Hip-hop, humor, poetry and politics

From hip-hop and blues to boleros and salsa, the cutting-edge poetry collective Universes captures the distinctive sounds and percussive rhythms of their native South Bronx.

In October, Universes will make its St. Louis debut with Slanguage, a blistering yet exuberant depiction of modern urban life, at Washington University’s Edison Theatre.

Performances — which launch the 33rd annual Edison Theatre OVATIONS! Series — begin at 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday, Oct. 21 and 22. Tickets are $28; $24 for seniors and Washington University faculty and staff; and $18 for students and children.

Edison Theatre is located in the Mallinckrodt Student Center, 6445 Forsyth Blvd. Tickets are available at the Edison Theatre Box Office and through all MetroTix outlets. For more information, call (314) 935-6543.

Like Russell Simmons’ Def Poetry Jam or the Nuyorican Poets Café, Universes arose from New York’s vibrant (and fiercely competitive) spoken-word scene. Though formed in 1998, each of the five members was well-known as a solo artist and Universes soon began performing at major venues such as PS 122 and the New York Shakespeare Festival’s Public Theatre. Today the troupe boasts its own UniverseCity Theater Network in the Bronx.

In 1999, Universes began collaborating with Obie Award-winning director Jo Bonney, perhaps best known for her work with playwright-performer Eric Bogosian. For Slanguage, which debuted in 2002, Bonney helped the group structure some 30 autobiographical vignettes into a single evening-length work, in which “traditional theatre synthesizes with poetry, storytelling, rhythm, music, song and dance.”

Loosely organized around a subway ride from Brooklyn to the Bronx, Slanguage captures the humor, energy and pressures of life on the streets and in the tenements. Beggars and preachers jostle with hustlers and sidewalk jump-ropers in rapid-fire English, Spanish, Spanglish and Ebonics. What emerges is a moving yet affectionate poetry-slam portrait of contemporary New York in all its eccentric, multiethnic glory:

Chinese shoes at a Latin house party
Playing spoons to disco toons
With a knish in my left hand
And the blues in my heart.

The New York Times calls Slanguage “exuberant, insightful” and notes that Universes has “created something special, a work of heart and soul that distills the essence of the city.” The Village Voice notes that the “effervescent, racially mixed group [is] as likely to kick some poetry as break out into a capella singing, to orchestrate a vocal exercise as they are to burst into a step show … Their energy and realness is unmatchable.”

Slanguage has been performed at major venues around the country, from Actor’s Theatre of Louisville to the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles, and was anthologized in The Fire This Time: African American Plays for the 21st Century (2002). Yet the piece also continues to grow and evolve, as the troupe adds new members and continually revises and polishes their language.

The current tour features three original cast members — Steven Sapp, Mildred Ruiz and Gamal Abdel Chasten — along with talented newcomers Dominic Colon and Ninja. Bonney directs, with lighting design by James Vermullen and sound design by Darron L. West.

Edison Theatre

Edison Theatre’s OVATIONS! Series serves both Washington University and the St. Louis community by providing the highest caliber national and international artists in music, dance and theater, performing new works as well as innovative interpretations of classical material not otherwise seen in St. Louis. Focusing on presentations that are interdisciplinary, multicultural and/or experimental, Edison Theatre presents work intended to challenge, educate and inspire.

Edison Theatre programs are made possible with support from the Missouri Arts Council, a state agency; the Regional Arts Commission, St. Louis; and private contributors.