Saturday: July 25: BONK!

Saturday July 25 at 6 p.m. the Racine Public Library will once again host "BONK!", the free monthly performance series that has quickly become an established entertainment venue in downtown Racine. Sponsored by Blueberries Café and held at 515 Sixth St., this month's BONK! will feature readings by poets Jennifer Karmin and Qurayshali Lansana, and performances by percussionist Austin Spika and acoustical guitar musicians I Have Three Hands.

Created to expose the public to both local and nationally recognized artistic talents, the series showcases poets, writers, musicians, film makers and other talented artists. Food and drink are available for purchase at Blueberries directly across the street. Doors open at 5:30 p.m. with seating available on a first come/first served basis. Each BONK! event features a short question and answer session with the artists.

Jennifer Karmin is a poet, artist, and educator who has published, performed, exhibited, taught, and experimented with language throughout the U.S. and Japan. She teaches creative writing, literature, and media literacy to immigrants in Truman College's Adult Education Program. The recipient of a Gwendolyn Brooks Teaching Award, she also works as a Poet-in-Residence for the Chicago Public Schools. In 2009, Flim Forum Press will publish her text-sound epic Aaaaaaaaaaalice. Jennifer curates the Red Rover reading series and is a founding member of the public art group Anti Gravity Surprise. Her multidisciplinary projects have been presented nationally at festivals, artist-run spaces, community centers, and on city streets. She earned her B.A. in the Poetics Program at the University of Buffalo and M.F.A. in the Writing Program at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

Quraysh Ali Lansana is the author of They Shall Run--Harriet Tubman Poems and the poetry collection southside rain; a children's book, The Big World; and a poetry chapbook, cockroach children: corner poems and street psalms . He is the editor of Glencoe/McGraw-Hill's African American Literature Reader, and I Represent and dream in yourself, which are two anthologies of literary works from Chicago's award-winning youth arts employment program, Gallery 37. He is also co-editor of Role Call: A Generational Anthology of Social and Political Black Literature and Art. He is currently Director of the Gwendolyn Brooks Center for Black Literature and Creative Writing and an Assistant Professor of English and Creative Writing at Chicago State University. He is also a former faculty member of The Juilliard School's Drama Division. Quraysh serves as Poetry Editorial Review Board Director for Third World Press, Associate Editor-Poetry for Black Issues Book Review, and serves on the Editorial Board of Tia Chucha Press. Passage, his poetry video collaboration with Kurt Heintz, won the first ever Image Union/Bob Award from WTTW-TV (PBS).

Racine native Austin James Spika is recognized as an outstanding percussionist in a variety of musical genres, having received numerous awards and recognitions throughout his young career. In 2007, CL Barnhouse published Rim Shot, Spika's first concert band/parade snare composition co-written with Donald Young. He has been involved with many musical organizations in the Racine and Milwaukee areas including three award-winning years with the Racine Lighthouse Brigade percussion line, three years with the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Jazz and Wind Ensembles, and several summers with the Wisconsin Conservatory of Music Jazz Ensembles. Austin has studied with many great musicians including local percussion great Mark Pulice, jazz percussionist Dave Baylis, jazz composer and arranger Mike Tomaro, jazz drum set artist Steve Houghton, and legendary professional percussionist Frank Donaldson. Spika participated in the Jazz Performance program at Columbia College in Chicago, IL, sharing the stage with such artists as composer/vocalist Marcy Levy, jazz guitarist Bill Boris and bass player Bill Dickens. A 2007 graduate from Horlick High School in Racine, Spika is currently studying Nursing at Gateway Technical College and enjoys serving as creative percussionist for many local musicians, ensembles and bands from the Chicago, Milwaukee and Racine areas.

Local artists and performers are encouraged to consider sharing their talent/craft with the community via the BONK! series. For more information on how to participate or to view past performances please visit http://bonkperformanceseries.wordpress.com. You may also contact the Racine Public Library at 262.619.2571, Becky Spika at becky.spika@racinelibrary.info , or Nick Demske at nick.demske@racinelibrary.info.