Friday, November 7th is the perfect time for a FREE language lesson. Not the kind about commas and run-on sentences but the kind about rhythm, rhyme and bass. AND, Third Man Books and Third Man Records will be celebrating not only our first literary release titled Language Lessons: Volume 1 (an anthology of poetry, prose, and music), but we are also pleased to announce our first single-author book titled The Truth Is We Are Perfect by Janaka Stucky. The book of poems will hit the streets in April 2015. By the way, did we mention this event is free? And that there will be a bar? And that there will be bass? Lots of bass. That all means Mike Floss (AKA Openmic).  Mike Floss has shared the stage with artists such as Pusha T, Wale, Stalley, and Yo Gotti. His solo efforts For the Rebels 1 & 2 were awarded Mixtape and Hip Hop Album of the Year by the Nashville Scene.

Likewise, The Scene named poet Kendra DeColo’s Thieves in the Afterlife best poetry book of 2014! And Third Man Books Language Lessons as best anthology of 2014. Not to be outdone, poet TJ Jarrett book Zion won the most recent prestigious Crab Orchard prize. So that’s a lot of prize winners, but did we mention there’s a bar, and bass, and that the event is free admission? And that there will be vinyl spinning, too? The indomitable DJ Rap Castle will be on turntables between sets.

Bring the bass. Bring the bar. Bring the Poetry. Set it all on fire.

Janaka Stucky is the Publisher of Black Ocean. He is the author of Your Name Is The Only Freedom (Brave Men Press), The World Will Deny It For You (Ahsahta Press) and The Truth Is We Are Perfect (forthcoming Third Man Books, Spring 2015), and his articles have been published by The Huffington Post and The Poetry Foundation. He is a two-time National Haiku Champion and in 2010 he was voted “Boston’s Best Poet." He likes his whiskey neat and his music dirty.

Mike Floss capitalizes on his natural instincts with creativity and unmatched lyrical prowess. Growing up the under the guidance of his father and renown jazz musician, Rod McGaha, his roots were deeply planted in art and self-expression.  He attended the HBCU in his hometown, Tennessee State University, where in between the parties and classes, he began mastering his craft and developing his sound. “I can do a song with Yo Gotti and still get my wave in… then turn around and do J Dilla records with Erykah Badu and bring something young and refreshing to the culture.”

Kendra DeColo is the author of Thieves in the Afterlife (Saturnalia Books, 2014), selected by Yusef Komunyakaa for the 2013 Saturnalia Books Poetry Prize. She has received awards and fellowships from the Bread Loaf Writers Conference, the Millay Colony, and the Tennessee Arts Commission. She is a book editor at Muzzle Magazine and the founding poetry editor of Nashville Review. She teaches at the Porch Writers’ Collective and Room in the Inn. This spring she will be a guest professor at Sarah Lawrence College.

TJ Jarrett is a writer and software developer in Nashville, Tennessee. Her recent work has been published or is forthcoming in Poetry, African American Review, Boston Review, Beloit Poetry Journal, Callaloo, DIAGRAM, Third Coast, VQR, West Branch and others.Her debut collection Ain’t No Grave  (finalist for the 2013 Balcones Prize)  was published with New Issues Press  (2013). Her second collection Zion  (winner of the Crab Orchard Open Competition 2013)  was published by Southern Illinois University Press in the fall of 2014.