RACHEL KANN

Rachel Kann is not entirely a part of the newly minted spoken word elite. Sure, she’s competed in the National Poetry Slam, acted in award winning plays and toured the nation relentlessly, most recently with “GirlFest”. Sure, she creates and produces “co-lab:ORATION”, the brilliant LA show that brings together incredible music and spoken word talent to spontaneously collaborate in front of a live audience. Sure, she IM’s with Sage Francis before heading out to a gig. She carries the resume of a scene veteran, but somehow lives just outside of it.

Rachel Kann is not performing tonight at The FlyPoet Showcase. She is probably somewhere teaching poetry workshops to incarcerated teenage girls and in generally being badass. If she were here, she would be performing some inspiring poem that takes a shout out to the broken and unwanted in all of us, a poem that calls us to celebrate the genius gift of the body—“tiny titties and all.” She is in so many ways the anti-Hollywood starlet. She is what is missing tonight. She is stubbornly rebellious. She sometimes cannot pay the rent. I wish she were here with me, to watch the audience file out into the night, to clink rum drinks and wonder how after all of this we’ll ever get to sleep.

Mindy Nettifee text
terence patrick image