Guest speaker

**Please note that we will meet at our regular meeting time of 1:00 and this workshop will start promptly at 1:30.  No one will be admitted after 1:30.**

Challenge:  The women always out number the men 5:1 at our meetups.  I challenge all the men of the group to make a special effort to attend the February meeting. 

Our first guest speaker of 2012 will be at the February meeting and you don't wanna miss this one. Dasan Ahanu is a public speaker, organizer, workshop facilitator, poet, spoken word performer, songwriter, writer, emcee, and loyal Hip Hop head born and raised in Raleigh, North Carolina. In addition to performing, Dasan has hosted many poetry, jazz, Hip Hop, and cultural arts events across the state. As an actor, Dasan has been a cast member of the hip-hopera, "Right is Right" and a Harlem Renaissance production, "Images", which was produced by National Ensemble Theater and featured at the National Black Theatre Festival. He is one of the founders of Black Poetry Theatre (BPT) and has been a writer, director, producer, and cast member of six productions. Also an active participant in poetry slam, Dasan has competed regionally and nationally for six years as a founding member of Durham, NC’s own Bull City Slam Team (BCST).

Believing that “with great talent comes great responsibility”, Dasan has also used his skill and resources to aid in developing the community and further social change. He has worked as an organizer on such issues as war, social injustice, workers rights, domestic violence and sexual assault; planned and facilitated community programs for Duke University's Center for Documentary Studies; conducted creative writing and performance workshops at middle schools, high schools, and colleges throughout North Carolina; and spent time working with at-risk/court-involved youth. Ahanu has been a speaker or workshop facilitator at a number of notable conferences and symposiums speaking on topics such as the impact of cultural arts programming, the arts and social justice, Hip Hop culture, and the arts as a tool for literacy. A believer in the power of creative expression as an educational tool, he is currently a teacher at Duke University’s Young Writer’s Camp, creative consultant and resident artist at the Hayti Heritage Center in Durham, NC and an Assistant Professor at Saint Augustine’s College in Raleigh, NC.

Dasan will be helping us tap into our creative writing vessels to pull out some immaculate words.  Be there!