Contact: Golda Solomon, 877-529-9528, or gs@goldajazz.com

Cornelia Street Café: corneliastreetcafe@earthlink.net

For immediate release

Po’Jazz at The Cornelia Street Cafe

Poetry in Partnership with Jazz

Thursday, February 17th, 2005 6 - 8 p.m.

Po’Jazz, the one-of-a-kind jazz and poetry series at The Cornelia Street Café, is back from a short winter break and off to a rappin’ start for 2005 with featured poet Sam “Fish” Vargas. This first Po’Jazz performance of the year will take place Downstairs at the Café at 6:00 on February 17th in the series’ third Thursday evening of the month slot. The downstairs room opens at 5:30 for early dining and imbibing (serving the same fine food as upstairs). Admission is $15 ($13 students/seniors), which includes one drink.

Poet and host Golda Solomon, “The Medicine Woman of Jazz,” also welcomes back to the stage the unique styles and word flavors of poet Tamara Magnitsky and poet/rapper Jason Butler, and Jazz in the “Now” courtesy of the Po’Jazz House Quartet, consisting of Eliot Cardinaux on piano, Adam Chilenski on bass, Bram Kincheloe on drums, and Daniel Levine on trumpet.

Fish Vargas gave up semi-professional football three and a half years ago to devote himself to writing and performing slam poetry. Born and raised in the Bronx, he witnessed more than his share of drugs, violence, and death on the street, and his writing is steeped in that blunt realism. Through poetry, he turns his experience into something positive for himself as well as for the neighborhood he grew up in. Taylor Mali, the president of Poetry Slam Incorporated, says “He’s filled with passion, and he speaks with fire. If you listen closely, your ears will get burnt.”

Golda Solomon’s unique brand of jazz-flavored poetry has been described as having “a rhythm and spontaneity that goes right to the heart… (She) has found her perfect accompaniment in jazz” (Madeline Peters, President and founder of Poet’s Corner). Last year, Golda was featured at the 92nd Street Y’s Makor Marathon and Mamapalooza at the Bowery Poetry Club, she headlined a pair of performances in Denver, Colorado, and she was a finalist in the Jazz Poetry Slam at Nuyorican Café hosted by WBGO’s Gary Walker.

Po’Jazz is increasingly becoming “the place to be” every third Thursday. Gladys Serrano of Mutable Music says, “Po’Jazz at Cornelia Street is one big friendly party of good words, good sounds, and good food.” Performances are currently being recorded live for a new CD (expected release summer 2005).

This performance is part of a third Thursday of the month poetry and jazz series at The Cornelia Street Café programmed by ICAAN co-founder Golda Solomon in association with JazzJaunts (www.jazzjaunts.com). Dedicated to the belief that the arts are vital for tapping into processes needed for individual healing and community building, ICAAN (Interactive Communication and Arts Network) provides on-site arts programming to workplaces, schools and other organizations. For more information about ICAAN, call 877-529-9528 or visit www.icaan.biz.

The Café is located at 29 Cornelia Street, Greenwich Village, NYC. Po’Jazz events take place in the café’s downstairs performance space. By subway, take the A, C, E, F or V train to West 4th Street, or the 1 or 9 train to Christopher Street - Sheridan Square (walk 2.5 blocks east on West 4th and make a right onto Cornelia Street.) By car, take 7th Avenue south to Bleecker; left on Bleecker; left onto Cornelia. For more information, visit www.corneliastreetcafe.com, or call 212-989-9319.

The Cornelia Street Café poetry series is curated by Angelo Verga. The next event in this series will be held on Thursday, March 17th, from 6 until 8.

About the Artists
( e-mail info@icaan.biz for photos)

Jason Butler is a 25 year old poet/rapper who was raised in Yonkers, New York. He is currently producing music and performing poetry. He has written and recorded over 300 songs since beginning his music career at the age of twelve, and describes his genre of music as soulful, hip hop, poetry which comes in numerous styles. His influences in music and poetry are Curtis Mayfield, Al Green, Big Punisher and Edgar Allen Poe.

