Roots and Wings

The line-up of artists performing original work created for the event is powerful starring Gloria Basulto, Jesse Bliss, Laura Caustic, Romi Dias, Mike Sonksen, Ella AyitiTurenne, Patricia Zamorano, and Live Music by Tyalana and William of the Concentr8s. This event is supported in part by Poets & Writers through grants it has received from The James Irvine Foundation and the Hearst Foundations. Location : Espacio 1839 in Boyle Heights Date: January 16, 2016 E 1st St, Los Angeles, CA 90033 *Take the Gold Line to Mariachi Plaza After party next-door at East Side Love Chapbook and Companion Book Release Los Angeles, CA― Writer Jesse Bliss and Visual Artist Alfie Numeric unite forces with the chapbook I LOVE MYSELF GOLDEN. After a decade of teaching Creative Writing at Central Juvenile Hall through the Inside OUT Writers program, Miss Bliss found it critical to create a book specifically to cultivate self-love and respect in the young women she encounters in the halls. The book was made to size to fit in their bras and is bound with no staples allowing it to circulate and not be counted as contraband. The pages illuminate, through words and illustrations, the light and love in the hearts of each young women underneath the very difficult life-circumstances they face. The chapbook is a love letter, speaking piercingly to all young women in and outside of the walls. The Roots and Wings Project teams up with Espacio 1839 in Boyle Heights near Central Juvenile Hall, Inside OUT Writers, and KPFK 90.7 FM’s THINK OUTSIDE THE CAGE Radio to bring an evening of theatre, poetry and music that will elicit transformation, elevating the minds and hearts of audience and performers alike. The work will explore the role self-respect and self-love play in dismantling The Prison Industrial Complex, patriarchy and misogyny alike. Excited to see you there! In Appreciation, Jesse

A RECORD OF LIGHT Is back...at UCSC! The student actors in the Cultural Arts and Diversity Program will be performing it. There are no words for the love we have in our hearts for this play. The cast was phenomenal.... killed it with their performances...biggest props ever to Dez Hope, Carla Vega, Lynn Elishaw, Jeremy Mascia, Marcenus Earl and Marie-Francoise Theodore. And one of a kind producer Peter Woods. Love you all so much. Not to mention the score...Pitch Like Masses killed it with the live musical score! Can't wait for it to run again here in Los Angeles. Please peep the synopsis.. SYNOPSIS The complete sacred knowledge of all human experience is being housed in secret, in a downtown Los Angeles bookstore. Orelia Key, a woman whose spirit moves faster than her body can any longer handle, is determined to access it. On this mission, she encounters denizens of the bookstore, analog people, who in a world of technology, discover the link between body and the substance of the soul.

The RAW team is re-igniting, percolating, and coming together to move into the next phase. Fresh minds make exciting times!

The Roots and Wings Project and Occidental College Student Affairs present ((((((( TREE OF FIRE )))))) (A Staged Reading) Written & Directed by Jesse Bliss Presented for Incarceration Awareness Week When a Magnolia tree catches fire in an aged and ominous women’s prison, three female inmates forgotten and left to perish are jolted as their lives are threatened, into memories of their past that inform the truth of their souls and the urgent need to expose the inhumanity of the prison to the world. Cast: Romi Dias Khanisha Foster Gabriela López de Dennis Elvis Nolasco Mike the Poet and more TBA! Thursday, April 11, 2013 8:00 p.m. Occidental College 1600 Campus Road Los Angeles, California 90041 **Stay tuned for more details on exact location** Q&A with the cast & crew immediately following the performance. A FREE event that is open to the public.

We are so incredibly happy to announce there will be a Staged Reading of TREE OF FIRE next Thursday April 11, 2013 at Occidental College in honor of their Incarceration Awareness Week.   We at The Roots and Wings Project are grateful and so excited

Thursday: With the blockage of Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s assault weapons ban what’s in store for gun control in the United States? We speak to Professor Dr. Henry Giroux. And we get an update on the fluid situation in the Congo, where M23 rebel leader Bosco Ntaganda has sought the protection of the US embassy in Rwanda. Reports are he has asked to be sent to the International Criminal Court. Kambale Musavuli of Friends of the Congo fills us in on this developing story and other updates on the ground. Also, for our weekly “Earth Watch,” Rue, of the Texas East End Tar Sands Blockade discusses sex, race and class in the blockade movement and in the environmental movement generally. And last we hear from Jesse Bliss, director of the new play “Trees of Fire” playing at the Rosenthal Theater in the Inner City Arts complex in Downtown Los Angeles Sojourner Truth, Thursday March 21st 7-8am.

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The Roots and Wings Project is a politically charged, socially transformative theatre company dedicated to giving voice to the unnamed, unspoken and misunderstood through theatrical innovation and multi-media collaboration. Fusing traditional theatre with hip-hop, poetry, music and visual art, the company unites a wide range of audiences from different communities around the world. 

You can find Santana Westbrook and crew on Facebook or subscribe to TruthSeekers Radio on iTunes.

L.A. writer, educator and performer Mike the Poet Sonkenson features RAW founder Jesse Bliss in his L.A. Letters column for KCET.

Big Ern blowing minds wide open at TURN THE PAGE: A Literary Force at The Last Bookstore.

Very excited to be visiting our friends at Truth Seekers Radio tonight! 1am-3am. We'll be talking about he movement on Tree of Fire, the success of Turn the Page: A Literary Force. Tune in!

The Roots and Wings Project.

Come be a part of a critical conversation about juvenile injustice and the Prison Industrial Complex at The Last Bookstore. 

“When prisons are privately run there’s less accountability, less transparency, and the motive, the sheer motive is profits.” Monica Hopkins – Executive Director, ACLU Idaho