September 21 | 7:00pm

The Bushwick Book Club Seattle presents

Original Music Inspired by Marcus Harrison Green’s Readying to Rise Essays

Boon Boona Coffee

724 S 3rd St, Renton, WA 98057

Ticket Link: https://readying-to-rise-marcus-harrison-green.eventbrite.com

 

Celebrate the Release of Readying to Rise: Essays, by Marcus Harrison Green

Join us for live music & a reading from the author with refreshments by Chef Tarik of Feed the People & Ben Daughtery of Zig Zag

To celebrate the release of “Readying to Rise: Essays, by Marcus Harrison Green,” three local musicians from The Bushwick Book Club have written songs inspired by one of the essays in the book that will be performed live. You’ll also hear a reading from the author and have an opportunity to have your copy signed.

The Artists:

• Moni Tepp
• Reggie Garrett
• Amber Flame

Hors d’oeuvre and cocktails by Chef Tarik of Feed the People and Ben Daugthery of Zig Zag Cafe. Coffee and non-alcoholic drinks are available for purchase from Boon Boona Coffee.

This event is available as an in-person and livestream event. Please register to secure your seat or to receive the live stream link. 

 

About “Readying to Rise: Essays, by Marcus Harrison Green”:

Social justice is an ideal. It’s not a reality. And while there are moments that make it feel tantalizingly close, the moment that follows often punts it right back to the far distance. Growing up black in south Seattle, journalist and essayist Marcus Harrison Green has a keen sense of exactly where and how things break down. From his own experience in the classroom and at the hands of police to his fierce dissection of the racism baked into media and journalism, Green makes poetry of the clarity that comes after long reflection.

In this collection, Green bears sharp witness to the Black Lives Matter movement, his own journey into and out of religious faith, his grandmother’s lessons, his battle with bipolar disorder, human mortality, blatant hypocrisy, and much more.

He shines a light on what hurts the most deeply in us: not only the brutal injustice of a world built by the powerful for the powerful, but the close proximity of that brutality to a persistent kernel of hope.

Yet because there is hope, there is conviction. Green never falters in the knowledge that the struggle itself is something to tie ourselves to and define ourselves by. With astute analyses, evocative imagery, profound empathy, and the ability to laugh at it all, these essays, even with their collective weight, leave us much lighter than they found us.

Pre-order Readying to Rise: Essays, by Marcus Harrison Green

About the Author:

Marcus Harrison Green is the publisher of the South Seattle Emerald, and a columnist with the Seattle Times. Growing up in South Seattle, he experienced first-hand the impact of one-dimensional stories on marginalized communities, which taught him the value of authentic narratives. After an unfulfilling stint in the investment world during his twenties, Marcus returned to his community with a newfound purpose of telling stories with nuance, complexity, and multidimensionality with the hope of advancing social change. This led him to become a writer and found the South Seattle Emerald. He was awarded the Seattle Human Rights Commissions’ Individual Human Rights Leader Award for 2020.

www.marcusharrisongreen.com

About Bushwick Book Club:

The Bushwick Book Club Seattle is a group of musicians dedicated to sharing our combined passion for both music and reading with the Seattle community and beyond. With each performance, a book is chosen which is read by our talented Bushwick artists who then write original music inspired by the book they just read. The audience is encouraged to read the featured book and participate in the events as well. By producing these unique, one of a kind musical literary events we hope to increase awareness in literature and song writing, while at the same time remind people (young and old) that reading can and should be a regular part of their daily lives.

www.thebushwickbookclubseattle.com

About the Artists:

About Reggie Garrett:

Reggie Garrett has been performing throughout the U.S. and Canada for a number of years. Based in Seattle, Washington he performs mostly original songs mixed with pop covers and more traditional style folk ballads. He is the purveyor of a unique urban strain of (mostly) acoustic music incorporating a number of diverse influences, including: Folk, Latin rhythms, Blues, Gospel, Celtic, Rock, Jazz and more. The result is a musical blend that has excited and touched audiences throughout the U.S. and Canada.

