Story/Stereo Week! Today: Story/Stereo 13

This Friday, May 20 at 8:00 P.M., The Writer's Center will host our 13th Story/Stereo (and our final one until next autumn). Hard to believe we've hosted this many Story/Stereos. Gearing up for this Friday's event, all this week I'll be doing a retrospective of the series on FPP.

At Friday's event we have a Story/Stereo first: This time, event host and poet (and now nonfiction writer) extraordinaire Sandra Beasley will be providing light food and craft beer for the event. Here are the artists you can expect at Friday's event:

Merrill Feitell's first book, Here Beneath Low-Flying Planes, won the Iowa Award for Short Fiction. Her stories have appeared in such publications as Best New American Voices and The Virginia Quarterly Review, and have been short-listed in both Best American Short Stories and The O. Henry Awards. She is on the M.F.A. faculty at University of Maryland in College Park and is fiction editor of Forklift, Ohio: A Journal of Poetry, Cooking, & Light Industrial Safety. She lives in Baltimore. Visit her Web site.

Susanna Lang’s first collection of poems, Even Now, was published in 2008, and she completed a second manuscript as a 2010 fellow at Hambidge. In 2009, her poem “Condemned” won the Inkwell competition, judged by Major Jackson. Her poems have appeared in such journals as New Letters, The Sow’s Ear Poetry Review, The Baltimore Review, Kalliope, Green Mountains Review, and jubilat. Translations include Words in Stone: Pierre Ecrite by Yves Bonnefoy. A poem published in The Spoon River Poetry Review won a 1999 Illinois Arts Council award. She lives in Chicago, where she develops curriculum for the public schools.

Note: On Saturday, May 21 Susanna Lang is also leading a one-day workshop at The Writer's Center: Seeing the World New: Making Effective Use of Image.

The Cornel West Theory:
The Cornel West theory is a Washington, D.C. based hip-hop band. With the blessing of Dr. Cornel West, the Princeton University professor and renowned author, the band takes its name from his prolific writings and philosophies that have shaped contemporary thought throughout the world.

Inspired by the rich musical history of the nation's capital and the struggles of poor people worldwide, the band was created in 2004 as a response to social oppression everywhere. They are here to deliver music that holds a mirror up to the world, with a core focus on political, cultural and spiritual commentary.

The band's purpose is to speak the truth to the masses, while communicating to young and old alike. They create soulful music that entertains, informs, educates and provokes awareness and activism. Their sound, filled with drums, bass, piano, and electronic sounds, contains elements of all great music – from home grown Go-Go to jazz to rock to hip-hop.

Their music is rooted in hip-hop, but that single genre does not define the range and variety of the musicians in the group. Winners of the 2008 Washington Area Music Awards Wammie for Best Hip-Hop duo or group, the Cornel West theory will release its debut album “Second Rome” this fall. Their Web site. See them perform here: