$15 in advance/$20 at the door

5pm doors/7:30pm showtime

All-Ages

(*A free copy of Phil’s book is included in the ticket purchase, and will be available at the show.)

Button Poetry:

Button Poetry is a Minneapolis-based company and independent publisher, and the world's largest distributor of spoken word and performance poetry media. Button runs a number of local poetry shows, including Button Poetry Live.

Phil Kaye:

Raised in a California beach town by a Japanese mother and Jewish-American father, Phil first fell in love with spoken word poetry at age 17. He has performed in hundreds of venues in fifteen countries. In 2015, Phil was invited to perform alongside His Holiness The Dalai Lama for the celebration of his 80th birthday. His work has been viewed online over 10 million times and featured in media outlets ranging from NPR to Al Jazeera America to Upworthy.com. Phil is a graduate of Brown University and the co-director of Project VOICE.

Blythe Baird:

Blythe Baird is a spoken word poet, actress, editor, and college student. Her work has gone viral as well as been published or featured by The Huffington Post, Write Bloody, Mic, EverydayFeminism, Vagabomb, Bustle, A-Plus, Yahoo, and Ashton Kutcher. In 2016, her poem “Pocket-Sized Feminism” was ranked the #1 most viewed poem on Button Poetry and was picked up by Motion Poems to be adapted as a short film. She has performed for colleges across the country, sexual violence prevention events, eating disorder awareness seminars, youth homeless shelters, book releases, and more.

Saymoukda Vongsay:

Saymoukda Duangphouxay Vongsay is a Lao American writer. She was born in a refugee camp in Nongkhai, Thailand and immigrated to Minnesota in 1984. Her work is focused on creating tools and spaces for the amplification of refugee voices through poetry, theater, and experimental cultural production. Her plays have been presented by the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center, Theater Mu, Consortium of Asian American Theater Artists, and Theater Unbound. She is a Many Voices fellow in playwriting, a Loft Literary Center Spoken Word Immersion fellow, a Theater Mu New Performance fellow, a VERVE Grant for Spoken Word Poets recipient, an Emerging Artist grant recipient from Forecast Pubic Art, and an Aspen Ideas Bush Foundation scholar. Keep up with her Refugenius. 

Renée Copeland:

Renée Copeland has performed with Ananya Dance Theatre since 2010. She is co-founder of the dance/performance-art duo Hiponymous, is a collaborator in the hip-hop-based dance collective BRKFST, and is a poet, musician, and singer-songwriter. She holds enduring gratitude for the Twin Cities’ immense community of artists, family and friends, who inspire so much of her work, connecting her to the world.

Neil Hilborn:

Neil Hilborn is a College National Poetry Slam champion and a 2011 graduate with honors from Macalester College. In 2013 his poem "OCD" went viral, garnering over 75 million views to date, making it one of the most-viewed poems of all time. He has performed in 39 states and 7 countries, and in 2017 alone he traveled more than 50,000 miles to perform his poetry. Originally from Houston, Texas, he now lives in Saint Paul, Minnesota. The Future is Neil’s second full-length poetry collection.