O, the mighty men and women of Austin's stages! They get so busy this time of year. There's more than enough to choose from this week, but here are the theater picks that top our list. ProArts Collective wraps up the Black Arts Movement Festival with Incognito on Thursday at 8pm, and Spoken Word Caravan on Friday at 8pm. The former is a one-man drama, performed by author Michael Fosberg, about a man who grew......

Henry Rollins is tearing across the country on the "Provoked" spoken word tour, billed as "An evening of quintessentially American opinionated editorializing and storytelling." With over a dozen spoken word albums under his belt, Rollins has definitely proven his skill as a storyteller and cultural commenter, particularly on works like Black Coffee Blues and Get in the Van. He's also done some brilliant television work. For example, check out the potentially misogynistic letter to Ann......

Another day, another schedule of packed-to-the-gills programming for the National Poetry Slam. It's extremely tough to pick just one or two things to highlight, but here're the events that most piqued our curiosity. Daytime Programming All daytime programs are FREE, so if you live or work downtown, consider popping in for one of these events. NPS won't be in Austin again for a very long time, so this is something of a one-time chance. It......

Some 300 competitors in 75 teams are set to converge upon Austin next week for the 2007 National Poetry Slam, a five-day competition that will feature some of the country's most talented slam artistry. NPS officially runs from August 7 through August 11th, but event organizers are hosting a series of preview events starting today to showcase some of what you can expect to see at the performances. "We're fortunate to be able to again......

Trust your instincts, faithful readers. That is a disturbance you've sensed in the force. For the second year in a row, the nation's finest and funniest poets plan to pummel Austin with their poesy, prose, puns...and all sorts of other p-words we can't mention here. Starting August 7, National Poetry Slam 2007 will transform Austin into the epicenter of all things slammarific, with five days of knock-down, drag-out, no-holds-barred competition to find out who can......

This month, the Austinist kicks off a monthly interview series with local alt-comedy performers featuring interviews with Austin's best stand-up, spoken word, sketch, improvisation, and comedic actors. For the inaugural interview, we hooked-up with Lisa deLarios, local stand-up and frequent performer on some of Austin's best know stages. She recently returned from performing at this year's Aspen Comedy Festival, and discusses New York, being an agrarian at heart and getting her start. How long have......

For anyone in love with Mideast cuisine, your list just got one restaurant shorter. Owners of Ararat restaurant announced today that their last night of business will be this Saturday, March 24. No word on why they’re closing, but they’ll be going out with a bang, though, with a party in the backyard from 5pm-6am, complete with the Ararat Belly Dancers, live auction, Mideast food and beverages, live music by the Righteous Tidings, spoken......

Arts on Real Theater will be hosting the Sex Workers Art Show tonight and tomorrow night. The cabaret-style show blends drag, spoken word, music, and burlesque produced by people who work in various segments of the sex industry. Billed as "the implosion of the service industry," the touring show is an attempt to "dispel the myth that [sex workers] are anything other than artists, innovators, and geniuses." The Sex Workers Art Show Monday, February 5......

WEDNESDAY [31] dj • fStar, a biweekly project about "living, breathing, moving graffiti" coupled with a live soundtrack at Jo's on 2nd Street (8-10pm, Free) dj • Cut Club at The Mohawk music • The Lymbyc Systym, This Will Destroy You, Loren Dent at Emo's music • Live Oak Decline, Sounds Under Radar at Stubb's music • Brother Will, Carley Wolf, Stoney's Spoken Word (featuring the Golden Boys) at Beerland music • Militant Babies,......

MONDAY [29] opera • Philip Glass' Waiting for the Barbarians at Bass Concert Hall music • Unwed Sailor, Bayta Darell, The Twilight Lieutenants at Emo's Lounge music • Hidden Hand, Kylesa, The Roller, Ironclad at Emo's music • The Fray, Mute Math at Frank Erwin Center music • Hill Country Outdoors' New Member Meeting at Opal Divine's Penn Field film • Darkon: The Movie at Alamo Drafthouse Downtown film • Melody at Alamo Drafthouse......

