PUTNEY — Next Stage Arts Project presents world-renowned slam poet, educator, and performance artist Taylor Mali on Friday, Sept. 21, at 7:30 p.m., in a performance to benefit the community nonprofit Next Stage Arts.
Mali is one of the most well known poets to have emerged from the poetry slam movement. A dynamic poet, performance artist and author, Mali is described by the New York Times as “a ranting comic showman and literary provocateur.”
A middle school teacher for nine years prior to becoming a full time writer and performer, Mali's work focuses on the vitally important role teachers play in our society, and his YouTube clip “What Teachers Make” has been widely cited in the press and viewed more than 4 million times.
Mali is the former president of Poetry Slam, Inc., the nonprofit organization that oversees all poetry slams in North America. He is also the author most recently of What Teachers Make: In Praise of the Greatest Job in the World (Putnam 2012), as well as two books of poetry, The Last Time As We Are (Write Bloody Books 2009) and What Learning Leaves (Hanover 2002).
He received a New York Foundation for the Arts Grant in 2001 to develop Teacher! Teacher! a one-man show about poetry, teaching, and math which won the jury prize for best solo performance at the 2001 Comedy Arts Festival.
Next Stage Arts Project board member Rebecca Waxman said, “Taylor Mali embodies the best of what Next Stage is about: brilliant, world-class, innovative artistry, presented right in the heart of our local community.”
Mali's will sign copies of his books which will be available for purchase at the Next Stage performance.
This show is being presented in collaboration with Vermont Academy, The Putney School, and Landmark College. Tickets are $20 for general admission, $18 for students and seniors. They are available at www.nextstagearts.org. For more information, contact Next Stage Arts at 802-387-0102 or nextstagearts@gmail.com.
Next Stage Arts Project is a nonprofit organization dedicated to revitalizing Putney's cultural and economic village center through the programming, development and operation of Next Stage.