The Returns of Brittany & Roberto

This week, we kick off 2011 with some of the best work from 2010! For the first reading of the year, we've invited back two incredible young writers who graced the Tongue Lashing stage in 2010: Brittany Maldonado and Roberto F. Santiago. Here's a little more background on these amazing readers, who made a mark on all of us with their stellar work:

BRITTANY MALDONADO


Born and raised in the Bronx, NY, Brittany Maldonado has just recently discovered her love for writing. Her writing is soley driving by extreme emotion, hence why she can only write when shes heartbroken, furious, or horny. She doesn't consider herself a poet. As she puts it, "I don't use fancy words, or clever phrases. I write what I feel. Things people can relate to, and sometimes that kind of looks like poetry." Originally an actress and dancer, Brittany has always used performance art as a vehicle for expression since as far back as she can remember, dancing in front of a room full of relatives at 4 years old, or just being a natural born DIVA. Whether it be choreographing an original 15 minute hip-hop piece, or starring as Oscard Wilde in Gross Indecency, Brittany has always left her heart on the stage, still beating. Since recently graduating with a BA in theatre from Sarah Lawrence College where she taught theater to youth and Hip-Hop to her fellow peers, Brittany has been on a mission to incorperate art, in any form, into her daily routine. Whether it be painting pieces that correspond to poems shes written, or working on her one woman show that she hopes to finish by the end of winter, Brittany is doing all that she can to get where she wants to be. Brittany, along with two fellow SLC grads, recently started a dramatic improv Theater Company, D.I.C.E, that rehearses weekly. She's extremely excited to share the stage with all of these talented poets, and looks forward to tuning and improving her writing skills. Oh, and references to Salvador Dali make her hot.

ROBERTO F. SANTIAGO


Roberto F. Santiago writes placing pen to paper and fingertips to QWERTY as an act of translation. Within poetry, he has discovered a booming collective of voices and a rickety soapbox for his multiple identities whereupon he can shout obscenities and prayers at the same time. Since receiving his BA from Sarah Lawrence College (2009) in Poetry and Performance Studies, Roberto has worked with the Asian Pacific Islander Coalition on HIV/AIDS (APICHA) as a community health educator and intergroup dialogue facilitator, it is in this position that he has come to understand the healing power of words. He is currently working on his MFA at Rutgers University, where he teaches English Composition. Travel has also greatly influenced Roberto as a poet. Be it sitting on the grass at and staring into the sun at Dauchau or the smell of rain in rural Québec, he has begun to rewrite his own passport. Roberto also writes and produces music, and has been known to dance until he rips his pants. He is a New Yorican Bronx-native who has accumulated over twenty addresses to date.


Both Brittany and Roberto have rocked our audience, left people in tears and truly changed us with the power of their words. We can't wait to see them this Thursday at Phoenix!

Remember:
This Thursday! January 6!
TONGUE LASHING
PHOENIX BAR
447 East 13th between 1st and A
8 pm. FREE!

Can't wait to see you there!

January Tongue Lashing, featuring Brittany Maldonado & Roberto F. Santiago

We're back!

Thursday, January 6 · 8:00pm - 10:00pm @ Phoenix
447 E 13th Street
New York, NY

Tongue Lashing returns for the New Year! We had a great year, and to celebrate all that 2011 will bring, we're bringing back some of the best of 2010! Two of the most dynamic young writers that hit the Tongue Lashing stage last year, BRITTANY MALDONADO and ROBERTO SANTIAGO, will be doing a dual feature, along with an open mic for some great queer poetry, spoken word and flash fiction hosted by Matthew K. Johnson!

Sign-up begins... at 8, with the open mike to start soon after. Anyone who reads their work on the open mike gets a free draft beer or well drink, courtesy of the awesome people at our home, Phoenix Bar. Everyone who reads will get THREE MINUTES on the mike to share their work. Subject matter can be anything, and writers, don't be shy! We're a very supportive audience, and besides: we'll get you liquored up!

Bring your friends! Bring your work! Or just bring yourself!

Questions? E-mail tonguelashing.openmic@gmail.com
And for more information on Tongue Lashing and other Queer Lit events around the city, join our Facebook group! http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=345403604445&ref=ts

"Viceroy of India" by Matthew K. Johnson

I'll post poetry or short bits of writing on here from time to time, some pieces that have been heard at Tongue Lashing as well as other works that people submit. Drop me a line if you have something you want to submit or want to see something you heard at one of our readings.

