Storyteller, writer and slam poet Rives has appeared on the last three seasons of HBO's Def Poetry Jam and was a member of the Def Poetry Jam international touring group. Offstage, Rives designs and writes pop-up books for children and interactive narratives for grown-ups.
Why you should listen to him:
Flat pages can't contain Rives' storytelling, even when paper is his medium. The pop-up books he creates for children unfold with surprise: The Christmas Pop-Up Present expands to reveal moving parts, hidden areas and miniature booklets inside. On stage, his poems burst in many directions, too, exposing multiple layers and unexpected treats: childhood memories, grown-up humor, notions of love and lust, of what is lost forever and of what’s still out there waiting to unfold.
In "Kite," which he performed on HBO's Def Poetry Jam, he finds newness everywhere in the simple act of staying alone at a new girlfriend's apartment: "The morning after the first night we made love / the note on your pillow said 'good morning, sparkle boy / I'll be back around noon / you make yourself at home' / and so I did ..."
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