Poetry 📓and Photography 📸 by JJZ. Explorations worldwide and within. Trying to be heard, stirred, and perhaps cured by life's many hidden images, and the written-spoken word.
is a writer, educator, performer, and skilled living room dancer from Akron, Ohio. He received an MFA in Creative Writing-Poetry from Mills College. Darius was a recipient of the 2020 Ruth Lilly and Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Poetry Fellowship, a 2023 National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship, and is the author of Never Catch Me (Button Poetry, 2022). He hopes to inspire that feeling you get that makes you frown and slightly twist up ya face in approval. Darius’ poems have appeared in POETRY Magazine,The Adroit Journal, American Poetry Review, Tinderbox Poetry Journal, and others. Darius believes in the dissolution of empire and the total liberation of all oppressed people by any means available. Free the People. Free the Land. Free All Political Prisoners.
Videos:
Darius Simpson – An Ode to Crocs
Darius Simpson – The Role of the Artist
Darius Simpson – We Don’t Die
TEAM PIECE: Darius Simpson and Scout Bostley – Lost Voices
Rundown: June 19th, 2023 (Season 2, Session 25) 5:00PM – Doors Open 5:30PM – Sign-Ups Open 6:00PM – Prompt Open 6:30PM – Set Performances 7:00PM – Host Discretion 7:30PM – Open Mic Open . NOTE: . No hate speech, violence, racism, misogyny, or disrespectful disruptive behavior will be tolerated. No predatory behavior will be tolerated. As an ongoing regular event for Spoken Views Collective, MONDAY NIGHT POETRY has a zero tolerance policy for the fore mentioned behaviors. Spoken Views Collective additionally designates the evening’s HOST as reserving the right to have any and all individuals breaking these expected codes of conduct (which honor the humanity in each other) removed and denied service.
INSPIRATIONAL / INFORMATIVE QUOTES
“I catch the pattern
Of your silence
Before you speak.
I do not need
To hear a word
In your silence
Every tone I seek
Is heard.”
— Langston Hughes, “Silence”
“If you don’t use your power for positive change, you are, indeed, part of the problem.”
— Coretta Scott King

“Words of Emancipation didn’t arrive until the middle of June so they called it Juneteenth. So that was it, the night of Juneteenth celebration, his mind went on. The celebration of a gaudy illusion.”
“Emancipation wasn’t a gift bestowed on the slaves; it was something they took for themselves, the culmination of their long struggle for freedom, which began as soon as chattel slavery was established in the 17th century, and gained even greater steam with the Revolution and the birth of a country committed, at least rhetorically, to freedom and equality. In fighting that struggle, black Americans would open up new vistas of democratic possibility for the entire country.”
“Studying the blueprints of liberation, one can map out the ways we as The Global African Diaspora have continued to resist and exist under regimes of antiBlack terror. Since the development of racial capitalism, the use of African peoples as capital, our ancestors have always fought for freedom. Our history doesn’t begin with slavery, but our future depends on us ending the mechanisms of it. Juneteenth is an extension of that abolitionist spirit where we march forth in reflection of the struggle.” — Brandon Gonzalez
“Freeing yourself was one thing, claiming ownership of that freed self was another.”
— Toni Morrison
“You must never, ever give out. We must keep the faith because we are one people. We are brothers and sisters. We all live in the same house: The American house.”
— John Lewis
“What I love about #Juneteenth is that even in that extended wait, we still find something to celebrate. Even though the story has never been tidy, and Black folks have had to march and fight for every inch of our freedom, our story is nonetheless one of progress.”
“It is said that the gods play games with the lives of men. But what games, and why, and the identities of the actual pawns, and what the game is, and what the rules are – who knows?
Rudy K. Francisco (born July 27, 1982) is an American spoken word poet and author.[1][2][3][4][5] He has won several Poetry Slams and written six books of poetry: Getting Stitches, Scratch, No Gravity, No Gravity Part II, Helium, and I’ll Fly Away.[6] He made an appearance on TV One’s Verses and Flow and performed his spoken-word poem “Complainers” as well as “Rifle” on the Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.[7][8][9][10]
Memorial Day (originally known as Decoration Day[1]) is a federal holiday in the United States for honoring and mourning the U.S. military personnel who died while serving in the United States Armed Forces.[2] From 1868 to 1970, it was observed on May 30.[3] Since 1970, it is observed on the last Monday of May.
Caught up in facts and figure’s commenting on carrying a new brand to peak,
the preorder for a lesser known band you find unique,
or a philosophy prof’s understanding of the meek,
I know for some it’s only Monday night
but it’s already been a demanding week.
The overwhelmingly world sometimes makes it too difficult stand and speak when heavy hearts and hands are weak.
Leave your worries on west third and be present for Brandon Leake
BIOGRAPHY
Brandon Leake is an Award-Winning Spoken Word Poet, Artistic Educator, and Motivational Speaker from Stockton, Ca. His creative mixture of art, charisma, and passion tailored to his own unique personal narrative has taken him across the world as a speaker and performer. Performing in locations such as New Zealand, Mexico, Canada, and 36 states around the country for his, “Dark Side Tour” which promotes his first ever published poetry chapbook and his then crown jewel “Deficiencies: A Tale From My Dark Side” an album rooted in transparency and healing (2018)
Brandon is also the founder and CEO of Called To Move – CTM an artistry organization with the pursuit of aiding youth in self-actualizing and personally developing through the art of poetry. This pursuit has led to Brandon leading workshops around the world with several curriculums he has developed himself, and in particular teaching youth in his hometown of Stockton, Ca.
Leake’s Family Affair aired as a CW special featuring several original spoken word poems about his family, including tributes to his mother and his late sister. The poet submitted his work for Grammy consideration.
“This album is a hallmark seal on one of Spoken Word Poetry’s most defining moments, the first nationally televised solo spoken word special,” Leake wrote. “This album is a commemoration of this iconic moment and just how far spoken word not only has come but still has to go.”
Brandon Leake was nominated for a Emmy for his 2:12 long spoken word piece commemorating the Golden State Warriors 75th anniversary as a basketball franchise in the NBA
Oh, and yes he is also the season 15 winner of America’s Got Talent.
“Lacey Roop is a genderqueer poet and performer. They perform their work nationwide at bookstores, campuses and festivals, including Austin and Los Angeles Pride. They are a former Women of the World Poetry Slam finalist, and have been featured on PBS’s Roadtrip Nation, reaching over 60 million households worldwide. They are the author of And Then Came the Flood, and the much anticipated forthcoming book, We All Make it Out in the End. A Mississippi native, they currently reside in Austin, TX with their spouse and two incredibly large dogs (Artemis and Cassiopeia).”
SIDEWAYS EIGHT PROJECTS 