Where Vivid Narratives Live

Austin Writers Roulette is a monthly, culturally diverse evening filled with the many voices of different writers, reading their original written works of book/play excerpts, poetry, essays, short stories, performance art and skits. The emphasis will be on the different expressions of the written word coming to life.

Artists will have the opportunity to share their written works with an audience of people who seek enlightenment from our collective wisdom, creativity and experiences. In addition, Austin Writers Roulette will provide an inexpensive ($15) space for artists to set up vendor tables for back-of-the-room promotional items such as books, t-shirts and flyers for their upcoming performances.

The roulette takes place every second Sunday of the month at Capoeira Evolucao, 2015 E. Riverside, Studio 7B, Austin, TX 78741. The cover is $5.

After welcoming the audience to the very first Austin Writers Roulette, which explored the many facets of Self-Identity, Teresa Y. Roberson explained the reason why she started it: so she could have a creative space in order to read her work and sale her products. Although writers typically isolate themselves from distractions, occasionally they must reunite themselves with an audience in order to share our work.

Opening the show was Thom O the Moment! who thrilled the audience with his lightning quick delivery of politically-laced poetry. And as swiftly as performed, Thom dashed off to attend his third poetry performance for the night.

The second artist, Flo Bowden, took the energy from in-your-face to introspection, detailing the walls that other people construct around us, which shape and confine who we are.

Approached from the opposite side, Donna Dechen Birdwell expanded on the wall metaphor, leading the audience through the walls she constructed as protection and to keep certain people out. Donna also displayed her stylish photographs for purchase.

Peggy Kelsey gave a guided tour of her personal journey negotiating the physical and mental changes involved with maturing into middle age.

The only singer-songwriter in the roulette, Samaria Perez Stanford, first shared her story  of the challenge of being half Puerto Rican, but raised to hide that part of her identity. She wrote and performed “No Olvidare” purposely in Spanglish to reflect her experience.

Next, Brian Stanford read part of his journal from when he was incarcerated. His selection chronicled his spiritual journey as a cerebral young man, looking for something more meaningful than his current situation. Along the way, he sought to define who he was and presently is.

Joined by berimbau musician, Rastinha (Chris Williams), and an interpretative dancer, Melissa Hendrick, Teresa Y. Roberson read a poem about men who have tried to recreate me in the image of some other woman—real or imagined—instead of appreciating who she is.

Closing the night, Capoeira Evolucao instructor, Negro (Felipe Roberson), played the berimbau while singing both traditional capoeira songs and one of his original compositions that defined the essence of being a capoeirista.

The next roulette theme will be “The Animal Within: Expressing Your Wild Side” on Sunday, August 12^th from 6 to 8 pm at Capoeira Evolucao, Studio 7B, Austin, TX 78741.

For the August 12th writers roulette, our line up got raw, raunchy and just plain naughty!

Getting the audience in a sexy mood, Thom, who regularly performs at Kick Butt Coffee Sunday evenings, Ruta Maya on Tuesdays, and Thrice Cafe on Wednesdays, delivered the goods through his suggestive poetry. 

 Continuing the provocative theme, Tamar, a performance virgin, deflowered herself reading an innocent, honest appeal, asking two men to share her love rather than making her choose one man over the other.

The end of innocence swiftly came as Tbird sang, spat and soul tapped her way through an erotopolitical poem.

Soft-spoken, mild mannered Stephanie illustrated why no one wants to get on the bad side of a Taurus with her F-bomb dense essay, “The F*** You Beast.”

I displayed some of my acting skills while reading a short and naughty story, “Purple Passion,” to show that not all F-bombing is bad.

Sadie of Bedpost Confessions (every 3rd Thursday at the ND) delighted the audience with an excerpt from her book, “Open All the Way: Confessions from My Open Marriage.”

 Capoeira Evolucao instructor Felipe (aka “Negro”) briefly explained the importance of music to the Brazilian martial art known as capoeira before playing samba, where fellow capoeiristas Carmen, Randy and Samaria showed off their skills in this fun and, at times flirtatious, dance.

After the show, the audience visited our vendors. Maria had a selection of Thai clothes, jewelry, handbags and art.

Vanessa of Naughty Cakes had a tantalizing display of specialty chocolates and cupcakes.

The next roulette will be on Sunday, September 9th. The theme will be “Beauty in Other Cultures.”

In order to celebrate diversity, the Austin Writers Roulette presented “Beauty in Other Cultures.”

Opening the show, the Awesmic City Austin, TX director of “Universalis Poet-Tree,” Anyah Dishon, explained to the audience that she was videotaping the roulette and other poetry venues in order to document the Austin poetry scene and debut at SXSW. Anyah then read her Goddess poem.

Dream-Time Tom!

 Thom brought his usual high-energy performance, detailing his experiences in such exotic locations as Manila and Malaysia while being accompanied by Capoeira Evolucao’s very own Foquinha.

