News Archive: March 2011-February 2012

January 23, 2012. Mission Viejo, CA. 

Phil and Sarah at Saddleback College! 

It was so much fun to be back at Saddleback. We performed here last year and it was so nice to see some familiar smiles as well as some fresh faces. Thanks to Erin, Audra, and everyone who made this a possibility!

A special giggling thanks to the artist who did these life-sized cartoons of the two of us. A spitting image! --P

January 17, 2012. Los Angeles, CA.

Phil and Sarah at Da Poetry Lounge!

After 13 years of operation, this club is still absolutely packed every single Tuesday night.  It is a testimony to poetry, and a testimony to the awesome people who run the show.  Much love to Shihan for his ever-impressive warmth and welcome, and congrats to all the slammers and open mic'ers we saw perform.  It was an honor to share that stage with you! --S

January 17, 2012.

Carpinteria, CA.

Project V.O.I.C.E. performs and teaches a workshop at Cate School!

Being a California kid, I had always heard great things about Cate School when I was growing up, but this was quite the first introduction. Meeting an entire student body for the first time from a big stage is an extreme way to do it, but they made us feel right at home. A big shout out to all the students that came up and shared their work and also those who came after the show to catch up with us! --P

January 11, 2012. Napa, CA.

Phil and Sarah at Blue Oak School!

What an awesome stop on our tour. We made our way to beautiful vineyard country and worked with every single student at the Blue Oak School, including our first ever group of kindergarteners. At night, we did a performance for the greater Napa community hosted by Blue Oak. Thanks to everyone who came out - you made it hard to leave! --P

January 9, 2012.

San Francisco, CA.

Project V.O.I.C.E. at Town School for Boys!

After being at the all-girl's school on Friday, we were super curious about what it was going to be like to perform at an all-boy's school!  It turned out to be awesome.  The boys at Town School are bright, fun, and enthusiastic.  It was delightful running workshops with the seventh grade as well.  --S

January 6, 2012. San Francisco, CA.

Phil and Sarah at Café Royale!

We couldn't believe how many people showed up for this show!  So many, the venue couldn't even let all of them in!  So much love and gratitude for everyone that showed up to support us.  It was a wonderful show, and we only wish we could have had every single person get in! --S

January 6, 2012. San Francisco, CA.

Project V.O.I.C.E. at the Hamlin School!

This was our first time visiting the Hamlin School, but we were blown away by the building, the faculty, and most of all the students.  The amazing headmaster, Wanda Holland Greene, made us feel so incredibly welcome, and the young ladies of Hamlin school were one of the best audiences we've ever had. --S

January 5, 2012. Sunnyvale, CA.

Project V.O.I.C.E. at Fremont High School!

We love Fremont HS.  Always have.  This is our fourth year here and it's still just as wonderful as it was the first time we came.  Thank you for the warm welcome, Firebirds.  It feels like coming home. --S

November 29, 2011. Amazon.com

Sarah's first book, "B" is now available on Amazon!

My very first book collaboration with my life-long friend Sophia Janowitz is now available on Amazon, published by The Domino Project.  I have been so blessed to work with the folks at Domino and to watch Sophia make magic.  I could not be more thankful for this team!  I am so proud of what we have made, and I think you will be too! Order a copy, tell a friend, spread the word! --S

November 11, 2011. St. Paul, MN.

Sarah features at Macalester College!

My first time in St. Paul!  But hopefully not my last.  I could not have asked for a better gig.  A warm audience, a full room, the most generous hosts, and two different types of apples with my chamomile tea.  Macalester sure knows how to treat a lady.  Much thanks to Karla, Jocelyne, and Gabi for your hard work and help, and thank you to everyone who came out and said hello! --S

September 17th, 2011. Waterville, ME.

Phil and Sarah perform at Colby College!

What a fun show! Instead of performing in the theater, the Colby Event Planning Board decided to have us take over the student center -- a big experiment in wonderment. Aside from the already-sizable crowd (thanks Colby!), we had a bunch of people that were walking through stick around and watch. A big hello and hug to all the great students we met, both at the performance and workshop - looking forward to seeing you all again soon! --P

August 13, 2011. Boston, MA. 

Phil is ranked 3rd in the country and a Finalist at the National Poetry Slam!