Eliot Cardinaux, piano, is a jazz piano student at the Manhattan School of Music. He was born in Dayton, Ohio in 1984 and moved to New York in the fall of 2003. He began playing jazz piano at the age of 15.

Adam Chilenski, bass, is excited to be living in NYC. Having recently moved here from Portland, Maine he already considers it his home. Adam has been making a living as a musician since high school, and says he has no plans to do anything else.

Bram Kincheloe, drums, has been playing music all of his life, starting drum lessons at the age of five and taking piano lessons from his mother. He has toured Japan twice with the Monterey Jazz Festival High School All Star Band, and visited Amsterdam twice to study at the Conservatory Von Amsterdam. Bram moved to New York at the age of 16 to study at the LaGuardia High School of Performing Arts. One year later, he left to attend the Manhattan School of Music, where he is currently studying with Justin Dicioccio.

Daniel Levine, trumpet, grew up in New York City in a family of musicians. He started playing trumpet at age 11, and became interested in jazz 2 years later when he first heard Miles Davis and John Coltrane. After three years of high school, he dropped out to have more time to practice, play and enjoy the wealth of music in New York City, and began meeting the various musicians he would come to play with at Po’Jazz and elsewhere. He moved to Boston to study at the New England Conservatory for a year, then returned to New York, where he is currently attending the Manhattan School of Music and having a great time playing and digging music.

Tamara Magnitsky, poet, was born in San Francisco and grew up there on the California coast, as well as in a small town in the Wyoming mountains. Of her poetry she states: “My mother was my original influence (I wrote my first poem to her at age 9) and remains a deep source of inspiration to this day. She herself wrote poetry as did her mother and grandmother. She offered me a way of considering the world in which poetry is a natural expression.”

Golda Solomon, “the medicine woman of jazz,” is a professor of communications, speech, and theater arts; a poet, performer, producer, and docent; a supporter of women musicians as well as young musicians, poets, and performers. She was project director of Po’Jazz at The Hudson Valley Writers’ Center for four years, and co-founded the brooklyn poetry choir. Golda has pioneered several unique businesses including JazzJaunts, a personalized jazz service, and, with Barbara Sfraga, ICAAN (Interactive Communication and Arts Network), which provides innovative, on-site, organization-specific arts programming to workplaces, schools, and other organizations. She and poet Monique Avakian are currently conducting “From Page to Performance” workshops for emerging poets and “ready to come out of the closet” writers. Golda has a collection of poetry, Flatbush Cowgirl, published in 1999, for which she co-produced a companion CD, First Set. She also co-produced the CD Po’Jazz: Takin’ It To The Hollow, which includes over 20 poets and musicians. In 2002, Golda's poetry won first prize at the Writer's Workshop in Asheville, North Carolina. Her book and CDs are available on www.amazon.com and www.jazzjaunts.com.

Sam “Fish” Vargas is a Bronx born & bred poet whose performances are imbued with a unique life perspective and raw truth. He has shared his words of power and experience at numerous venues, high schools, colleges, special events and national competitions. He is the co-founder of Acentos Poetry Series, based at the Blue Ox Bar in the Mott Haven section of the Bronx, and hosts louderMONDAYS at Bar 13 in Manhattan. He is a member of the louderARTS Project, a not-for-profit artist organization committed to the craft of poetry. He facilitates workshops for the Osborne Association / Fresh Start Program at Rikers Island, teaching inmates creative writing and poetry. Vargas is a Teaching Artist with the Community Word Project and Urban Word NYC and hopes to make a career of teaching poetry to the youth of under-served communities. He hosted the 2004 Latino/ indigenous showcase at the 2004 National Poetry Slam in St. Louis, and garnered a victory in the Slam Masters Slam, a contest where he and 34 National Slam organizers and prominent slam poets fought for the unofficial title of national slam champion. His work was recently published in the 2005 PSI Anthology. www.fishdawgdapoet.blogspot.com/ www.louderarts.com/poets/fish/