Returned Peace Corps Volunteer, Christina Ceballos, first explained her role in Mali from 2005-2007, then read 5 Bamanan proverbs in the original language and her English translations in haiku form. Christina also read other Mali-inspired haikus, which encapsulated different experiences during her service. After taking a bow, Christina gave the audience a devastating update about present-day Mali and made an emotional appeal to interested audience members to get in contact with her if they wanted to help the people of Mali.

Dressed as Cleopatra, novelist Teresa Y. Roberson read two letters that she’d emailed to family and friends while teaching her first week at an American school in Alexandria, Egypt in August 2001.

Anthropologist Donna Dechen Birdwell read an excerpt from her manuscript about the evolution and consequences of the marijuana drug trade in a small village in Northern Belize.

Recording artist Leticia Rodriguez shared her motivations for covering three of the songs on her latest CD, “La Americana.” She first told the gist of each song in English and then performed them in their original Spanish form, which caused some to get up and dance.

The Capoeira Evolucao performers were all introduced by their nicknames, which was a tradition from the time when capoeira was illegal in Brazil. With Negro playing the berimbau and Contramestre Metido on the pandeiro (tambourine), Foquinha, Coelha and Assustada played capoeira two at a time while the audience clapped in rhythm. As Negro pointed out, one of the most beautiful things in the world is the female form.

The next roulette theme is “Magic and Occult: Rituals, Prayers, and Experiences with Angels” on October 14th. Hope to see you there!

Our magical and mystical show, hosted by the Angel of Redemption, opened with a selection of poetry by Thom, One of Many Angels, Invisible and Anonymous, shared poetry about experiences with angels. 

Our favorite artist anthropologist, Donna Dechen Birdwell, read an excerpt from her manuscript about an unbeatable soccer ritual.

Then the audience hopped a freight train and took a wild ride with Tbird who rhythmically and occasionally rhymed about an encounter between a priest and a prostitute.

Novelist Teresa Y. Roberson spun a humorous tale about an mysterious Honduran cockroach curse.

 Making her reading debut, Carmen graphically described how humans are endowed with body parts to work magic, especially genitalia to open closed doors!

Samaria Guitaria, of Timberos del Norte, sang an enchanting and empowering song about Medusa.

 Making an encore appearance, Carmen ended the show with a traditional capoeira Angola song followed by Puxada de Rede, a song about a woman praying that her fisherman husband will return to after his latest fishing excursion. 

See you at the next roulette, Sunday, November 11th, 2012 for our “Transformation: Personal, Cultural and/or Political Change” event!

This month, the Austin Writers Roulette shined the spotlight on the various transformations that are swirling about. On this Veterans Day, our “veteran” poet, Transformational Thom (who never served in the military, but has been spreading truth and peace through poetry before the other rouletters were conceived) gave us the historical and current political transformations through a menagerie of free poems gifted to the audience.   Accompanying Thom on the tambourine was capoeirista, Gabby.

Teresa Y. Roberson read two essays, one about the transformation of her fiction genre from romance to action-adventure and the other, concerning the plantation-style management of public education.

Sharing the most personal excerpt from his diary, Jaime Torres detailed his internal transformation after suffering a head trauma.

The Austin Writers Roulette will have its last event at the Capoeira Evolucao Studio for the December 9th “Circles: Reoccurring Themes, Patter,s Cycles & Death-Rebirth” event. Starting in January 2013, the Roulette will take place at Strange Brew, 5326 Manchaca Rd, Austin, TX 78745. So, f you yearn to perform or witness a poetry/spoken word event in a capoeira studio, you have one more chance to do so!

The Austin Writers Roulette celebrated its last show of 2012 and the last show at the beautiful Capoeira Evolucao Studio in a big way: they fondly reminisced about cycles big and small, political, personal, religious and professional. In order to reinforce this month’s theme, the chairs were arranged in a circle to reemphasize the season of community and coming together.

Thom the World Poet continued the pattern of opening the show.

Teresa Y. Roberson shared the reoccurring theme of wonderment and health issues that all Peace Corps Volunteers undergo, along with things teachers wish they could tell parents about their students and honest “reasons for leaving” statements.

Jaime Torres read about the reoccurring patterns in nature and human spirit.

After Teresa read a spoken word piece, using capoeira as a metaphor for manuevering through life, The Capoeira Evolucao students and instructors demonstrated an action-packed roda, displaying their capoeira skills that they’ve been working on all year long as a grand finale.

Vendors and fellow capoeiristas, Elizabeth and Maria, had a fantastic assortment of jewelry, cloth hand bags and capoeira-themed attire available for those wishing to get a start on their Christmas shopping.

For the 2013 season, The Austin Writers Roulette switches to a new location and new time at Strange Brew 5326 Manchaca Road, Austin, TX 78745 from 4 to 6 pm every second Sunday of the month.