That's right: it's time to heat up your winter nights again, with the 14th season of FronteraFest. The Short Fringe, the Long Fringe, or Mi Casa es su Teatro -- FronteraFest is five weeks of alternative, offbeat, new, and just plain off-the-wall fringe theatre presented by Hyde Park Theatre and Austin Script Works. For complete FronteraFest 2007 information, including times and locations for the Short Fringe, the Long Fringe and Mi Casa es su......

MONDAY [15] books • The Xenogia Spoken Word Collective, Uprise Productions, and the Vortex present Genevieve Van Cleve and Sharon Bridgeforth with host Zell Miller III at The Vortex (6:45pm, $3) film • 24 Season Premiere party, night two at Alamo Downtown (7pm) film • James Brown, Boston Garden 1968 at Alamo Downtown (9:45pm) Photo of Bull Creek by mr3wan on flickr......

First Night Austin Schedule 2-5pm Family Festival 5:30-6:30pm Grand Procession 7pm Family Finale at City Hall 7-11:30pm Evening programming Midnight Grand Finale First Night Austin takes over downtown this Sunday, kicking off the second annual festival with three hours of family-friendly activities, performances, and art installations. From hip hop freestyling to Appalachian-style clog dancing, there promises to be enough culturally-rich distractions to entertain even that obnoxious nephew of yours who'd rather stay home to......

Official Poster of First Night Austin 2007 by Peat Duggins After the tremendous success of last year's inaugural festival, First Night Austin returns to downtown this New Year's Eve with an all-day program full of music, art, theatre, dance, and more. Begun in Boston back in 1976 as a massive public gathering to ring in the new year through "art, ritual, and festivity," First Night events are now held all over the world, from......

This week, ProArts Collective's Black Arts Movement Festival concludes with more amazing works by more amazing performers. Though there's a motherload of theatre open and opening in A-town right now, we think you should give these gems some serious consideration when you're planning your artful outings for the next few days. Note: Tickets are $10, door only / $35-$65 via festival pass, online only. Dance: ACC Dance, Dallas Black Dance, and UpRise! Productions We......

Josh Davis (aka DJ Shadow): began reinventing trip-hop while still in his teens, has amassed the largest collection of vinyl hip-hop in the universe, is buddies with Thom Yorke, and is coming to Austin this Sunday. Stubb's will host the genre-annihilating wunderkind in what is sure to be one of the more eclectic performances of the year. A master of production and musical collage, DJ Shadow has impressed his way into collaborations with the......

As mentioned in last week's TWIT, the Black Arts Movement Festival, presented by ProArts Collective, is Austinist's Pick of the Week this week. The Chronicle and the Statesman have also made good mention of the fest, but to catch up the few of you who've yet to get the skinny on this event, here's what's going on. For the next two weeks, BAM brings to Austin an awesome smorgasbord of performance art by African......

"Back in the days when I was a teenager / Before I had status and before I had a pager / You could find the abstract listenin' to hip-hop / My pops used to say it reminded him of bebop / I said well Daddy don't you know things go in cycles..." — Q-Tip Tonight is the last of four performances of Zell Miller III's B-Boy Bluez, 8 p.m. at the Vortex. This photographer......

FRIDAY [25] food • Hatch Chile Festival at Central Market North Lamar (8am-9pm) shopping • Flipnotics Clothespad celebrates its 14th anniversary by hosting a big sidewalk sale, with $10 "Stuff a Bag" vintage threads for the ladies and 20% everything else (8am-9pm) books • Robin Meyers presents Why the Christian Right is Wrong: A Minister's Manifesto for Taking Back Your Faith, Your Flag, Your Future at BookPeople (7pm) music • Gorilla Biscuits, Terror, Comeback......

A few titillating theatre pieces are going down in Austin right now, from dancing prancing ladies to pinko feminazi confessions. Curiouser and curiouser. But our list is topped by the New Plays/Fresh Voices performances running two weeks only at the Vortex. This and next weekend only, two new plays by two local playwrights will be on the boards. One of the works is the latest from local, award-winning playwright, poet, and performer Zell Miller,......

