TWiN Poetry Reading in Benefit for Girls Write Now

George Wallace, author of sixteen chapbooks of poetry, tours nationally and internationally to read his work at cafes, universities and festivals. A trained musician as well as a master poet, he has performed from the Bowery Poetry Club to Carnegie Hall, from the Beat Museum to Woodstock, from Boston to Fort Lauderdale, and from the Dylan Thomas Centre to Shakespeare & Co, Paris, and Cindy Sheehan’s antiwar protests. Praised for the 'Whitmanian breadth' of his voice, and his distinctive merger of bop prosody and surreal commentary, recent years have seen Wallace on stage in collaboration with musicians or on the card with them, a list that includes David Amram, Thurston Moore, DJ Spooky, John Sinclair, Paul Winston, Joan Baez, Steve Earle and Levon Helm. His latest CD is the acclaimed Sky Is. Visit George at www.myspace.com/ggwallace

Jackie Sheeler is a poet, performer, blogger and producer with one full-length CD and three books in print. Once named the Poet Laureate of Riker’s Island, Jackie has performed widely and founded both the poetz.com website and the Pink Pony reading series. Her first collection of poems, The Memory Factory, won the Magellan Prize from Buttonwood Press in 2002. Her second book, Off the Cuffs, Poems by and about the Police, was published by Soft Skull Press in February 2003. Jackie recently published a chapbook, to[o] long, with Three Rooms Press and her poems often appear in literary journals such as New York Quarterly, Phoebe, The Ledge, Rattapallax, Slant, and others. At the moment she is focusing on a new political blog, www.getangrywithme.com, and producing a new solo album of acid spoken word. Visit her online at www.shoutedword.com

Ngoma is a former member of the Spirit House Movers and Players with Amiri Baraka and the contemporary freedom song duo, Serious Bizness. Ngoma was the Prop Slam winner of the 1997 National Poetry Slam Competition in Middletown, CT and has been published in African Voices Magazine, Long Shot Anthology, The Underwood Review, Signifyin' Harlem Review, 'Bum Rush The Page/Def Poetry Jam Anthology Poems, and On The Road To Peace. He was featured in the PBS Spoken Word Documentary, "The Apro-Poets" with Allen Ginsberg. Ngoma has hosted the slam at the Dr. Martin Luther King Festival of Social and Environmental Justice Festival (Yale University-New Haven, CT) for the past 12 years. His CDs include Didgitation: Solo Didgeridoo Musik for Meditation, Ancient Future Meditational Musik, and the two-disc compilation Ngoma:State of Emergency. Visit Ngoma at www.myspace.com/notyouraveragestringthing

Larissa Shmailo has been published in Fulcrum, Rattapallax, Big Bridge, Drunken Boat, Naropa’s We, and many other publications. Her popular CD, The No-Net World, has been heard on radio stations across the U.S. and the U.K. Larissa translated the Russian Futurist opera Victory over the Sun by A. Kruchenych; a DVD of the original English-language production is part of the collection of the New York Museum of Modern Art. She recently contributed translations to the new anthology Contemporary Russian Poetry published by Dalkey Archive Press. Her new chapbook is A Cure for Suicide (Cervena Barva Press) and her new CD is, Exorcism (SongCrew 2008). She is listed in the Poetry Kit Who’s Who in poetry. Larissa is a director of TWiN Poetry. Visit Larissa at www.myspace.com/thenonetworld

Bobby Perfect is a lifelong guitarist. In the early nineties, he played in the house band at
Dan Lynch's Sunday blues jam for Frankie Paris. More recently, he's worked with
the Blue Rooster Pie band, the Blues Blazers, the Tonebenders and the Night Owls.
He contributed the lead guitar to Leigh Harrison's Eclectic Chanteuse CD, showcasing
electric lead, dobro and lap slide and 12-string blues stylings, and produced and provided original music for Larissa Shmailo’s poetry CD, The No-Net World. His first CD, called Light Blue, was was released in 2002 on the SongCrew label. His latest CD Shackles, also on SongCrew records, features mostly original compostions ranging from solo acoustic guitar, to an electric fusion of blues, jazz and rock. He is the founder and president of SongCrew Records. Visit Bobby at www.myspace.com/songcrew

Cyndi Dawson is an actress, poet, and performance artist whose work with Venezualan Soho artist Rene received critical acclaim. Cyndi has worked in TV, film, and stage, as a stand-in for Madonna, in commercials, and as a featured actress on the show Law and Order. Cyndi has read her work in numerous clubs and poetry cafes and is currently working with noted bassist-composer Jair-Rôhm Parker Wells. Their collaboration has been a Feature of the Week for the Twin Poetry International Spoken Word Collective and has been featured as Fresh New Indie Talent on Ranter Radio. Cyndi’s first book of poetry is Dream Sequences. She is currently working on her second book of poetry, Inside of Outside. Cyndi's poetry has been published in numerous anthologies. Visit Cyndi at www.myspace.com/cyndidawson

Jair-Rôhm Parker-Wells is an American bassist, composer, programmer, conceptualist and record producer. A resident of Stockholm, Sweden since 1985, he is widely recognized as a highly individual voice on the electric bass guitar, Ashbory bass, Fichter electric double bass and acoustic bass guitar. Jair-Rôhm founded the experimental music/theater group Glass Thought Theater Ensemble and was composer in residence at the New York Theater Ensemble where he wrote and produced a trilogy of progressive operas. He is also one of the original members of the legendary New York improvising band Machine Gun. He is the recipient of commissions from Stockholm’s Stadsteatern and New York's Meet The Composer. His current CD is Steamroom Variations (Red Toucan Records). Visit Jair-Rôhm at www.myspace.com/jairrohm

About TWiN Poetry
TWiN Poetry is an informal collective of spoken word poets and their listeners with hubs in the United Kingdom, the United States, and Australia. Its mission is to promote the spoken word and provide promotional support to poets and spoken word artists. For more information about TWiN, visit:
www.myspace.com/twinpoetry
www.myspace.com/twinlondon
www.myspace.com/twineastcoast
www.myspace.com/twinaustralia