about the artists

JeFF Stumpo and a few more artists, activists and free thinkers in Bryan, Texas.

Leanetta Avery, who now lives in Dallas, said this about the scene in College Station:

"When I was there a place called Revolution Cafe was where I performed. Stephen Sargent, aka god the lowercase G, Lord Byron Martin Caesar, Darren Carkum, aka DC Paul, JeFF Stumpo, and Logan as herself, were the regulars."

Stephen Sargent, who helped found Mic Check, also participated in Famecast.com's spoken word competition. JeFF Stumpo aslo participated, and the two were ranked in the top 20 poets nationally. Here's a complete article on the competition. Stephen ranked 6th out of 84 poets, for his video, click here.
"Stephen Sargent has been performing poetry for nine years and Slamming for three years. He has been the member of three slam teams: The 2005 Fort Worth Slam Team which ranked 3rd the Nation, the 2006 Fort Worth Slam Team Team which reached the semifinals and the 2007 Bryan Slam Team. In 2006 he released his first spoken word album "GOD Speaks." from his Myspace page.
For more on his album look here.
To listen to his poem "Rocks and Matches," click here.

Here is a little from Leanetta Avery, who helped found and host Mic Check. Avery has also performed at Revolution Café’s Javashock and Speak or Be Spoken 4.

“The cool thing about spoken word is that it isn't the woman in me that you hear. It is the college drop out, the graduate, the rape survivor, the lover, the activist, the revolutionary, the pain, the joy, the artist, the lyricist, the African American, the Spanish, the poet. You could never categorize me in any scene cause I speak truth and its always changing.”

When asked about herself and her poetry, Avery replied:

“I could but then you would hold me to those lines and I am seeking to be more than that. But it began at 9 and my first award at 9 and it hasn't stopped.”

JeFF Stumpo is a poet and activist living in College Station. He strives to create poetry wherein the form and content complement each other. He founded JavaShock, the Brazos Valley poetry slam at Revolution Cafe.
Here's a link about JeFF.
JeFF is also involved in an array of literary publications.
In his own words:

"My poetry, translations, and short stories have been published or are forthcoming in Rhino, Exquisite Corpse, Mad Poets Review, Borderlands: Texas Poetry Review, Karamu, The Lyric, THE STYLES, and others. I am also the co-founder and co-editor of Big Tex[t], an online literary journal.

This is a really interesting poem JeFF wrote about poets called Adaptiveness of Behavior.
His first chapbook is called El Oceano y La Serpiente / The Ocean and The Serpent. Here's a good review on the book.
JeFF talks about his chapbook:

"The left hand page is in Spanish, the right in English, and the typography of the pages is mirrored. If there's a line break on one page, there is on the other, new stanza = new stanza, tab = tab, etc. They're not translations, though, even though they appear to be at first glance. The poems are antithetical, each one unique. One of the major themes of the collection is two cultures coming together and the gap that is inevitably between them. I use the gutter, the space between pages, to physically represent that."

JeFF is also an advocate for innovations in spoken word. He believes his best poetry has to be seen to be fully experienced.
Lately he has been trying to provide a place for deaf poets to perform and to incorporate sign language into spoken word. JeFF said spoken word is something that must been seen as well as heard. For his video incorporating sign language featured on famecast.com click here.
In an effort to mix things up at JavaShock and entice a new crowd, JeFF organized a slam with the theme Inside Voices. JeFF had hoped to begin a scene for the deaf and organized a JavaShock night dedicated to the purpose. Unfortunately, no deaf audience members showed and very few interpreters. A few poems were performed that used ASL as a sort of "hey, check this out" for the hearing audience and JeFF's MCing was translated in ASL. Although there were no deaf performers or audience members, people in the scene are now more aware and educated about the deaf community. Wheels have begun turning, and JeFF hopes for the best.

"What I had been hoping for with the deaf community was to actually do poetry in ASL. Check out www.slope.org/asl for examples. Amazing stuff. I'm not sure what went wrong - I extended invitations to all the right people, and it just didn't work. Ah well. Some of the hearing audience also knew sign, and some of them want to try something on campus. That may be more effective."

A poem and explanation from JeFF:
"I have a piece called I am the Alpha and the Meta wherein I start to approach the microphone like I'm going to launch into a poem, then pull back. Act like I'm thinking it through. Approach in a different pose, pull back. Approach, pull back. Begin moving through the front row, shaking people's hands and thanking them for coming.
Go back to the mic and speak,

"When does a poem begin?
With the first letter of the first word?
No, if a poem is a place for the mind and soul to inhabit,
then the white space before a title is an entryway,
the endpapers a courtyard,
and the body before speaking a long look down a road
at the end of which may be home.
Some poems rush headlong toward their own ending
as though that were all that matters,
but when does a poem end?
Not with a word, but an action.
The poem that calls for revolution ends
the moment the revolution begins.
Poems of sex or hate are inconstantas these things.
And the poem that merely seeks your applause dies
as your applause dies.
But some will ask more
[at this point I step away from the mic and begin
walking through the crowd toward the exit]
Some wander through the mind
as though it were a room much like this one,
reaching out a hand to new friends and old,
reminding them of the great and quiet things
since you last met.
It gathers memories to itself,
moving ever slower,
and somehow, never quite makes it away."

At the end I'm left standing in the middle of the room, looking at the door, then the audience, and taking a seat near someone nearby. It's a transformation of the body into an absolutely necessary part of the poem - it's not so much that the I am a metaphor for poetry, but that, by moving along with the word, poetry becomes a metaphor for me. Which is what a lot of spoken word artists are after and don't realize.