My Soul Grown Deep and Writers Read 7

Host/Producer Dmae Roberts features director Bobby Bermea and actors Brenda Phillips, James Dixon and Anya Pearson of BaseRoots Theatre Company and their new show My Soul Grown Deep --a collaboration with Eric Hull of VOX.  We'll also have Writers Read #7 with Michelle Rae Anderson who reads an excerpt from her forthcoming book, The Miracle in July.

BaseRoots Theatre, talks about their show, My Soul Grown Deep which explores 300 years of African-American poetry, from Phyllis Wheatley to Saul Williams to local poets. The title of their show comes from Hughes' poem, The Negro Speaks of Rivers.

My Soul Grown Deep is filled to the brim with 26 different poems performed by the actors. Choosing poems was a challenge, according to director Bobby Bermea. The group had to "throw out gold."

Speaking about the experience of performing African-American poetry, Brenda Phillips says, "it's important that people know that this by us, from us, and we are doing it."

Still, My Soul Grown Deep has something for all communities. "This is just the pallete that we choose to work with to inspire and excite the greater community as a whole," explains Bermea. "We want everybody to come see it. We want everyone to be touched and moved," he adds.

The actors also treat us to performances of two poems: one  written by Brenda Phillips, and one by famed poet Nikki Giovanni.

Performances are May 26 - June 4. For more info visit BaseRootsTheatre.org.

Then we hear a two-minute reading by Michelle Rae Anderson. She calls herself a "experiential author, media ecologist, and pie-maker."

Since July 2009, Anderson has been unraveling her semi-autobiographical book, The Miracle in July, as a "first draft" web serial. In this week's show, Anderson will read an excerpt from the series. The book is due to be published later this year, and Anderson's future plans include a "making-of" series, movie script, podcast with dramatic readings from the book, and more.

This segment features music by Portland composer David Ornette Cherry. His music can be heard at DavidOrnetteCherry.com.

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