Spoken word artist featured at Wednesday Night Poetry

Spoken word artist, community organizer and model Shelia N. Bowers, also known as D. Oracle, will be featured tonight at Wednesday Night Poetry at Kollective Coffee+Tea, 110 Central Ave.

The regular open mic session for all poets will begin at 6:30 p.m. Oracle will begin her feature set at 7:15 p.m., followed by another round of open mic. Admission is free and open to all ages.

Born in Monroe, La., and raised in its twin city West Monroe, Oracle made Little Rock her home in January 2014 and has since been actively involved in the local art scene by performing, supporting fellow artists, and contributing innovative ideas to build the community, a news release said.

She has performed spoken word poetry and instrumental music at various venues around Little Rock. She is also a longtime model for Art Without Limits, the quarterly show hosted by The House of Art in Argenta. Bowers is a current beginner martial artist at Anderson Taekwondo Center in Little Rock, and a former member of the Arts & Culture Steering Committee of Think Big, Little Rock. She is also a spring 2017 graduate of the Edward Coleman Leadership Institute of the STAND Foundation, where her proposed service project focuses on providing artistic exposure to underserved local communities, the release said.

D. Oracle penned her first poem at the age of 8, but she did not begin orating her pieces until spring 2005 while engaging as a member of the Mocha Room Poets at Southern University and A&M College in Baton Rouge, La.

"My first performance piece was entitled, Divine Oracle, and from that, my spoken word persona emerged," she said in the release.

Though currently not a competition poet, Oracle has volunteered at poetry events and slams including the 2015 Southern Fried Poetry Festival held in Little Rock. She is a member of the dynamic arts troupe New Wave and has also shared her poetry in several U.S. cities. Bowers most recently had poetry published in The Mind of a Millennial, A Communal Project curated by Nadia McKoy. A single mother of a 2-year-old girl named Phoenix, a talented flutist, dancer, copy editor, and magazine writer, Bowers stays quite busy but finds poetry every day, the release said.

Written on the inside cover of her poetry journals is this Phylicia Rashad (as Gilda in "For Colored Girls") quote: "There's too much LIFE wrapped in your voice; you gotta get up and get out of here." Bowers uses this as inspiration. "These words serve as a constant reminder that there's power to change life and its outcomes through my orations. I believe that my words carry weight -- that I can impact someone who hears me when I share my poetic art."

"We are so thrilled to have D. Oracle feature at WNP -- Her poetry is so powerful. She has a rawness and passion about her, mixed with anger at racial injustice, and beauty of language and delivery that is absolutely riveting to experience. All the members of New Wave offer this poetic fire and intellectual anarchy through their verse, lifting up the black experience in a way that is inspiring and memorable. It's always a great night when the wave rolls in," said WNP host Kai Coggin.

This week marks 1,607 consecutive Wednesdays of open mic poetry in downtown Hot Springs since Feb. 1, 1989. For more information about WNP or to be considered as a featured poet, email [email protected].