What an honor. It's been a wonderful year so far, and this made it even better. I have incredibly humbled to be a performer on the Providence National Poetry Team, as well as the team's head coach. This year at the National Poetry Slam the team was a finalist and ranked third in the nation out of 76 teams. I couldn't be more proud. A huge hug and congratulations to my teammates: Franny Choi, Meg Thoma, Jamila Woods, Fatimah Asghar and Laura Lamb Brown-Lavoie. Thanks to everyone else for all your love and support, looking forward to seeing you all on the road! --P

August 6, 2011. New York, NY. 

Phil performs at Lincoln Center!

I felt like I was in a dream. Doing Lincoln Center was a big moment for me, a huge high five from the universe that we were on the right track. I was honored to be performing in the same stage that so many great artists have graced over the decades - not to mention, the crowd was wonderful, the stage set up was beautiful (check out the photo!), and the vibe was awesome. Thanks to everyone who came out! --P

It's always an absolute pleasure to be back at the Bowery Poetry Club. There's a strange focus than comes with performing in a place with so much history - I always feel excited and calm at the same time when I'm performing at the Bowery. Tonight, I happened to be competing with the Providence National Poetry team, and we were humbled to beat New York's team in their own venue and I was very flattered to take home the highest score of the night. Thanks to everyone who came out, and especially to Jeff for filming. Look for new video material up soon! --P

What an incredible group of performers in the same room. Not only was I back alongside the incredibly talented Providence Poetry team, but the likes of Rachel McKibbens and Brian Ellis were also in the room. It was a great visit to the Poet's Asylum - thank you to them for keeping up the tradition of poetry for over 20 years! And a big congratulations to the Boston team for winning the slam - we'll see you at the National Poetry Slam in August! --P

The last memory I have of being inside Stuyvesant high school was when I was taking my SAT's.  (Which was a pretty long time ago, now.)  Nevertheless, the hallways still made me a little nervous at first.  Fortunately, the library we performed in was sunny and warm.  So were the students who came to see us perform!  Thanks to Ms. Moore for facilitating! --S

Phil and I had a great time hanging out with Kory French at BreakThru Radio, on his show "Book Talk", shooting the sh*t about everything from Bob Dylan to E. E. Cummings.  We were also super excited to share the work of two of our favorite musical artists, our dear friends Arthur Lewis and Andy Suzuki.  You can listen to the whole show here! --S

Horsing around with fellow poets Cristin O'Keefe Aptowicz and Adam Gottlieb

We need more festivals of poetry in the world. A wonderful town, a ton of festival-goers, and over 100 poets is pretty much a guaranteed recipe for success. On Friday, we had the honor of headlining the Student Day of Poetry, and got to perform for, meet, and work with hundreds of Massachusetts high school students. Saturday we had the honor of performing on The Main Stage and running a workshop with participants of all different ages. A huge thank you to the organizers, and a big hug to all of the poets and attendees that we either reconnected with or met for the first time! --P

Sitting in an empty studio and doing a live interview is something that takes a bit of getting used to, but one of these days I'll learn to adjust. On Wednesday when I did an interview for WGBH, New England's NPR station - I sat in a recording studio by myself in New York on air with the Callie Crossley show in Boston. During the 20-minute interview we talked about everything from my first discovery of spoken word to Rebecca Black, quite the tell-all interview. You can hear the entire thing here! --P

The theme of this TEDxEast conference was "Tinker, Noodle, Obsess": three things I definitely know a lot about!  It was really exciting to meet such a varied group of folks, including Bjarke Ingels, David Binder, Will Ryman, and many others.  The event was held in the beautiful Times Center, which I've never explored before, and there were so many little surprises throughout the day. 

Many thanks for all the organizers, who worked

so incrediby hard to put this all together, especially Julianne.  --S

Legs dangling from balconies. Bookshelves without books. Chandeliers rarely used. This was all part of our Friday night show at RISD. We performed in the beautiful Old Library, RISD's former book keeping den that is now empty. It added to the whole ambiance of the night, where we unveilved two new poems, performed without microphones to an audience packed to the balconies, and had our first duo show back on our old stomping grounds in a long time. As if we weren't lucky enough, we had a nice intimate workshop after the show with some wonderful RISD students. Thanks to everyone who came out and to Jess Chen for making it all possible! --P

