J. Otis Powell! has been a member of: Wii Bop, The Ways Ensemble, News as Abstrat Truth, The New Day Blues Band, tHE eDgE enSeMbLe, Tribo, Imp Ork, Avatar, SIRIUS B, Afrika's Ensemble, Now, Stigmatism World Ensemble, Pangea World Theater, Drumming Words - Spoken Hearts and Revolutionary Hearts.
Influences
Amiri Baraka, Oluyemi Thomas, Zora Neale Huston, Oliver Thomas, Ijeoma Thomas, The Last Poets, Margeret Walker, Nikki Giovanni, Ralgh Ellingson, Langston Hughes, Alexs Pate, James Baldwin, Sun-Ra, John Coltrane, AACM, Malcolm X, Toni Morrison, Alice Walker, Nathaniel Mackey, Yusef Komunyakaa, Maya Angelou and Sekou Sundiata.
Sounds Like
Amiri Baraka. Sekou Sundiata. Last Poets. Gil Scott Heron. Others.
Is Always Be: A Brief Bio of J. Otis Powell!
J. Otis Powell! is a writer, performer, educator, curator, producer, consultant and arts administrator. He is also a practitioner of Open Space Technology and has used OST for more than fifteen years with notable success in various productions, in educational scenarios, in administrative consultations and as a means to resolve conflicts. J. Otis lives and works in a jazz aesthetic while calling attention to the improviser in us all; the Open Space everywhere and artificial constructs that keep us from freedom. He is no longer preoccupied with what he has done and focused on who he is because of his experience. Current projects include but are not limited to: writing a novel titled Bottomless Sky, a new collection of poems titled Chocolate Blue and collaborating with several individual artists on long term endeavors. He's also working as a radio producer at KFAI Community Radio, a curator with Pangea World Theater on Bridges, as a mentor, editor and roster artist for The Givens Foundation for African American Literature, collaborating with The April Sellers Dance Collective and occasionally performing solo and with various ensembles through out the state of Minnesota and the USA.
J. Otis' poetry has been published in two books of his original work: THEOLOGY (Traffic Street Press) & My Tongue Has No Bone (Porter Publishing), and numerous anthologies and magazines including: ache Magazine, RUMINATOR Review, DrumVoices, Siren, Futures Magazine, The Drumming Between Us, Collage, Hungry Mind Review, A Definitive Guide To the Twin Cities, A View from the Loft, Colors Magazine, The Artist's Voice, the Star Tribune, Insight News, Air Check, Public Art Review, Art Paper, The North Coast Review, Performance Twin Cities, the Arts Midwest Jazz Letter, Twin Cities Jazz Notes, Powderhorn Writer's Festival Broadside Project, The Critical Stage and Critical Conditions.
His words have also been recorded, to date, on several recordings: The 2nd Annual Chicago Calling Recorded Live On WNUR, The Ghost Dog Tour with Stir Trio and Forword Energy, a Digital Visual/Audio Disk titled News as Abstract Truth, Unsentimental with Rene Ford, THIS CAT IS OUT, in association with The New Day Blues Band, THEOLOGY: Love & Revolution, Words Will Heal The Wound, an anthologies produced for National Poetry Month and FILHO D’AGUA with percussionist Eliezer Freitos Santos
J. Otis publishes in mid air as well through performances with ensembles such as Stir Trio, Rene Ford Group, The Ways Ensemble, Wii Bop, Nu Griots. The New Day Blues Band, STIGMATISM World Ensemble, Afrika’s Ensemble, Revolutionary Hearts, SIRIUS B, OGU, NOW!, tHE eDGE eNSEMBLE, IMP ORK, Tribo, and DRUMMING WORDS/SPOKEN HEARTS. As a producer: Powell! Was creator, writer and producer of Sketches of You, a weekly arts television magazine and writer, narrator and associate producer of MAKING A STEP, an on the road documentary of the Mighty Clouds of Joy, both for WSRE-TV in Pensacola, FL. J. Otis worked as researcher and segment producer for RESEARCH JOURNAL, a TV series, at Rarig Center for the University of Minnesota. He conceived, wrote and produced a performance arts show titled THE GODS MUST BE PIMPS, in a series for Intermedia Arts. Other stage productions include Holy Ghosts Dance, at Red Eye, SEAMLESS, at the Southern Theater, THEOLOGY: Love & Revolution, a CD recording and a performance arts event at Studio 6A in Hennepin Center for the Arts & at the Knitting Factory in New York City
AWARDS & ACCOMPLISHMENTS: a recipient a Loft Creative Nonfiction Award, a Jerome Travel and Study Grant, two Jerome Mid Career Artists Grants and Intermedia Arts’ Interdisciplinary McKnight Fellowship. He was a founding producer on the award winning Write On Radio!, the Twin Cities literary connection, at KFAI-FM in Minneapolis, he also worked as Communities’ Liaison & Program Director for Interdisciplinary Collaborations at The Loft Literary Center, the nation's most comprehensive independent literary organization.
