>>POST-SHOW PROGRAM | Dancing with Death: Exploring What Comes After in Story, Poetry & Comedy

Thursday, April 28th
Following the 7:30pm performance

Join us for our second night of storytellers, poets, and stand-up comics performing work inspired by the themes of We’re Gonna Die. Ken Green and Payal Sharma co-host the evening, which also includes Nick Chambers, DiDi Delgado, Krysten Hill, Steven LaFond, Laura Severse, and Jade Sylvan.

ABOUT THE ARTISTS

Ken Green is producer and co-host of Story Club Boston, a monthly storytelling/reading series held at the Milky Way Lounge in Jamaica Plain. A Chicago native, he was a member of several Chicago national poetry slam teams, serving as the weakest link on a team of REAL poets. He’s written a couple of short plays that have been performed by real actors, written a few stories and was a Moth grand slam finalist in here in Massachusetts. He tells stories that are mostly at his own expense.

Payal Sharma is the artistic staff member and a performer of The Genki Spark, a pan-Asian, all-women’s arts and advocacy group, and MC/hosts numerous open mic nights and community events. Payal is a student at UMASS Amherst’s University Without Walls program, and a social justice educator and non-profit consultant.

Nick Chambers, born & raised in Worcester, MA, began performing stand-up comedy on a whim in 2009 and hasn’t been able to stop since. His constant exploration of perception has quickly led to becoming a regular at clubs all over the East Coast in addition to being chosen as Comic in Residence at The Comedy Studio in 2014 and selected to participate in the 2015 Boston Comedy Festival. Nick has performed with national headliners such as Cameron Esposito, Mitch Fatel, Kyle Dunnigan and Bridget Everett. As an actor, he appears in feature films such as Good Kids, Hedgehog and was cast in the lead role of the drama It’s Not Funny Anymore.

Jade Sylvan is a writer and producer. Their new work is Spider Cult the Musical, the apocalyptic lesbian sci-fi horror burlesque musical of the century. Buy tickets.

Laura Severse is a native Bostonian, working mother of two by day, and comedian by night. Laura began doing stand up in 2001 but took a detour into marriage, motherhood and middle management.  She is now back on the scene and performing all over Boston. She recently performed in New Orleans and Las Vegas. Laura’s comedic material comes from her large, dysfunctional Dorchester family, mean-spirited co-workers and her two small children.  Laura strives to bring humor to her stories about climbing the corporate ladder, body image in the workplace and what it’s like to raise two small children in today’s world. A regular performer at the Comedy Studio, Boston Comedy Chicks, Johnny D’s and Improv Boston, Laura just completed a two month comic residency at the The Riot Theater in Jamaica Plain. An avid reader and writer, Laura has been writing jokes in her head for the last 15 years and is now brave enough to perform them on stage.

Steven LaFond is a writer and social media strategist based in the Boston area. He received an MFA in Writing from the Bennington Writing Seminars. His fiction has appeared in apt, Spaces, the Drum, Little Fiction, and others.  My articles have appeared in the Good Men Project, fiveonfive, WorcesterMag, DerbyLife and AIVF.org. He spent several years as a roller derby announcer, traveling the country and evangelizing the sport to anyone he encountered. When he wasn’t track-side, he was providing broadcast play-by-play for the WFTDA. When not by my desk typing words in the hopes they’ll be read, he can be found squeezing a pug, dancing, or celebrating the achievements of other people.

Krysten Hill is originally from Kansas City, MO and currently lives and teaches in Boston, MA. She received her MFA from UMass Boston. She has featured poetry at the Massachusetts Poetry Festival, Cantab, U35 Reading Series, Mr. Hip Presents, Literary Firsts, The Boston Poetry Marathon, and The Encyclopedia Show: Somerville. Her poetry has appeared or is forthcoming in MUZZLE, PANK, apt, Amethyst Arsenic, ROAR, Write on the DOT, and Oddball Magazine. Her greatest desire is to form a collective of women poets who travel around teaching the power of voice to the girls on front porches who wonder what that aching in their chests is all about.

DiDi Delgado is a poet!