Its been a wonderful road thus far, I'm so excited to be officially representing Providence at this year's National Poetry Slam! The final slam was an incredible night of poetry, and I'm humbled to be part of such an all-star team. A huge congratulations to the other members of the 2011 team: Jamilia Woods, Franny Choi, Laura Brown-Lavoie and Meg Thoma. I've either been on a team with or coached every single member of this year's team, so I can't wait for all the collaboration, growth, and fun that this team will have. Looking forward to seeing everyone at Nationals this August! --P

There was something magical about this night. Maybe it was the great host, maybe it was the connected and personal open mic before we went on, or maybe it was the generosity of the organizers, but something made this room feel special. Sarah and I had a blast, mixing it up and even doing some older pieces we almost never perform anymore. Not to mention, after so many shows on the road, it was a nice change to have a show just a short train ride away from New York City! A huge thanks to everyone who made this possible, especially Rene for all his hard work putting the event together! --P

It's always a pleasure to be back up on stage at AS220 in Providence, Rhode Island. Some of the East Coast's best writers and performers were on the mic, and I was humbled to move on to the finals in May. The house was packed, and every single poet brought exciting, wonderful work. A huge hug to everyone that came out that night, both audience and performers alike. I look forward to seeing you again in May! --P 

This was our second visit to Nobles and Greenough, and it was just as wonderful as we remembered it.  We performed a few poems at morning assembly for the 7-12 grades, and then we performed some more during club period, hosted by the Asian Cultures Club.  Everyone was really responsive and engaged, and it was really great to get to hang around and meet everybody afterwards.  Thanks to Ms. Lee for her help! --S

As soon as I walked into Urban Roots, I felt comfortable and welcome.  This brand new community center for art and food is warm and bright and full of love.  I was so excited to perform for this packed house of Oklahomans!  The audience was a mix of people who had seen me host TEDxOKC, people who had been at this morning's workshop, and people who were long standing members of Oklahoma City's Spoken Word community.  And I couldn't have asked for a better mix.  The wonderful Lauren Zuniga hosted the event and opened for me with a half hour set of her own, which left me breathless and wonder-struck.  She is a hurricane in a heart box.  So much thanks to Lauren, to the lovely people at Urban Roots, and to everyone who came out to the show! --S

This was my first TEDx event.  And my first time in Oklahoma City.  And I couldn't have been more pleasantly surprised by both!  The organizers of TEDxOKC were so excited and passionate about the event, it was contagious.  Despite the loose ends that needed tying and the last minute chaos that always ensues around events like this, everything came together.  Many thanks to the wonderful speakers, the enthusiastic attendees, and the extremely generous organizers for making the day such a success! --S

I'm so excited to be on indiefeed!  It gives me a chance to finally give a big shoutout to two big forces doing some wonderful work to support the Spoken Word community.  First things first: indiefeed, run by the wonderful Wess Mongo Jolley, is an incredible podcast and audio archive of Spoken Word Poetry.  This month, Cristin O'Keefe Aptowicz is curating a month long show of female poets in honor of National Women's Month.  I highly recommend checking out past and future shows for a great variety of artists and styles.  (Listen to the indiefeed show featuring my poem "B" Here!) 

Secondly, I'd love to give some major props to Jeff Kay and his youtube channel speakeasynyc which just this month had its one millionth hit!  Jeff has garnered an impressive collection of videos of some of the best poets performing on the scene right now.  Both Phil and I are lucky enough to have videos up on the channel, and we use Jeff's videos every time we teach!  (Oh, and he also just so happens to be my Pop!) --S

3 Things I Know to be True, TED Edition:

1. I have been a TED fan for as long as I've known about it, and it has been my long-time goal to someday attend a TED conference.  But being asked to be a speaker at this year's

   conference was an honor I never even dreamed of. 

2. To get to perform on a stage that was blessed by geniuses like Bill Gates, Bobby McFerrin, Roger Ebert, Jason Mraz, Salman Kahn, Deb Roy, Shea Hembrey, David Brooks, JR, Julie Taymor, and Morgan Spurlock, (among many many others) was incredibly humbling.  I am unbelievably blessed to have been a part of this overwhelming, mind-blowing event.

3. I am continually amazed by this community of people.  I have the utmost thanks for the super-human organizers, and the TEDizens who reached out to me.  There were moments I felt like the kid who snuck over to the adult table, but so many people went out of their way to make me feel welcome here.  Thank you. --S