August 2nd - Soul Release feature - Nikki Skies
http://www. myspace. com/nikkiskieslive
open mic for poets and singers, hip hop and R&B by DJ Al Pete
9th and Main 1850 North Main Street
Admission: $5 artists/$10 audience

While in college, Nikki Skies often veered away from sharing her career goals in fear of being laughed at for not pursuing a "real job". Today, Nikki is an award winning actress, and a nationally known performance poet, lecturer, author and activist. Best known for her performances on PBS and BET’s Lyric Café, Nikki has performed at over 300 colleges/universities, conferences and festivals across the country and appeared in the documentaries “LA Underground: Tha Zone” and “Mic Gods”. Upon moving from her mid west state of Missouri to Los Angeles, Nikki quickly became a highly sought after feature performer and noted as one of the trailblazing female poets on the underground poetry and hip hop scene in LA. She has shared panels and opened for such artists and activists as Amiri Baraka, Angela Davis, Kathleen Cleaver, Jill Scott, Saul Williams, Nikki Giovanni, Gloria Steinem to name a few. Nikki is a recently selected Dana Arts Foundation Fellow for 2008.

Nikki’s community activism has partnered her work with the LA AIDS Project, workshop facilitation in LA and Orange county schools on speech and debate, cultural sensitivity and multicultural diversity as well as coalition building with community health clinics in Watts, CA addressing health disparities. She has had speaking engagements for national and international organizations such as, Doctors Without Borders, American Cancer Society, Poets & Writers, LA Arts Commission and Campus Progress in which she is a regularly scheduled speaker with their bureau as well as the National Association of Campus Activities (NACA) as a national member. Over the years, Nikki's poetry has been used as curriculum in the Oakland women's prison system and published in various poetry anthologies. She has been a featured performer at a number of the noted major poetry venues across the country such as the Nuyorican, Green Mill, Apache, Poetry Lounge, Seven and a list of others.

Her novel of short stories, “Mississippi Window Cracks”, has sold over 4,200 copies independently and accompanies the success of her poetry cd, "Moody". Nikki has also penned three chapbooks of poetry and is an accomplished playwright and director. She studied for her B.A. and M.F.A. at Grambling State University and Howard University respectively.

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