Die You Dirty Giraffe

Sounds from Friday evening

"No Love" is a spoken word piece based on real life events. Aranta and her late fiance moved to Minneapolis in 2006. He had, in his teen years, sat alone on a bench in a Philadelphia park, after running away from home for the up-tenth time because of abusive treatment by his step-father, coupled with the guilt of stupid teenaged mistakes made fueled by testostoroned-induced impulsiveness and the county telling his mother that it would be best to sign him over to a State Hospital and get him on SSI (and she did, after all, want him to be safe and they were *professionals*)--but, truth be told, everyone was giving up on him. So, when he took a razor blade and carved "NO LOVE" into his inner fore arm, it seemed justified. And when at 18, he began a 59 month stint at Graterford State Penn, his fate seemed sealed. A set course to a lonely doom. But his self mutilation was not quite prophetic. When he was found 20 years later on a Philadelphia park bench, robbed & beaten to death, he was indeed very much loved. His mother, sister and 2 daughters adored him and he was the love of Aranta Riffs' life. That is, Caroline Mannheimer's life. It is still an unsolved case. This spoken word piece is dedicated to him: if you met him, he would've been the toughest guy you knew. 
Joseph John Kilkenny 8/31/76-6/2/10 <3

NO LOVE

No Love

Originally from the northern NJ/NYC area--with an 8 yr stretch in Philly. 
Bass plyr, songwriter/arranger, spoken word performer, author, playwright, dramaturge, teacher, professional theater actor and trained visual artist (The School of Visual Arts & Parsons School of Design/The New School, NYC). 
Half Scottish (mum-and fookin' proud!), the other half, full-on north Jersey gurrrl! And single mum, herself (widowed: her fiancé was murdered in a robbery in Philadelphia in 2010.) She currently resides in the thriving arts scene of Minneapolis, bringing awareness to the world's social ills & day-to-day madness that we all endure with a fresh intelligence and humor dosed with her background in metal bands and school of hard knocks. Through performances of spoken word lyrics produced with various beats & riffs as well as performing theater and workshops with homeless people with her troupe, zAmya Theater Project, which brings awareness to homelessness and the prison industrial complex. She also writes, performs, directs and produces other plays throughout the Twin Cities that are based on a wide variety of subjects (ranging from bedbugs to breast cancer)but always with a fresh perspective based on her own experiences and with a dark sense of humor which has gotten her through her own worst of times.