Sights & Sounds is your weekly guide to the Bay Area arts scene. Author Dickson Lam told KALW’s Jeneé Darden about three fantastic arts events happening around the Bay this weekend.
- Spontaneous Storytelling at the Layover (OAK) 4/6
- Youth Speaks Teen Poetry Slam Finals at the Sydney Goldstein Theater (SF) 4/6
- SFJAZZ Poetry Festival presents American Dream States at the Joe Henderson Lab (SF) 4/6
Spontaneous Storytelling is an event that combines the fun of meeting new people with hearing and telling true stories. The night starts with players taking turns telling stories to strangers at the bar in a social game with selected themes. Then people will have the chance to get up on stage to tell their story and win a free drink. It’s happening this Saturday night at the Layover in Oakland.
“Basically it’s like an open mic, you can just go up there and tell your story, and I think it’s so important for us to get a chance to tell stories and to hear each other’s stories.”
The Youth Speaks Teen Poetry Slam Finals are happening this Saturday evening at the Sydney Goldstein Theater in San Francisco. This is one of the Bay Area's largest youth poetry slams and the Top 6 poets will represent the Bay Area in Las Vegas at this year’s Brave New Voices Festival.
“You’ll go there and you’ll see someone young and then a few years later you’re gonna see them being the professional poet out there, so it’s really cool to see how people evolve.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QCciy6ogcUg
The SFJAZZ Poetry Festival presents American Dream States. This event will feature writers of different genres responding to a key piece of writing on the American Dream, and performing their pieces with a live band. The featured poet will be this year’s SFJAZZ Poet Laureate Marc Bamuthi Joseph. There will be two showings this Saturday night at the Joe Henderson Lab in San Francisco.
“This is going to be sort of an all-star cast of musicians, writers; all responding to this idea of American Dream, which I think is super relevant today, so I’m really looking forward to what they have to say.”
Dickson Lam's award-winning memoir Paper Sons is available now.
