Spoken Word Paris, one of the best things in a city full of the best things, has launched a monthly podcast, Spoken Word Sounds.
The first episode begins with the chime of a bell at Au Chat Noir in the 11th arrondissement and someone asking, “Is this the spot to sign up, please?” One of the hosts, Alberto Rigettini, answers in his rapturously Italian accent, “I don’t know, it looks pretty, pretty full.” Each spot gives the performer five minutes to do anything they want to do: poetry, music, fiction, stand-up, short plays, literally anything. The only rule is that it has to be five minutes long.
SpokenWord Sounds by SpokenWord Paris
“There’s two things we’re about,” says David Barnes, founder of Spoken Word Paris and the Other Writers’ Group at Shakespeare & Co. And the most important one is vulnerability. It means taking the risk of going on in front of people and sharing something of yourself, and saying something that is meaningful to you and sharing that.”
“And the other one is the art of performance, whatever that is, whatever you know about the craft or the theater of performing.”
The first episode and future releases can be found on the Spoken Word Paris Bandcamp site. For anyone in Paris, upcoming themes are “Miracles” on December 14th and “Winter” on the 21st.
Spoken Word Paris at Au Chat Noir
76 rue Jean-Pierre Timbaud, Paris 11th
Métro Parmentier, Couronnes
Sign ups start at 8pm, show starts at 8:30pm, every Monday
Open Secret at Bistrot des Artistes
6 rue des Anglais, Paris 5th,
Métro St. Michel, Maubert-Mutualité
Sign ups start at 8:30pm
Skip to content
Monday, March 9 at 20:00
Au Chat Noir, 76 rue Jean-Pierre Timbaud 75011. Métro Parmentier/Couronnes
The Spoken Word is an open mic event featuring poetry, monologue, stories and music. This week, among other fascinating readers and musicians, travel and screen writer Erin Byrne will read an excerpt from a story about The Storykeeper, a film about occupied Paris made with filmmaker Rogier Van Beeck Calkoen, from the ELJ collection, Wild Horses, and travel writer and sketch artist Candace Rose Rardon will read her story from the Lonely Planet anthology, An Innocent Abroad.
A stunning collection by ELJ Publications authored by 16 women sharing their words and journeys as women through poetry, fiction and non-fiction. To order go to eljpublications.com.
Life-changing stories from 35 great writers, edited by Don George. www.lonelyplanet.com.
David Barnes
Founder of Spoken Word in Paris
(c) Discover Paris!
Our feature article in this month’s Paris Insights is about Spoken Word, an open-microphone event held Monday nights at a bar called Culture Rapide. Founded by David Barnes, an Englishman living in Paris, Spoken Word provides an opportunity for aspiring poets, writers, singers, and actors to read or perform their works before a friendly audience. Each participant gets five minutes to give his or her presentation. On the two evenings that we attended, we enjoyed presentations of poetry, songs, comedy routines, and improvisational acting. On one of the evenings, we watched a short film about a star-crossed love affair between a robot and a human, created by a young woman for a film class project. People of many different nationalities participate, mostly in English, but some in French. Spoken Word is a great occasion for travelers to Paris to experience the vibrant cultural mix of the city, whether as an observer or as a participant!
Tags: culture, open-microphone, Paris, poetry, spoken word
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In the basement of a bar, hidden words demand to awake. It’s up to you to find them, let them in. Beautiful words, fearful words. A night of poetry and freedom awaits. Are you ready to grab the mic? Are you prepared to be possessed?
Spoken word described by the organizers:
“SpokenWord Paris speaks all tongues from English & French to Japanese & Swahili.
SpokenWord Paris does 6 impossible things before breakfast and lives on a feast of dreams.
SpokenWord Paris has a foot in all the great cities of the world. And at least one in London, New York and Glasgow and 2 in Paris.
It was here before you knew you needed it. It will be here when you come back.
It’s performance poetry, story-telling, stand-up, monologue, a song or something else. An original text or a classic read well.
C’est lire vivant. It’s cabaret. It’s acoustic songs. Stand up comedy. 5 minute plays…
It’s a space to do anything with words or performance.
There’s only one rule – make the words come alive.”
Or in a more into earth perspective: “Running since 2006, SpokenWord Paris is the biggest English open mic spoken word night in Paris”.
When? Every Monday. Sign up and hang out in the bar from 8pm, poetry begins at 9pm. Until midnight (it’s the Cinderella rule). You need to sign up if you want to have your chance to speak.
Where? At the Chat noir, 76 rue Jean Pierre Timbaud, 75011.
Metro Parmentier, M3.
Metro Couronnes, M2.
The place may change, check Spoken Word Paris’ blog for updates.
How much? FREE.
More information: Here
This entry was posted in Ad vitam, Culture, Free!!, Miscellaneous, Talks and tagged 75011, bar, chat noir, english, free, jean pierre timbaud, open mic, paris, poetry, spoken word, words. Bookmark the permalink.
Paris Spoken Word
PARIS – It was time on Sunday night and Monday to visit the spoken word places in Paris again with Ornella Bonventre and our TAC Théâtre monologue routine. The only problem was that we could not find a spoken word event on Sunday night…until we realized that Paddy Sherlock’s fabulous new Paris Songwriters Club evening is also open to poetry and spoken word, as long as it is – like the music – original material. So we performed there with great pleasure, before trying out the Spoken Word Paris event at the Chat Noir for the first time….
At Paddy Sherlock’s event, we found a perfect stage and audience for spoken word, but I was a little disappointed that there were not more musicians, poets, spoken word artists or spectators present. Oh, it was a wonderful evening, and at maximum there might have been a dozen or more people. But Paddy himself put out a word on Facebook afterwards, trying to encourage more people to come for the next edition, or he risks losing the evening.
First at Paris Songwriters Club
My feeling at both of the evenings I have attended at the Tennessee Bar with Paddy was that this has the potential to be one of the best open mics in Paris, so I hope people discover it fast!
Ornella and Brad woman question
From the Tennessee to the Chat Noir and Spoken Word Paris
Although a few years ago I did try to sing a song at the Chat Noir bar’s Spoken Word Paris event on Monday night, there’s nothing like trying to do actual Spoken Word at this event, which is no doubt Paris’s most popular English-language spoken word event. So it was a natural place to try out Ornella’s monologue, with me providing the soundtrack on my guitar (and occasional vocals, and a few spoken asides).
Wayne at Paris Songwriters Club
It also proved to be as much fun as a spectator as it was as a performer. And in honor of this being a Spoken Word event, I decided (thanks also to forgetting to bring my phone or other camera) to paste together several excerpts from the evening in a 5-minute podcast. So listen to the patched together medley here and above of a few moments from Monday evening’s Spoken Word Paris event at the Chat Noir for a taste of the far out kind of thing you can expect to hear….
This new bit of activity in the spoken word open mics has given me a real feeling of refreshing the blog with something slightly new, but right in line with what it is all about. I hope you agree….