009; 7 – 9 pm
Mahina Movement is performing for
“Breaking Down Walls, Building Bridges Poets Support the Indigenous Youth Delegation to Palestine”
*Hosted by Urban Word and PEP*
food by Zaytoons

@ Millenium Film Workshop
66 East 4th Street
between Bowery and 2nd Ave

Come thru for a little after work food and poetry and help raise money to send Indigenous high school and college students to Palestine this summer!

The poets gracing the mic will be….
Urban Word NYC Slam Team
Mahina Movement
Peace Poets
Tahani Salah
Roopa Singh
Tehila Wise
Remi Kanazi
Providence

***Save the Date! 4th of July on Fire!
Saturday, July 04
6:00 pm
@ SURREAL ESTATE
15 Thames St., Brooklyn, NY
L train to Morgan Avenue
Co-sponsored by: Brecht Forum, Left Turn and Surreal Estate
4th on Fire!
A Benefit Concert for the Brecht Forum & Left Turn Magazine
Mahina Movement, Earthdriver, Rebel Diaz, Young Lady, Koba, Rude Mechanical Orchestra and Mustglow Fuego

Join your favorite revolutionaries and rebel rousers for a rousting anti-July 4th celebration and concert.
Concert! Cookout! Dance Party!
Uncle Sam Piñata!
“Not dog” Eating Contest!
Counterhegemonic Buffet!
Make your own flag arts and crafts table!
Dance off!
Fire Dancer & Fireworks!
$10
(sliding scale, what you can afford)

When: Monday, June 1

Time: 7-10 PM

Where: Tierra Sana Restaurant

http://www.tierrasana.com/

100-17 Queens Blvd & 67th Road
Forest Hills, Queens
New York City

By subway, take the local R or V to 67th Avenue stop (and it’s right there between 67th Road and 67th Avenue along Queens Boulevard).Time: 7:00-10 pm (though you’re welcome to stay until closing time)

Free wine tasting and appetizers! Awesome ambience and food! A great collection of writers and their work!

Performer Bios:

Meghan Beresford is a New York-based writer, dancer and performance artist. She is a 2003-2004 US Fulbright Scholar in the area of Creative Writing (Fiction and Poetry). Her creative work has been granted by the University of Iowa, the State of Iowa, and the Newfoundland Arts Council. In her past lives, Meghan has been a columnist for Newfoundland alt publication CURRENT and co-founder/editor of the now-defunct Zeugma Literary Journal, a hand-bound small run lit magazine that published new talent alongside such literary luminaries as Mary Dalton, Monica Kidd and Alberto Manguel. Meghan’s newest project is Lookshelves: Bookshelves to Look At a website for literary voyeurs. You can check it out at www.lookshelves.com.

Patricia Carragon is a writer who also hosts and curates the Brooklyn-based Brownstone Poets Reading Series, as well as edits its annual anthology. Her pieces can be found on Poetz.com, Rogue Scholars, Mobius, CLWN WR, Chantarelle’s Notebook, Clockwise Cat, Luciole Press, Eviscerator Heaven 4, Flutter, Up the Staircase, Battered Suitcase, Kritya, Inscribed, Live Magazine, Tamarind, Riverfront, Soul Fountain, Stained Sheets and The Toronto Quarterly. Rogue Scholars Press published her book Journey to the Center of My Mind.

Comedian and writer Emily Epstein has been trapped in a self-cleaning toilet and has stitches from a treadmill accident. She performs all around New York City and the Northeast, (not to mention a boat in the middle of the Yangtze River in China). She has been a comedian in the New York Underground Comedy Festival and was on Good Morning America. Her writing has been featured in such publications as Travelistic.com, Gawker.com, and the Hartford Courant.

Jee Leong Koh is the author of “Payday Loans” and “Equal to the Earth” (both from Poets Wear Prada Press). His poetry has appeared in “Best New Poets 2007,” and “Best Gay Poetry 2008,” and has also been nominated for the Pushcart Prize. Born in Singapore, he now lives in New York City, and blogs at Song of a Reformed Headhunter (http://jeeleong.blogspot.com).

Susan Maurer is a poet, writer, and educator. Her poetry books include By the Blue Light of the Morning Glory (Linear Arts), in2 with Mark Sonnenfeld (Marymark Press), Dream Addict (Backwood Broadsides), Raptor Rhapsody (Poets Wear Prada) and Maerchen (Maverick Duck Press). Her poetry was nominated four times for Pushcart, published in 14 countries, and has appeared in over 400 magazines and anthologies, including Off the Cuffs (Softskull Press), Help Yourself! (Autonomedia), Virgina Quarterly Review, Literary Imagination, Cross Connect and Orbis.

Reina M. Miranda was born in Washington Heights to immigrant parents who came to the United States to provide a better life for their children. Reina is the eldest of four, who first found her love for poetry at the age of 18. Reina has been performing spoken word/poetry for almost two years. Reina is also a member of The United Confederation of Taino People in which she has been learning a lot more about her Taino ancestors. She has learned to fuse her passion for the people she meets and her poetry together so she can help others get “Tainocated.” After 23 years, Reina has emerged into the poetry scene and has been appearing at open mics events ever since. She has read at such events as 5C Cultural Club, Capicu Poetry/Notice Lounge, The NuyoRican Poet’s Café/ Taino Poetry, Cemi Underground’s Taino Poetry Night and Erotic Poetry, Momma’s Hip Hop Kitchen 2, and Rebel Art Collective’s S.P.I.T.

