Poet Franny Choi. Photo by Fatimah Asghar.

Franny Choi’s poetry explores the collisions of identities, the volatile nature of language, and the haunting relationship between an artist’s body and her body of work.

In 2011, Franny was a finalist at two of the three most prestigious poetry slams in the country: the National Poetry Slam and the Women of the World Poetry Slam. She was awarded Best Female Poet and Most Innovative at the 2011 Wade-Lewis Poetry Slam Invitational, and her team was specially recognized for Pushing the Art Forward at the 2011 College Union Poetry Slam Invitational. She was also the top-ranking female poet at the 2011 Southern Fried Poetry Slam and the champion of 2010 Seoul Poetry Slam.

She is the co-author of two feature-length spoken word poetry shows, pretty/ugly and Maybe Never Words. In February 2011, her play Mask Dances was produced at Rites and Reason Theater as part of the Writing Is Live Festival, becoming the first undergraduate production in the history of the festival. Franny’s literary work has appeared in Fringe Magazine, Issues, The Java Monkey Speaks Anthology, and the College Hill Independent. Her work in Fringe was nominated for a Pushcart Prize and a Sundress Best of the Net Award in 2011. A graduate of Brown University’s Literary Arts program, she completed a cross-disciplinary honors thesis project, entitled “Per Mutation.”

Franny has served as an editor for VISIONS Asian American Literary Magazine and as a facilitator of WORD! Performance Poetry Group, which uses the medium to explore issues of race, class, gender, and sexuality.

Doors for the show open at 7:15. The open mic begins at 8:00 and the feature performs at approximately 10:00. An open poetry slam in the 8×8 series will follow. The show is 18+ (ID required) and the cover charge is $3.