Goes From Stage to Page and CD
Acclaimed Choreopoem Makes Its Print Debut
RELEASE RESCHEDULED
CHICAGO – Aqua Beats and Moon Verses: Volume I, the first offering from
AquaMoon (camil.williams and veronica precious bohanan), will be released
October 2006. The second publication from Chicago’s UnSilenced Woman Press,
Volume I is a womyn-centered choreopoem (combining poetry, music, and
choreography).
To celebrate the release of Aqua Beats and Moon Verses: Volume I and Beats and
Verses: Volume I, UnSilenced Woman Press will be hosting a reading and signing
event on Friday, October 20, 2006. This special event will feature AquaMoon and
other special guests reading selections from the book and CD, and will be held at
Afrocentric Bookstore, 4655 S. King Drive, in Chicago. The event will begin at 7:30
p.m. and is free and open to the public. The book and complimentary CD will be
available for purchase for the one night only discounted amount of $17.
AquaMoon, an entity of SpokenExistence, Inc., is a writing, performance, and
artistic duo that helps to bridge the gap between the streets, hip-hop feminism,
performance activism, and academia. Aqua Beats and Moon Verses: Volume I is
the team’s poetic affirmation that resumes in the tradition of Ntozake Shange’s
choreopoem, ‘for colored girls who have considered suicide/when the rainbow is
enuf,’ and goes beyond Eve Ensler's, "Vagina Monologues," making it specific to
African American womyn.
Aqua Beats and Moon Verses: Volume I was written and premiered in 2004. Since
its debut, AquaMoon has added live music to the production, taken on the role of
director and choreographer, modified the script to be appropriate for teenage girls,
implemented an educational guide, and created a two-womon show. Now, the
choreopeom transitions back to the page in book form, including footnotes. As an
educational supplement the book is accompanied by a CD highlighting select
poems.
Aqua Beats and Moon Verses: Volume I examines such thought provoking issues
as: motherless and fatherless daughters, friendship, Black womyn and the March
for Women’s Lives, womyn claiming their positive place and roles in the hip-hip
culture, reproductive rights, womyn's health and HIV/AIDS, surviving sexual assault
and overcoming substance abuse.
Beats and Verses: Volume I, co-produced by Josie Cole of Invasion Entertainment,
is the CD accompaniment to Volume I, and is unlike any spoken-word CD you’ve
heard. The CD is a complimentary educational supplement along with discussion
questions. Like the choreopoem, Beats and Verses: Volume I gives a rhythmic
voice to womyn and girls of African descent who may otherwise go unheard. The
CD also introduces a couple of poems from "Volume II, Brotha…Wassup Sun?"
The aim of UnSilenced Woman Press is to publish poetry, spoken word, dramatic
works, memoirs, historical documents, fiction, art work and essays that embrace the
many dimensions of being a girl and womon. The womyn-centered press, based in
Chicago, exists to cultivate the creativity and voice of girls and womyn of African
descent, by publishing emerging and established writers. For more information, or
to schedule a reading/signing event in your area, please visit UnSilenced Woman
Press' website at http://www.unsilencedwomanpress.com, or call 773-469-6906.
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Copies of Aqua Beats and Moon Verses: Volume I can be ordered by writing:
UnSilenced Woman Press
28 E. Jackson Bldg.
10th Floor B-822
Chicago, IL 60604
E-mail and phone inquiries may be sent to info@unsilencedwomanpress.com,
773-469-6906.