Once again, the Austin Writers Roulette hit the scene with an energetic and fresh line up for our first show of 2013. Teresa Y. Roberson opened the show with her list of resolutions, but not the usual cliche of promises. One thing she resolved to do was send a medical book to conservative male politicians who don’t quite understand female anatomy and reproduction.

Next up, Nelson Guda shared moving poetry snippets from his travels to such political hotspots as Kashmir, Rwanda and Kenya for his Enemies Project.

Awesmic City Cafe host, Anyah Dishon, briefly explained Austin’s newest holiday that she created, Awesmic City Day that was first celebrated on 12-12-12 in recognition of the “awesmic” benefits of the arts in Austin.

Singer-songwriter, Jack McCabe first read a poem about the OCCUPY movement then sang his original composition, “Occupy Your World,” followed by his catchy “The La La Song.” Special guest, Dana McBride, accompanied him.

During his segment, Jaime Torres, first played his original composition on guitar while an image of a picture that he took was projected.  Superimposed on the image was a poem that expressed his experience of the dreamlike image.

The ever-rhythmic poetry train, Tbird, exuded a twisting stream of powerful images about her dream of a polar bear and the political ramifications involved with this majestic creature’s survival.

Closing out the show in a foot-stomping, groovy spoken word was “The Strangest Brew” Thom. Although Thom has a penchant for changing his name, he brought the same musical improvisation that has made him famous in the Austin poetry scene. Anyah provided back up vocals while Jack and Dana provided guitar melodies.

For our upcoming February 10th event, The Austin Writers Roulette presents “Cupid’s Naughty Secrets.”

Before the show officially began, singer-songwriter-poets, Dana McBride and “Magic” Jack did a 5-song sound check, which ended in a whistle-the-Andy-Griffin-show-theme-song-competition!

The first sensuous poem that Dana read was about a man she wanted to make love to her and was accompanied by Magic Jack. Dana read a few other poems from her “Ode to the Muse” collection.

After being introduced as a man who didn’t know the meaning of the word “impotence,” Magic Jack read a cute poem about his first date when he was 4, followed by a hilarious poem about how stories about other people’s love-lives were boring.

Nelson Guda read a series of short poems about the wildness of night and sexy pursuit. 

The poetic freight train, Tbird, opened with Shakespeare’s Sonnet 18 then riffed her modern raunchy ode to a man.

Teresa Y. Roberson shared her unscientific survey she took about oral sex turnoffs in an essay called “How Men Blow Fellatio.”

Thom the Worldpoet announced to the entire audience that he loved them like chocolate-dipped strawberries and sang a song about said delectable dessert.

In between artists, host Teresa read sex-based trivia questions, which she recapped at the end of the show, revealing the answers. The winner, with 7 out of 10 correct answers, was Zaka, who excitedly claimed, ” I knew having all that sex would eventually pay off!”  She’s now the proud owner of a Tribe of One book and Tshirt.

Next roulette is Sunday, March 10th from 4-6 and the theme is “Serendipity and Spontaneity.”

Once again, The Austin Writers Roulette spun another entertaining show full of spontaneity, serendipity and synchronicity.

Before the show officially began, host, Teresa Y. Roberson, circulated four of her paintings along with post-it notes among the audience. She requested that they look at each of the paintings, write the first thing that thought of and stick it to the cardboard that the paintings were mounted on.

 Dana McBride opened the show, drumming out some “cooked” words inspired by spontaneity and synchronicity.

Magic Jack touched the romantic in all of us by sharing his tale about how ill-fated circumstances during a train trip to visit a friend ruined his intended vacation, but afforded him to meet his future wife. (She apparently has her version of their chance meeting, but didn’t care to share it.) 

April Davis shared two vacation stories of her own. The first consisted of 8 stylish black and white photos on a poster board and the second was bound in one of her photobooks with a mesmerizing story she created from a trip to Illinois.

Awesmic City Cafe host, Anyah Dishon made her debut has a guitarist, singing about newfound love. Then followed with a nature poem about peace.

Our favorite anthropologist, Donna Dechen Birdwell, shared another story about her travels to Belize, which she said were “true, but not factual.” This latest edition was about how a man had encountered lightning and found religion.

Tbird launched us into her world where vivid characters and staccato onamonapia met, sprinkled with sexual innuendo seasoning.

Teresa Y. Roberson gathered her four paintings from the audience and read the spontaneous poems that she wrote about them, followed by the collected spontaneous comments that were attached to them.

Bringing the show to a close, Thom the World Poet threw a handful of plastic shaker eggs to the audience so they could improv music as he read a medley of theme-based poems. Thom invited musicians Magic Jack and Anyah on stage while musician Dana helped open the dance floor.

Afterwards, a few of us met up at a nearby restaurant and continued our free-flowing lively conversation.

Please join The Austin Writers Roulette on Sunday, April 14th when we conduct our cathartic “Spring Cleaning: Getting rid of bad jobs/habits/relationships!”