Special Guests at Beyond Baroque

Beyond Baroque presents special guests Hen House Studios.

HEN HOUSE STUDIOS
Venice Beach independent record label Hen House Studios curates a raucous night
of poetry and music celebrating some of the most original voices in Los Angeles. Hen House brings you, as always, an eclectic and genre-bending lineup of performers recorded live for a wild ride in improvisational music and verse. Be prepared for surprise special poets/musicians/visionaries!

MICHAEL C FORD is in the midst of an exciting new spoken word album with Hen House as well as It Might Not Be Poetry, a series of podcasts surveying the music and culture of Los Angeles throughout the 20th century. His book of Selected Poems Emergency Exits was honored by a 1998 Pulitzer Prize nomination and his debut spoken word vinyl Language Commando earned a Grammy nomination in 1986. Michael's accolades as well as his impact on the poetry and music scene in Los Angeles are too extensive to list.

ELLYN MAYBE is continuing her Poetry Rodeo at Beyond Baroque this fall and will be performing exclusive material for Hen House Presents. Ellyn's album with the studio, Rodeo for the Sheepish was featured as the top album of 2010 in famed critic Greil Marcus's column for The Believer magazine. Ellyn opened the MTV Spoken Word Tour in Los Angeles and has read widely, from Bumbershoot, the Poetry Project and the New School to South by Southwest, Lollapalooza, all over Europe and on the BBC, just to name a few. Writer's Digest named her one of ten poets to watch in the new millennium.

BABA ALADE is a multi-instrumentalist/poet/artist who first started playing jazz in his home town of Watts-California with the Jazz Prophets with Ndugu Leon Chancellor and later the Jazz Symphonics with Larry Nash as well as with a quartet that featured Herbert Baker and his long time friend Azar Lawrence. He rose to prominence on the bass recording with avant-garde, fusionist saxophone player Charles Lloyd. Much like the great music of one of his great teachers and friends, Taj Mahal, Baba Alade presents the blues in many forms and doesn't stray from evolving it. His album Unified and One with Hen House shows the "endless permutations" of his musical and artistic endeavors, which continue to evolve informed by his extensive travels and evocative performances.

RICH FERGUSON has performed across the country, has been heard on many radio stations, and has shared the stage with Patti Smith and Janet Hamill, Exene Cervenka and many other esteemed poets and musicians. He has performed widely and was a featured performer in the film, What About Me?. Rich has studied poetry with Allen Ginsberg and fiction writing with Aimee Bender and Sid Stebel. In addition, he has been published in the LA TIMES, spotlighted on PBS and was the recent winner in Opium Magazine's Literary Death Match, LA. He is a regular contributor and poetry editor to the online literary journal, The Nervous Breakdown, and his spoken word/ music video "All The Times" was screened at the Valley Film Festival in October 2009.

YVONNE DE LA VEGA was born and raised in Los Angeles, her work literally embodying the diverse spirit of the city. Her voice is one of social consciousness, personal mythos, cultural compassion and pockmarked humor. Yvonne is currently working on her forthcoming collection of poetry, Tomorrow, which boasts an introduction by Ray Manzarek of the Doors. Yvonne currently hosts BTR's WordBeat, with co-host John Barrymore, a weekly poetry and jazz podcast every Sunday that features recorded spoken word and jazz interludes, as well as an open mike format, where poets from all over the world call in to recite their poetry over jazz, deejayed by de la Vega herself.

For the last 16 years JAIMES PALACIO has been a mobile D.J. for F.B.N. Once voted Best Wacky, Vaguely Latino Poet, his accomplishments include publication in all three of Tebot Bach's Poetry Anthologys, plus: twice in Art Life, A Poet's Haggadah and chapbooks published by Far Star Fire and Inevitable Press. He was also on the board of directors for The Orange County Poetry Festival for 5 years, creating and hosting NEW VOICES: an annual showcase for up-n-coming talent. Formerly a columnist for Next Magazine and a poetry picks writer for the O.C. Weekly, he produced and hosted several successful weekly readings. His most infamous: PENGUINS HOOKED ON MACARONICS, in which all features were photographed with a 3-ft plastic penguin named Bob. For the non-poets: if you got married within the last 10 years, he probably DJ'd your wedding.

EVE BRANDSTEIN has been a major studio executive, a producer, a director, writer/creator, casting director. She is an educator and workshop facilitator, who has led writing and performance groups. Her poetry appears in various publications and she is one of the organizers of landmark reading series in L.A. Poetry In Motion, and publishers of The Hollywood Review an anthology of L.A. poets. She is also a journalist and author of The Actor - A Practical Guide to a Professional Career. As a journalist her articles have appeared in national publications and web sites, where she has been a columnist as well as feature contributor. Eve is also a Marriage and Family Therapist in private practice and an accomplished artist whose work is shown at TAG Gallery at Bergamont Station.

With more than three decades in the media industry, REX WEINER is notorious as a journalist, publisher, author, editor and screenwriter based in Los Angeles and Todos Santos, Baja California Sur. Co-founder and publisher of the pioneering New York Ace newspaper (1972–73) and founding member of the editorial staff of the counter-culture magazine High Times, Weiner does not deny a stint as editor of Swank, the Magazine for Men. Weiner's feature articles have appeared over the years in The New York Times, Vanity Fair, Los Angeles Times Sunday Magazine, The New Yorker, New York Observer and LA Weekly. He is currently Hollywood correspondent for Rolling Stone Italia.