Other Festival Events

Jeffery Evans

Gay Activitist / Spoken Word Artist

April 23 (Monday), 12:30 p.m., Griffin Gate

Local word artist and hip hop recording artist Jeffery Evans is better known by his moniker

DJ Jeffa. His start-up company, 1640 Productions, promotes talented rap, hip hop, and def

jam artists on the local San Diego scene. Added to his phenomenally edgy and popular

lyrics, Evans is an openly gay artist and works alternately as a youth apprentice at the The

Storefront (a Hillcrest shelter and advocacy center for homeless gay youth) and a DJ

performer.

As a 22-year-old African American who came out to his family at age 12, Evans was not

only rejected by his family, he was turned out of his house and forced to live homeless. On

the streets and in his more recent occupation as a youth mentor, Evans has been witness to

the trauma, prostitution, drug abuse and hate crimes that daily afflict gay youth, and his

writing offers as intense and insightful a commentary on this invisible underclass as one

could wish.

Song Lyrics As Literature

April 23 (Monday), 1:30 p.m., Griffin Gate

Inspired by the unscripted absurd of the Living Theater, while staying true to all those poets,

from the Ionians to the Slammers, who explore the lyrical through oral performance, this is a

spontaneous celebration of language, of body language, of kinetics, and of action for

action’s sake. This is the deconstruction of the symbol and the construction of the symbol as

symbol of itself. This is where the word meets the scream, the poetic couplet, a slap across

the face. This is a celebration of language as it implodes and is reborn in both performer

and audience, the genesis of new meaning climbing out of the semiotic shadows. Here

through the sweat and energy of the «poeticians», words will be wrung out for futuristic

angles and spaces. This is a performance for the eyes and the ears and one that surely will

get under your skin.

Performers in Song Lyrics As Literature are members of Raul Sandelin’s ENGL 120 classes

and local musicians and songwriters Derek Shaw and Kent Johnson.

Student Reading

poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction, and drama

May 2 (Wednesday), 7:00 p.m., Griffin Gate

In this popular bi-annual event, the pride of Grossmont College's Creative Writing classes

take the lecturn by storm to share their original works of Poetry, Fiction, Creative Nonfiction

and Drama. The winners of this year's Festival Writing Contest will receive their coveted

awards and due adulation. Printed 'zines of the writing will be available, as well as an on-

line chapbook (published afterwards) to chronicle the event in words and pictures.

Whether you're an instructor, a student, or someone with a yen to hear new talent, you'll

leave this event wickering for more.

At Rise!

New works by new playwrights!

May 3 (Thursday), 12:30 p.m., Griffin Gate

Campus playwrights take it to the stage . . . a staged reading, that is, of their latest short

works. Student actors and aspiring directors team up with students enrolled in English 160:

Playwriting to strut and fret their hour upon the boardrooms of Grossmont College campus.

Not to be missed!

Creative Writing Contest

Short Fiction

The third annual Creative Writing Contest this year features short fiction. Winners will be

announced at the start of the May 2 Student Reading, and the 1st Place entry will be read at

the reading.

Download the CONTEST FLYER & GUIDELINES.

A W A R D S

1st Place

$150.00 prize; publication in The Acorn Review, and special presentation at the Student

Reading

2nd Place

$100.00 prize, and publication in The Acorn Review

Honorable Mentions

D E A D L I N E

All contest manuscripts must be submitted by Tuesday, April 10, 2007

R U L E S

You don't have to be enrolled in the Creative Writing courses to submit a story, but you

must be a currently enrolled Grossmont College student.

Short fiction manuscripts should be no more than 1,500 words (6 double-spaced, typed

pages--print on one side of the page only)

Do not put name on your short fiction. Instead, attach an index card with your name, the

title of your short fiction, phone number, and e-mail address.

Winner must be available to read his or her work as part of the Literary Arts Festival Student

Reading on Wednesday, May 2nd at 7 p.m. in Grossmont College Griffin Gate.

Submit work to Sydney Brown in 564-B by Tuesday, April 10. Work may also be submitted

to Sydney Brown's mailbox. Do not e-mail work.

If you want your short fiction manuscript returned, include a self-addressed stamped

envelope; otherwise, it will be "recycled."

For more information, contact Sydney Brown at 619-644-7523 or

Sydney.Brown@gcccd.edu.