Vaimoana (Moana) Niumeitolu is a Painter, Poet, Actor, Activist, Educator and the founder of Mahina Movement, a phenomenal, international, all female, multi-media, multi-cultural, powerful trio that has performed all over the Nation at over 500 stages sharing mics with Dead Prez, Amina & Amira Baraka, Suheir Hammad, Sonia Sanchez and countless others. Moana was born in Nuku’alofa, Tonga; raised in Hawa’ii and Utah and now lives, creates and loves in Harlem, USA. She has traveled and shared her poetry, paintings, and performances all over the US and in Fiji, Ireland, Italy, and South Africa. She graduated from NYU in painting, earned the full-scholarship, Ellen Stokel Fellowship from Yale University and attended the Graduate Theater Program at Columbia University in Acting. She has been seen acting at the Metropolitan Opera and acting 13 characters in her one woman show, Tongue-in Paint, which had it’s world premier in the Summer 2008 at terraNOVa collective’s soloNOVA festival at Performance Space 122. She loves that she is growing older. Life has just begun.

Puma Perl is a poet and fiction writer who believes strongly in the transformative power of the creative arts. Her work has been published in cause & effect, MadSwirl, Trespass ,Red Fez, Gloom Cupboard, Toronto Quarterly, The Oak Bend Review, and many other print and on-line publications. Her work has been published in several anthologies, including The Mom Egg and In Love. Her first chapbook, Belinda and Her Friends, was recently published by Erbacce Press. She performs her work in many venues, in and out of New York City. Upcoming features include Stain Bar, Cornelia Café , and the Riverwood Poetry Festival, Middleton CT – Outlaw Night.

MCs/Hosts: Sherri Eldin, Shannon Elizabeth Hardwick, Laura Moisin.

All you need to bring is your love for the written word, but…PLEASE do your best to support the restaurant, your servers, and the performing writers.

Augusto Boal, a great man of courage & strength, tenacity & brilliance, love & compassion passed away yesterday. I got to meet him and talk with him and just witness his amazing life! He gave me so much confirmation as to the “kind” of actor, performer, artist that I have always wanted to be. He gave me so much love and spirit. Thank you Mr. Augusto Boal for everything that you are and everything you continue to be for me and everyone all over the world. My next poem is for you!

Below is a recording of my poem, “WOMYN’S WORK” dedicated to women all over the world (Thank you Dina Mikdadi for recording it!) This was performed at the “Rivers of Honey” Showcase on May Day! Friday May 1, 2009 @ Wow Cafe http://www.wowcafe.org NYC, NY

Take 1:

Take 2:

Let’s meet in that place where the moon and sun
exchange places
where we live like trees
giving oxygen instead of taking it
where everyone shines
in each others’ glow in day and night
where you are me and I am you

***I know, I know, I’m playing ketchup and catch up…so far Poems for Day 1 – 5, 7, and 8 are not here–that means I need to write 7 poems to be caught up with the challenge. They are coming soon…please stay tuned. love ya much. Thanks for reading.

All 3 Black & White photos taken by spontanous beauty (check ‘em out: www.spontaneousbeauty.com) Mahina Movement was a Special Guest for Earthdriver Release Album on 3. 13. 2009 @ Arlene’s Grocery, NYC, NY.

***Mahina Movement’s performance @ Brooklyn Museum First Saturday: was a special, amazing performance! Sold out within a few minutes & we received 3 standing ovations throughout our set!
***I had a blast & blessed time, performing y teaching poetry workshops to 200 teens and adults in Deer Isle, Maine. The teens were so inspiring to me…coming soon, poems written for them…
***Earthdriver Album Release’s Beautiful night was magical and out of this world! We were so honored to perform for their special night. And….Drumroll….Mahina Movement has signed on to the Earthdriver Record Label!!! Check ‘em out at: www.earthdriver.org
***I did performances & poetry discussions at Adelphi University (for educators) and at Hunter Collge (for a class called, Asia Pacific Culture & Media). Thank you Zohra y Elite for bringing me to your classes!
***I recorded an intimate poetry video with folks at Hunter College specifically to be sent to high school students on a Navajo Reservation in Arizona. Thank you Jackie, Mike, and Rozz. I can’t wait to hear the students’ feedback!
***Coming Soon! My Fashion/ Clothing line “RESPECT” is coming along…T-Shirts of your favorite Poets, Artists, Activists, Educators are on their way…the birth is soon…

THANK YOU ALL for coming out to any/all of our performances, buying CDs, artwork, giving us hugs and giving us positive energy! Your positive energy, voice, embraces and feedback is so important to us. I love you. ‘ofa lahi atu, mo

Photo by Karly Beaumont; Harlem, NY 2008.

March in Nueva York City is…covered with snow and I am buurrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrreathing in this collllllllld…All I want now is you and me under the covers; all covered from head to toe; in layers of colorful sweats, leg warmers, and hoodies; sharpening our creativity; eating sugar-free, vegan brownies and turkey & brie sandwiches cuz we made them ‘ol so delicious, and we sipping our ciders and this time we have together.

i love you con felicidades, arte, paz y warm cups of peppermint tea and a big warm snuggle.
vlmn

(view from my living room; Tonganharlem, NYC; 2.2.2009)