Seattle poet Christa Bell.

Christa Bell is a writer, poet, spoken word artist, arts educator, and cultural activist from Seattle, Washington who received her BA in Creative Writing from San Francisco State University, has studied in Europe and lived in east Africa. She writes, performs and curates arts events throughout the Northwest, where she is also a competitive performance poet and founder of the Healing Is A Political Act (HIAPA) Creative Recovery Workshop Series.

She is the 2005 Grand Slam Poetry Champion for Seattle and she will lead the Seattle team at the National Poetry Slam in Albuquerque, New Mexico this August. She was also voted to represent the Northwest at the Individual World Poetry Slam (IWPS) in February, where she placed fifteenth in the world, and was a member of the 2004 Seattle Poetry Slam team as well. She has shared the stage with political and artistic luminaries such as Saul Williams, Angela Y. Davis, Mutabaruka, Imani Uzururi and asha bandele.

She is the author of two self-published chapbooks of prose and performance poetry entitled Revival and Arise My Beautiful One, Come With Me, both of which explore the inner lives of Black women as relates to romantic archetypes, sexual freedom and self-worship. She is also the creatrix and producer of a live spoken word poetry CD entitled Word Medicine: The Live Recorded Poetry of Christa Bell.

Her current projects include a memoir entitled 56:Memoir of a Black Girl’s Sexual Coming of Age and an as yet untitled novel that explores the psychic effects of post-traumatic stress disorder caused by the Middle Passage and Slavery as it relates to modern African-American Women, as well as founding the Northwest Black Arts Collective.

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.