This Saturday night, WMNF-88.5's Poetry Is … host and local spoken-word artist Lizz Straight presents a "Live and in Living Color" show direct from the studio and invites the public to listen or attend. Straight welcomes a very special guest for her program — feminist folk poet, performance artist and cultural activist Christa Bell. Bell, who's a Seattle-based National Poetry Slam Champion and National Public Radio alumna, crafts her works by fusing the oral poetic and storytelling traditions of the classical black American church with hip-hop rhythms. She frequently focuses on the negative ways that women are portrayed in mainstream hip-hop and mass media.
Bell's in-studio performance is set against live music by The Circle of Fifths band. There are limited seats available for this event, but if you dilly-dally and miss out, you can still tune in and listen to the show on WMNF.
Poetry Is … Live and in Living Color, Sat., March 22, 11 p.m.-midnight, WMNF Live Music Studio, 1210 E. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd., Tampa, $20 in advance/$25 at the door (proceeds benefit the station), 813-238-8001.
This article appears in Mar 19-25, 2008.