Larry Neal Sessions gives listeners the opportunity to experience the literary works of some of the best writers in Washington, DC. The works are from the winners of the Larry Neal Writers’ Competition – read by the authors or cast of actors. Each week, a new writer, a new performance, and a great new work.
All of the performances are recorded live in the D.C. Commission on the Arts and Humanities office.
Visit art202.com each week for new performances.
Since 1981, the D.C. Commission on the Arts and Humanities has recognized and celebrated the literary accomplishments of the District’s resident writers though the Larry Neal Writer’s Awards. The honor commemorates the artistic legacy and vision of cultural understanding of Larry Neal (1937-1981), a renowned author, academic and former DCCAH Executive Director.
Abbey Otis Chung - Teacher
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Abbey Otis Chung is the program manager for the one and only D.C. Creative Writing Workshop, where she tries to persuade skeptical children to write poetry. She has a B.A. in creative writing from Oberlin College, and is a graduate of the Clarion West Writing Workshop. Places like Tor.com, Strange Horizons, and The Explosion Proof Magazine have for some reason agreed to publish her work. She spends her time exploring the intersections of social justice and the strange, and trying to be a good person. |
| Abbey Otis Chung - Teacher | |
Fred Joiner – For the Letter H
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Fred Joiner is a poet/artist/curator living in Washington DC. His writing has appeared or is forthcoming in Callaloo, Beltway Poetry Quarterly, Fingernails Across the Chalkboard: Poetry and Prose on HIV/AIDS from the Black Diaspora, Gargoyle, Mosaic Literary Magazine, Warpland: A Journal of Black Literature and Ideas and in other publications. Fred has read his work throughout the Washington Metropolitan Area and in Belfast, Northern Ireland. He has curated literary and art-related events for the American Poetry Museum, Hillyer Artspace, the Phillips Collection and other venue. Joiner is also the literary editor for the hip-hop journal Words, Beats and Life and the Tidal Basin Review. |
| Fred Joiner – For the Letter H | |
Sandra Beasley - One-Tenth of the Body
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Sandra Beasley is the author of I Was the Jukebox, winner of the Barnard Women Poets Prize, and Theories of Falling, winner of the New Issues Poetry Prize. Other honors for her work include selection for the 2010 Best American Poetry, the 2010 University of Mississippi Summer Poet in Residence position, a DCCAH Artist Fellowship, the Friends of Literature Prize from the Poetry Foundation, and the Maureen Egen Exchange Award from Poets & Writers. Her most recent book is Don’t Kill the Birthday Girl: Tales from an Allergic Life, a memoir and cultural history of food allergy. She lives in Washington, D.C. |
| Sandra Beasley - One-Tenth of the Body | |
Randy Baker – Forgotten Kingdoms
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Randy Baker is a director, playwright and the co-Artistic Director of Rorschach Theatre, a company he founded with Jenny McConnell Frederick in 1999. Plays he has written include Forgotten Kingdoms, The Burning Road, The First Disobedience and Dream Sailors. His playshave been produced at Rorschach Theatre, Source Theatre, Forum Theatre (re)acts, Extreme Exchange, Three Leaches Theatre (Colorado), George Washington University and The National Conservatory of Dramatic Arts. He has had readings and workshops at National New Play Network, Inkwell Theatre, The Arts Club of Washington, Wordsmyth Theater (Houston), Primary Stages, American University, Theater Alliance and Rorschach Theatre. As a director with Rorschach Theatre he has directed After the Quake, 1001, Rhinoceros, JB, Behold!, Fair Ladies at a Game of Poem Cards and Monster. He has also directed for Source Theatre, Inkwell Theatre, First Draft, Young Playwrights Theatre, NCDA’s Actors Repertory Theatre, First Draft, Wayward Theatre and Cherry Red Productions. |
| Randy Baker – Forgotten Kingdoms | |
Holly Bass – Last Call
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Holly Bass is a writer, performer and director. Her most recent body of work explores the endless allure of booty – from the Venus Hottentots to video vixens. A Cave Canem fellow, her poems have appeared in Callaloo, nocturnes (re)view, Beltway, Role Call (Third World Press) and The Ringing Ear, an anthology of Black Southern poetry. Her pieces have been workshopped and presented at respected regional theaters and performance spaces such as the Kennedy Center, Arena Stage, the Whitney Museum and the Experience Music Project in Seattle. She is the Cullen Poet-in-Residence for Busboys & Poets (DC) where she coordinates open mic nights and writing workshops for the public. She studied modern dance (under Viola Farber) and creative writing at Sarah Lawrence College before earning a Master’s in Journalism from Columbia University. She was the first journalist to put the term “hip hop theater” into print in a 1999 American Theatre article. She was a founding member of DC WritersCorps and continues to work as a teaching artist in schools, colleges and community centers. She has received numerous grants from the DC Arts Commission and was one of twenty artists nationwide to receive 2008 Future Aesthetics grant from the Ford Foundation/Hip Hop Theater Festival. |
| Holly Bass – Last Call | |
This is so so powerful. Thank you
I am a two-time Larry Neal Writing Award winner in the Adult Essay category (1996 & 2009). Most recently I’ve served as the Culture & Arts critic for the Washington Informer having done reviews of, “Fela”, “Ann and Emmett”, “Josephine Tonight”,”Black Nativity” and profiles of playwright Janet Langhart Cohen, Choreographer/Director Maurice Hines, musical actress/singer Eleasha Gamble and Choreographer/Dancer Savion Glover. I was a guest performer (actor/storyteller) at the International Conference on HIV/AIDS last summer and have performed original works in various venues throughout the metropolitan Washington area with the theatrical troupe Brave Soul Collective (with upcoming performances this weekend, commemorating African American HIV/AIDS Awareness Day). I would love the opportunity to contribute and participate in the Larry Neal Sessions, sharing and performing my work. i hope you will give serious consideration to my request. l look forward to hearing from you.
For real,
Michael Sainte-Andress
202-265-8918