Mama Blue (aka: Zaire Imani) has been a powerful feminine force that has riveted audiences nationwide for the past 7 years. To her credit Zaire has been the St. Louis Grand SLAM champion and a St. Louis SLAM team member for the past 6 consecutive years. She opened up to a packed house for Ursula Rucker at Blueberry Hill in 2000, ranked 6th in the nation at the 2001 National Poetry SLAM in Seattle and opened for The Roots
during the OK Player Tour. Zaire has also opened for spoken word/hip hop artists Gil Scott-Herron and Bahamadia.
Zaire's stage name, Mama Blue, is a personification of her urban folk artist lifestyle, which includes being a profession childbirth assistant, or Doula, and displaying her multimedia artwork throughout the region at 7 different galleries. Her strong connection to the earth is demonstrated in her visual art through her use of vibrant tones and raw, organic imagery.
Her autobiographically inspired paintings often depict woman as mother, healer, goddess, sorceress and seductress. The MAMA BLUE series of oil/pastel paintings was birthed into existence in fall, 1995 and is an ever-growing entity. As of January, 2001, the series contains 13 paintings. As in her spoken word, Mama Blue's artwork conveys images of empowerment through ritual, struggle and growth. Mama Blue's strong words and paintings can be combined as a multimedia showcase. The art exhibit and performance compliment one another and create a body of work that tells a story of the urban-rebel-goddess, new millenium bush-woman who is Mama Blue.
Currently, Mama Blue is performing in open mics throughout St. Louis and at the St. Louis Poetry SLAM. She conducts SLAM Poetry Workshops for area youth in high schools and middle schools through the St. Louis non-profit organization: WORD In Motion. She has future plans on producing Pomegranate and Goddess Girls, two workshops dealing with female empowerment through self-knowledge and the arts.
Most importantly, Mama Blue is the loving and skilled mother of 7 children.
Upcoming Performance Dates:
UCITY LOOP IN MOTION FESTIVAL
FRIDAY OCTOBER 5, 2007
(314) 727-8000 or email loopadm@ucityloop.com.
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OCTOBER 11th
WORD
MAMA BLU Featuring ROME
@ UPSTAIRS LOUNGE
South Grand Ave.
Debut Release "LunaVerses" (coming soon)
DIA de los Muertos FIESTA & SAMBA de ESQueletos poetry & music Oct31 @ MOKABES--Volunteers needed to CELEBRATE, FIESTA, & make joyful noise & SAMBA!
Commune with the spirits, remember & commemorate heroes & beloved, & disappeared children.
FIESTA with us, participate in the SKELETON SAMBA or let Wayne St. Wayne or other artists paint skeleton bones on you or come in a costume creation for the Skeleton SAMBA parade.
Tickets are on a sliding scale donation: $5 to $50 & you can also bid on the artwork for the silent auction
to benefit WORD in Motion Inner City School SLAM poetry programs & Lakota prisoner Leonard Peltier's defense fund.
In a dream come true, there will be a skeleton parade snaking around the block with lots of musicians & skeletal people dressed as salsa dancers, Mexican revolutionaries, AZTECas, bride & groom or a variety of other characters and/or carrying large signs with photos of the remembered, children, maybe some skeleton pinatas& musicians with guitars, drums, trumpets, etc -- think CARNAVAL, New Orleans JAZZ funeral.
Participating so far: Cheryl Denise Smith Walker, sound man Doug Helmsing who plans to create a live recording of the event, filmmaker/writer David Wraith Dandridge, Theater ASKEW's Margeaux Baue Steinau, Mark Pannebecker, Stephanie Lynn Williams, Chris Johnson's HEADED SOUTH, Hari Sky Campbell, Digger Blaque, Michael O'brien, Errol King Hosea, Craig Downs & Box of Nerves, Maxine Beach, Amy Cate Schroeder, Jeannie "the Angel Heavenly" Breeze, Brett Underwood, Alima Sadaq Afsal poet & writer for the East St. Louis Monitor, Paul Stewart "The ONe-Man-Riot, guitarist Peter Woods, Bill Kranz, The Celestial Theatre, & Guadalupe Sound
Jazz Liberators Miguel Migs + Junior Reid Umod Ed Solo, Skool of Thought Sa-Ra Common Tosca + Rodney Hunter Overtone + Inverse Cinematics OK-MA Katzuma Miguel Migs
Tried to wish you a happy birthday on your birthday, but didn't know how to get a hold of you and Tilnise said visiting you at your home would be a wasted trip, so...I tried. Happy Birthday! And Happy Belated Birthday and Merry Solstice and Happy Christmas and Happy New Moon and Merry New Year. and stuff. Hope to see you again one day. LOL! Kisses.
greetings sistah mamblu..how r u .. long time...just weanted to invite u to a bbq in the backyrad on memorial day... bring the kids and swimsuits... reggae band playn and other musik as well...free food... come have fun...let me know if u need directions... blessed dionne
![Bakari Mikael [WAX POETIC]](http://c1.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images02/63/s_cecd6230593c4c92ae62bcec814944a8.jpg)
