NEW! Silk Road Reading Series
Spoken word adventures in storytelling, performance poetry and prose
at the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh — Homewood.
Open Mic. Featured Readers. Collaboration. Possibilities.
The Silk Road Reading Series is a venue for local Homewood and Pittsburgh artists to share work in a judgment-free open mic setting. This sets the stage for a monthly featured reader to then share work — poetry, fiction, nonfiction, spoken word, performance pieces — with a receptive and growing audience. The series is open and free to the public.
Hosted at The Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh — Homewood, 7101 Hamilton Ave., the series is held the third Wednesday of each month, from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. Open mic sign-up is at 6 p.m. and begins at 6:15 p.m., encouraging student participation. The featured reader then presents from approximately 7 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. Donations are welcome.
March 21 — Premiere Reading
Featuring actor/performance poet Leslie Ezra Smith and poetry & prose writer Yona Harvey. Open mic begins promptly at 6:15.
Leslie “Ezra” Smith is a spoken word artist, actor, director, and event host. He has performed for Kuntu Repertory Theater, Pittsburgh Playwrights Theater Company, New Horizon Theater and others. In 2008, Ezra received the Best Lead Actor in a Play award from The African American Council of The Arts (AACTA) Onyx Awards for his role in “Freeman”. He was a member of the 2003 Steel City Poetry Slam Team. Currently, he’s the host of the monthly event, “EARGASM Open Mic Series”. His poetry book, Journey of a Teardrop, was published by Meeting of the Minds Publications, Pittsburgh, PA. in 2010.
Yona Harvey credits her love for teaching to the Washington, DC WritersCorps, the organization that first trusted her to facilitate writing workshops. She currently teaches at Carnegie Mellon University and directs the Creative Writing Program there. Her poems can be found in jubilat, Gulf Coast, Callaloo, West Branch, and Gathering Round: A Reader Celebrating Cave Canem's First Decade. She lives with her husband and two children in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, not far from where jazz pianist and composer, Mary Lou Williams grew up. Williams married the spiritual to the secular in her music, and is a regular muse in Yona’s writing. Yona's first book, Heming the Water, is forthcoming from Four Way Books.