The Common Language Project: Transformation will culminate in a public reading featuring ten special winners selected from the thirty that will appear in the CLP anthology! The reading will take place Thursday, April 25th, at 7pm, at Arts Mission Oak Cliff (410 S. Windomere, Dallas, Texas 75208). The reading will feature special performances from the Dallas Youth Poets and the return of guest poet Lyn Lyric!

THE WINNING POEMS:

• Dan Collins, "A Quantum Experiment Suggests"
• Alexandra Corinth, "Intrigue"
• Steven Duncan, "Dark Flowers"
• Patricia DeVilliers, "My Mother (and Alzheimer's)"
• Paul Koniecki, "curiosity for the dead"
• Kari Lynch, "Communion"
• Joe Milazzo, "Laughing Stock"
• Mz. Jolie, "Reclaiming my life"
• Mark David Noble, "an accounting"
• Ruth Woolson, "Reminiscence"

ABOUT THE COMMON LANGUAGE PROJECT: TRANSFORMATION

Born of a desire to bring the many members of the North Texas poetry community into conversation with each other, The Common Language Project places participants in the same room and turns them loose to dream. United by a list of shared words and confined only by the space of a page, the poems of the project weave a tapestry of radically divergent experiences that sing, simmer and singe. Together, these poems give us a place to come together, somewhere from which we can start, from which we can thrive.

Now in its second year, The Common Language Project invites you to re-enter this shared and sacred space and give testimony to a transformation. Spin for us a story of strange and dramatic alteration: a change in a body, in a world, in a heart or a mind. Growth or decline, mutation or metamorphosis, confusion or clarity–we want to hear about a transformation that sheds light on the uncharted and unknown.

ABOUT DALLAS YOUTH POETS:

Dallas Youth Poets seeks to provide a platform for youth in the greater Dallas area to hone their craft as poets.

The program is facilitated by award-winning teacher and poets & mentors Princess McDowell, Terry Odis & Rage Almighty. Initiated in Spring of 2012, Dallas Youth Poets was designed with the goal of teaching youth poets that their voices are their power and with their voices they can write the wrongs of the world one poem at a time.

Students who actively participate in the program throughout the year become eligible to compete in the Dallas Youth Poets area wide competition, where the highest scoring poets form the current year's Dallas Youth Poets team, that will go on to represent Dallas at the Brave New Voices youth poetry festival.

ABOUT DEJA:

Deja, also known as Female, is a high school poet. She is a UIL Poetry state champion and national Beta Club runner up. She is a part of the 2019 Dallas Youth Poets, and is excited to release her first book in September this year.

Deja began writing poems in 6th grade and uses them to push her activism agenda of raising awareness for mental illness, domestic violence and combating discrimination.

ABOUT GABBY E:

When Gabby E. isn’t purging her soul on paper or a stage, she is working at a non-profit daycare satisfying her desire to work with children. Gabby is loud, energetic, and, above all, dedicated.

Recently she published her first book “Baby Poet Problems” and is the 2019 Dallas Poetry Slam Grand Slam Champion. She hosts open mics and workshops with the Dallas Youth Poets where she was formerly a three time member and two time captain. This year she has the honor of learning alongside her coaches in helping coach the 2019 DYP slam team.

ABOUT LYN LYRIC:

Lyn Lyric is a Singer, Songwriter, Poet, and Actress. In March of 2015 Lyn Lyric released her long-awaited poetry and music CD entitled "Of Verse & Song" at The Black Academy of Arts and Letters. This versatile performer has landed rolls in productions such as Love Doesn't Hurt, Behind The Cotton Curtain (a Tribute to Medgar Evers), The Black Nativity, The Book of Queens, and Just Call Him to name a few. Lyn Lyric is a crowd favorite at The Black Academy of Arts and Letters Poet's N Jazz, Poetry Smash and the longest running all female poetry show in Texas: In The Words Of A Sistah. In February of 2017 Lyn Lyric Smith graced an a sold-out crowd at Margo Jones Theatre with the One Woman Show "A Poet's Tribute To Nina Simone". Lyn Lyric Smith's style, grace, vocal and word symmetry has made her a staple on area stages and beyond.