Other awards and honors that Powell! has received for his work include: Silver Award of Excellence in Television Production for Sketches Of You from the Pensacola Press Club, Gold Award of Excellence in Television Production for Sketches Of You Pensacola Press Club, listed in Who's Who in Black America, A Juneteenth Poetry Award, selected as a presenter in the Good Thunder Series at Mankato State, selected as a Visiting Scholar for University Center Rochester & A Special Merit Award from the National Federation of Community Broadcasters as a producer of Write On Radio!.
Here it comes...Mi new book Beat Black Kids debuts at the Harlem Book Fair July 18, 2009. It's time to take a look, change our ways and get rid of a dirty passed on habit. Visit www.beatblackkids.com next week for details!
Open your eyes - Take a look around Turn that frown - Upside down Make it happen - Handle yours When the windows close - Reach for the doors You are a conqueror - Unstoppable to say the least So keep on your grind - Be that positive beast That will keep going - When others say stop Clog your ears to that nonsense - You hear what they say, NOT So stay focused - You will surely reap your rewards And the haters will sit back and watch - While you are blessed with all that is yours
Here is something I wrote a while back :-) Hope you are having a great week!
Ode to the Radish-
I have been thinking about you for the past few days needing you wanting to put your crunchy body in my mouth devouring you compulsively you entice me, as you bathe in lemon and salt appearing sinful at first glance, but underneath your devilish exterior lies a pure, virginal center you are amazing, delicious the root of all evil you are hypnotic I want to bite you and wash away all of your outer impurities thank you for being there beautiful one
My dear, dear friend, please forgive me for not stopping by sooner. I hope that you are doing very well. Please drop me a line to let me know what's new :-) Big hugs, ~M
"Who hasn't asked himself, am I a monster or is this what it means to be human?" — Clarice Lispector
They Lied To Me When They Said “Time Will Heal Every Wound!” Tht Another Lovers’ Touch Could Ever Replace The Passion Tht Your Lips Consumed. Tht Your Kiss… No Matter Hw Sweet… No Matter Hw Perfect Our Embrace... Would One Day Be Swallowed Up By The Masses Until I No Longer Recognize Your Face. They Said “Many Day Will Become Nights & Many Nights Will Become Weeks…” Tht For A Season It Will Feel Like Torture Between The Moments Tht We Speak! But After Weeks Become Months & Months Become Years, One Morning Tht 1st Impulse To Call Out Your Name Would Simply Disappear! One Evening Tht FAITHFUL Moon That, Once, Guided My Heart To Yours, Would, Instead, Lead My Midnight Flight To The Edge Of Obsidian Shores. They Said “Look Around You? What Do You See… Beyond The Summer Bloom Of The Mimosa? Those Same People Who SPAT On Christ As HE Stumbled Down The True Via Dolorosa!?” The Same People Who Claimed To Be Children Of Light But Cast Shadows Over Your Moments Of Lose!?” They Said “Not Every Man Is Meant To Embrace True Love - So Brotha’ Lay Down Your Heavy Cross!” ...Tht My Sacrifice Would Be In Vain, Because No Matter Hw Hard We Tried, No One Will Ever Know Hw Much I Love You... But THOSE Mutha*****’s Lied! How Could I Rip Out This Crown Of Thorns, Tht SO Deeply Pierces My Heart? Knowing Tht Heaven & Earth Are Bound By The Promise Of Our Souls NEVER Being TRULY Apart!? -LiquidPoetry2009 Read Complete "TRUTH & LIES" On My Blog
Many Blessings Brothers & Sisters/Old Friends & New! I Know It's Been A Long Time Since Any Of You Have Heard From Me, But Your Thoughts, Emails & Texts Did Not Go Unappreciated! Your Prayers Really Made A Difference! May The Lord Of Mercy Continue To Bless You All! Peaceful Journeys LP
we are so honored to have you in our midst, J Otis... to have your work at our finger tips! you are one of the greatest writers that i've read and i feel incredibly blessed to actually know you... to find you walking down the street or catching a bus... i feel lucky! as all residents of the Twin Cities should! we have living excellence amongst us! as the youth say, "You betta RECOGNIZE!!!"
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