This piece is one of mine; I read it at the very first Tongue Lashing back in March 2010.

VICEROY OF INDIA

He asks me my heritage. I rattle it off,
pausing on the Danish Vikings who raped and pillaged
to see his eyes become moons waxed full
and a smile break through the borders of his beautiful brown face.

"I have a Barbarian thing," he says, and lays himself out
like the coast of Normandy. I oblige,
though not exactly how he expects.
He would like me to land on his shores
plant my flag in his soil, quell his slave's rebellion,
colonize his body in chains: the sun will never set
on my empire over him. But instead
I shoulder my muskets and spread into him like an idea
not found in any of the history books
my fingers sliding in and spreading like possibilities
myriad sex that won't indenture the living
or raise the dead, though the noises he's making might
moans the shade of crushed indigo
deep and thick and hairy and ancient, like cities from past ages
sprawling with life, his cities he wanted me to destroy
and replace with my own, but he can't help but resurrect them
with this torrent of pleasured screams;
the growing pains of a new global power.

I slip out of him, nails scraping on his insides as I depart
marking territory, taking soil as souvenirs;
inside him, only a taste of me remains
to grow into a hunger, a gnawing desire
to rebuild; he will seek knowledge in strangers' hands
never again a subject, now a revolutionary;
soon his nation will conquer mine
land on my shores, colonize me, teach me songs
to hum and moan as he penetrates me
all the way back to my ancestors;
together, we will rewrite history
as the shared tonguing of our restraints.

The Origins of Tongue Lashing

Welcome to Tongue Lashing's new blog/website/internet thingy. Here we'll be posting news, information, writing and announcements related to Tongue Lashing and other queer lit events like it. If you have any submissions or announcements you'd like us to plug for you, let us know! E-mail Matt at johnson.matthew.k@gmail.com.

So, a little history on Tongue Lashing - back in 2008, writer Charlie Vazquez was hosting Freaks Read at Nowhere Bar in the East Village, a series that later became his wildly popular "Panic!" reading series. I read stories there a couple of times, and talked with Nowhere management about starting a literary event of my own. Charlie's event usually consisted of anywhere from four to six invited writers, all reading work on a similar theme: for my event, I wanted to revive something that was a little more chaotic and unpredictable, but which had unfortunately been slowly going extinct in NYC.

I'd been going to open mikes since I was a Freshman in high school, when I first wandered on stage at readings run by the Wordstew Poetry Society in Honolulu, Hawaii, to lambast the audience with my vulgar, profane poetry that I thought meant I was deep. But the freedom of the open mike, and also the danger, that once I wrote my name down on that paper I was committed, appealed to me. When I came to New York, I expected to find open mikes being held in practically every bar and coffee shop, but found that I had missed the boat on most of them. Still, I found some great homes when I first arrived, like Jackie Sheeler's awesome Pink Pony West series that was held at the Cornelia Street Cafe, where I met so many amazing poets who would gladly look at my work and give me thoughts and edits to further sharpen my writing. (Pink Pony West still runs, now called Son of a Pony, still at Cornelia, still at 6 pm on Fridays - check it out!) It's really a great experience as a writer to brave a crowd and present your work, because oftentimes, they'll give you back even more than you can throw at them. So I wanted to bring it back, even in a small way.

We held the first Tongue Lashing in March 2010, and since then we've had a growing number of new and established readers who have jumped on our stage (and taken advantage of the free drink!) to share some sweet stories and sexy poetry, some heartbreaking essays and some hot rhymes... We're looking forward to an even more exciting 2011.

If you have any questions or want to get any more information about Tongue Lashing, e-mail Matt. Or better yet, come down to Phoenix on the first Thursday of every month; check out the reading, and if you're feeling brave, jump on stage and read some of your own work. We're really supportive, and we love new readers. You'll have fun!

Because that's the thing about a Tongue Lashing: you're putting yourself out there, you're turning your words into a weapon, a whip, a heat-seeking missile... But when you fire it off, when your tongue cracks words and images in halves and quarters and back again, you'll have us begging for more.