First off, look at these videos of me doin' poetry!

[link] "Bare Naked" at the Encyclopedia Show: BEARS in September 2010. What's that, a cellist accompanying me? Robbie Q staring furiously into the back of my head? Why yes indeed. The Encyclopedia Show is awesome, by the way, and quickly becoming an international phenomenon. Look it up.

[link] "Cartography" at the Louder Than A Bomb College Indy Slam this past Friday. I haven't done a poetry slam since high school, and I'm glad I decided to take on the challenge. I'm quite proud of how this poem turned out.

Second off, look at these things I'm doin'!

[link] West Side School for the Desperate, a literary collective based in Logan Square. We're in our second month now. Case in point - review of our launch reading:

"To be perfectly frank and honest, a few years ago, I didn't think much of some of these kids or their poetry. ... Now I see what a fucking idiot I was, I'm glad I didn't write them off, that their enthusiasm and genuinely likable personalities kept me hanging in with them for the ride. the WSSD kids and their cohort represent the best that poetry has to offer, a combination of the 'page' and 'stage' powers that trumps that stupid rivalry, an earnest, honest (yeah, both those things), tongue in cheek yet enthusiastic and ballsy/ovariesy fuckin mania for the art that reawakened my own love for it. ... The night ended up with an honest to god fiddle contest, and some of us got up and fucking danced our asses off until the upstairs neighbor started pounding on the floor. I meant to leave early but ended up stayin late as I could stand, it was so much fucking fun. I highly recommend it to anyone who loves good times." [link]

I'm really excited for our upcoming reading, Stevie Edward's chapbook release featuring some poets I've admired for a long time: Roger Bonair-Agard, J. W. Baz, Marty McConnell, Benjamin Clark, and John Paul Davis.

My spoken word org, Verbatim, has really started to take off too. This past week I curated a reading with 2-time world slam champion and Poetry Tour Revivalist Buddy Wakefield ([link]), and I've got another reading in the works but I can't talk about it until it's official, so if this sort of thing interests you check out the facebook: [link]

I'm graduating in May (ho ma gad!) and I've got myself a sweet little freelance job. My life is set for the next little while. Feels pretty good!

I know I haven't been as prolific on DA as in the past, however I've started a "poem a day" project on my tumblr. You can literally follow me there: [link]