Lethal Poetry Brings Saul Williams to Chicago
'A Night of Sight & Sound' Co-Shines Spotlight on Local Musicians and Artists Saturday – and More in Months to Come

By David Shuey, March 26, 2010

These past few months Lethal Poetry has been killing it with their Words That Kill shows, offering a wealth of talent at low cost. Saturday night, they switch things up a bit. They signed a poet/hip-hop/actor/artist legend – and also a daughter of a legend. It costs a bit more, but the talent quotient goes up ten-fold.

Saul Williams is a wordsmith giant who by night's end should be standing atop the shoulders of some of Chicago's finest rhyme-masters and musicians. Also performing are Shirley King (B.B. King's daughter), Malik Yusef, Aja Monet, Billy Tuggle, The Mojdeh Project, Precise, Max Abstrax, and D-Nick the Microphone Misfit. King plays soon after the 6 p.m. start time. What else? To quote the promoters, A Night of Sight & Sound offers "The sickest DJs + crazy live painting + severe b-boy battle!!!" Enough said. See full information after the jump.

Williams may not play his Niggy Tardust industrial rock standards, which mesmerized my eyes and ears at the 2008 Lollapalooza; feather-clad as a modern day Ziggy playing originals (and a bloody U2 cover) with a Reznor-orchestrated bent. It was completely unexpected – and an A-Z complete thrill. This Kinetic Playground show should be more like what I saw at his first Lolla performance in 2005: Words and beats, in a harmonious mix of hip-hop and spoken word.

Pulling the strings behind this event is Lethal Poetry, and our friend Mojdeh, who has skillz at mashing up commerce, art, and big ideas. Partial proceeds go to Rock For Kids.  Mojdeh, some may remember, helped curate our Open Mic night for our Solstice Party fundraiser for Chicago 6 Corners.

Even if you miss this big show, you can connect to Lethal Poetry in other ways:

1. Attend a Monthly Words That Kill event. Sign up on their website (top right corner) for info. We wrote about the event earlier here. In fact, we referenced Saul Williams in that September 2009 post, taunting him to come out to Chicago. Maybe he heard.

2. Pick up The Mojdeh Project's brand new CD, released in February.  I'll put the iTunes link here when it's up. Even their friends Venice Gas House Trolley from Madison (we can represent Madison here, right?) put out a disk and played in SXSW recently.

3. Pick up a piece of paper, write down some words, and start creating yourself. Lethal Poetry's so big-tent, they may just pick you up.

More Details on March 27 'Night of Sight & Sound' at Kintetic Playground

When: March 27, starting at 6 p.m.

Price at door: $30

Where: The Kinetic Playground, 1113 W. Lawrence Ave., Chicago
Website: www.lethalpoetry.com

Featured Performers:

Saul Williams
Shirley King (Blues)
Malik Yusef (Hip Hop, MC)
Precise (Hip Hop, MC)
Aja Monet (Spoken Word)
Kevin Coval (Spoken Word)
D-Nick The Microphone Misfit (Hip Hop, MC)
The Mojdeh Project (Folkcore & Performance Poetry)
Max Abstrax (DJ)
Artbeat Live (Live Painting)
Gabriel Vargas (Live Painting)
Organic Flow (Hip Hop, Jazz)
Booker Washington (Violin, Cello)
Billy Tuggle (Spoken Word)
Gregory Pickett (Spoken Word)
N'Visible Man (DJ)
John Paul Davis (Spoken Word)
Brando (Spoken Word)
Chuck Photo (VJ)
Duke Shin (DJ)
Nate Manic (DJ)
Zebo (DJ)
Itch 13 (DJ)
Evening hosted by Luis Tubens

Comments

[Alex]

Hello word!!!