Natasha Tsakos’ “manifesto” begins as follows: “I am alone, on a path leading toward a little light, walking with my suitcase and my theater. Together we create worlds of wonder, reverie, and contemplation.” And you know what? She’s not just sayin’ that. This past Saturday we saw Tsakos’ UPWAKE Part III, the final installment in a series of performances that follow Zero, a toon character, on an ultra-modern journey to dreamland and beyond. Tsakos......

Austin is once again celebrating New Year's Eve with First Night, and FNA is accepting artist proposals starting this coming Monday, May 1. They're calling for "emerging and established artists with big ideas for ringing in the New Year" to put their ideas down on paper and get 'em to FNA no later than 5pm, June 12. That may seem like a long time from now, but the proposals can include a heck of......

Tonight (Wednesday night) there’s a new weekly that we’re hoping will drop some new flavor into the week. It’s on a Wednesday, which isn’t the most raucous of nights out, so it’s not like your dance card is full. Local DJ/Spoken Word/Mic Handler Jazz One has joined up with Orion, Broadband Selecta, and Jubal to take over Jazz (underneath The Parish off sixth street – it’s a good sized spot) for Choice Cut Wednesdays.......

We are soaked, soaked we tell you, in Frontera. This week, we've attended Best of Fest Bill A (to be repeated tomorrow night, and highly recommended), and the first Wild Card bill -- which won't be repeated, but we definitely suggest you take a stab at the second Wild Card bill, 2pm Saturday. It happens to be the only remaining Frontera show that's not sold out. Yikes! (A tip: If you want to try......

Saturday night we checked out the first Best of Week bill at Hyde Park's 13th Annual Frontera Fest. You might have read a thing or two about Frontera here on Austinist. Well, it has finally arrived in all its fringe-y glory. And before we forget, we'll tell you this now; if you want to start your very own blog about Frontera or pretty much anything artsy in Austin, you're welcome to check out the......

Frontera Fest is here! Austinist is, ahem, a bit behind with this news (blame it on the holidays), as tickets have been on sale for two days! (You can get 'em by calling 479-PLAY.) The Short Fringe starts this coming Tuesday, 1/10 at Hyde Park Theatre, followed close on its heels by the Long Fringe, which begins the following Tuesday, 1/17 at the Blue Theatre. Oh, and perhaps most exciting of all, there's an......

Logo and image from First Night Austin website Looking for New Year’s Eve Plans? First Night Austin is going to be a new tradition for this city, and since we like anything that supports the arts community in Austin, we are very excited about this one. Since the activities are stretching between 2PM and midnight, you can either go early before your partying begins, or end up your evening downtown for the First Night Finale.......

If you want to get down to the funky sounds of some of Austin’s underground hip-hop scene, Ruta Maya is the place for you to be tonight for the Burro Magic B’Day Party. The night of slammin’ tunes and spoken word poetry kicks off with DJ Shook and continues with music from Diasporic, Da’Shade with Blacklisted (and special guest Xenogia) and Earth Raiders. The folks at Ruta Maya promise a night of crazy fun......

Some of Austinist's more sheltered friends are terrified of venturing to the Eastside. When we first moved here, we were innundated with warnings of how I-35 forms the border between the "good" part of town and the inner-city; to many of these aspiring suburbanites, venturing across the divide is to welcome certain doom. God, what twaddle. To our surprise and delight, we've found the Eastside to be a vibrant, culturally literate neighborhood that -......

That’s what Matt Skiba, lead singer and guitarist for Chicago’s Alkaline Trio wanted to call their latest release. Upon hearing that they were thinking about using "Church and Destroy" as the title, some religious groups put pressure on the band and their label, Vagrant Records. Skiba says that they changed the title to the bland "Crimson," not because of the protest, but because it didn’t quite fit the new songs they had recorded. For......