Tomorrow night: Voices of the Voiceless at Amherst College, Amherst, MA.

It’s a ridiculously packed lineup of 16 po…um, spoken word artist-types, including Shappy, Ed Garcia and myself, along with some poets I like (Bonafide, Dennis Kim, Tyehimba Jess, Kevin Coval), one who’s work I like (Danny Solis), and mix of performers I can’t bear to listen to or am not familiar with (you figure it out).

Interestingly, there’s only four women on the bill, two I’ve never heard of. Since Helen Yum’s coming up with us, I’m going to see if we can get her a couple of minutes on the stage. Fish is coming, too. Maybe one or two features won’t show up…? To hope, perchance to dream.

We’re each scheduled for 15 minute sets which pretty much guarantees there will be several attempts to jack the mic by the more long-winded amongst us. Shaggy claims he’ll pull anyone disrespecting and going over but that’s always a tough spot for a host to be in.

I haven’t the slightest idea what I’ll be reading. It’ll depend where I am in the lineup and who I’m following. As long as I’m earlier rather than later as we have to hit the road back at the crack of dawn to get Shappy back here to the airport by 9am!

If you’re in the Amherst area, come check us out. It’s free and open to the public.