The sound has strong rhythmic underpinnings, beginning with Garrett’s almost percussive guitar style. The guitar work spans the gamut from Folk/Latin/Blues rhythms to even more personal styles. His singing reflects the folk/ rock/gospel traditions with which he grew up. He has been compared to acoustic legends Richie Havens and Bill Withers by the national folk publication Dirty Linen. As a songwriter Garrett’s specialty is creating and enhancing a mood.

He is the founder of Reggie Garrett & the SnakeOil Peddlers (his performing ensemble). The band travel and perform regularly as an acoustic trio (including Richard Middleton on lead guitar and Will Dowd on percussion) and as an acoustic/electric quartet with the addition of bassist Keith Lowe. From Pistol River, OR to Rock Island, IL; from Duncan, BC Canada to San Luis Obispo, CA the group has delighted audiences of all ages.

In addition to a history of fine live performances, Reggie Garrett has five CD releases to his credit. Welcome to My World, Time Stands Still, Seasons and Something New (his most recent release) were all recorded with his SnakeOil Peddlers ensembles. Kates Front Porch was his debut release as half of the Garrett & Westcott acoustic duo. All have been favorably received. Time Stands Still in particular made its way onto a number of AAA and other radio playlists throughout the western U.S.

Reggie Garrett & the SnakeOil Peddlers are listed in the 4-Culture Touring Arts Roster.

Listen: https://www.reggiegarrett.com

About JusMoni:

JusMoni aka Moni Tep (b. 1993) is a singer and songwriter whose body of work, to-date, includes five self-produced albums, performances across the United States and Canada, and collaborations with the best and brightest emerging talent of the contemporary R&B music scene. She is as steeped in R&B, with its roots in the Black church, as she is in the traditional music and practices of her motherland Cambodia. Her songs relate narratives of motherhood, spiritual transformation, the blood’s memory, and family tradition. JusMoni lives and works in Seattle, WA.

https://www.instagram.com/saffroniaa/

About Amber Falme:

Amber Flame is an interdisciplinary artist, writer, activist and educator, whose work has garnered residencies with Hedgebrook, The Watering Hole, Vermont Studio Center, and YEFE NOF. A former church kid from the Southwest, Flame’s work has been published in diverse arenas, including Def Jam Poetry, Nailed Magazine, Winter Tangerine, The Dialogist, Split This Rock, Black Heart Magazine, Sundress Publications, FreezeRay, Redivider Journal and more.

In her writing, Flame explores spirituality and sexuality, cross-woven with themes of grief and loss, motherhood and magic, and the interstitial joy in it all. A 2016 and 2017 Pushcart Prize nominee, and Jack Straw Writer Program alum, Amber Flame’s first full-length poetry collection, Ordinary Cruelty, was published in 2017 through Write Bloody Press. Flame was a recipient of the CityArtist grant from Seattle’s Office of Arts and Cultural Affairs to write, produce and perform her one-person play, Hands Above the Covers, a series of character monologues drawn from diverse real-life interviews. In early 2018, Flame co-curated the art installation Black Imagination at Core Gallery in Seattle. She had her first solo exhibit in 2019 with a project entitled ::intrigue:: 8, a multimedia installation that featured musical compositions inspired by the text of 8 different poets with original video content as well as text from the original poems, through Jack Straw Production’s Artist Support and New Media Gallery fellowships. Hugo House’s 2017-2019 Writer-in-Residence for Poetry, Flame’s second book of poetry, titled apocrifa, is forthcoming from Red Hen Press.

Recently named Program Director of Hedgebrook, she continues to work as a writing instructor and serves to offer programming for currently and formerly incarcerated women and youth through her work with The IF Project while working on a third collection, remounting her full-length play, working on a few nonfiction anthologies, and raising her daughter. Amber Flame is a queer Black dandy mama who falls hard for a jumpsuit and some fresh kicks.

Listen: https://soundcloud.com/amber-flame
Read: https://www.theamberflame.com/