A few months ago, I [Lihi Be] stood on a stage in New York City and performed slam poetry for the first time. The scene was hosted by Nuyorican Poets' Cafe at the Bowery Poetry Club, a small, legendary room where decades of poets have stepped up to a microphone and turned their inner worlds into sound.
It's the kind of place where language has history. where words have weight, where the air still feels charged from the voices that came before.
I remember standing there, waiting my turn, feeling my heart beating in my throat,
which surprised me.
I’ve spoken in front of rooms before. I’ve guided workshops, taught movement, led breathworkjourneys where people open parts of themselves that are tender and alive.
Holding space for others doesn’t scare me.
But this was different.
This time, I wasn’t holding material space; I was the material.
A poem I wrote alone earlier that morning was about to leave the page and hit the stage, entering a room full of strangers, not through dead ink, but through my living breath, my voice, my body.
Until that moment, "poetry" was something I wrote, never something I performed.
When I published my book, The Self, Reframed, it felt like a big step outward. Suddenly the poems were technically "public." Someone, anyone, could order the book, underline a passage, carry a piece of it into her own life.
Butt even then, there was still distance.
The page protected me.
Readers meet a poem alone. They can pause, reread, close the book, throw it in the garbage disposal, flip the switch, make acid-free wood pulp that washes out to sea... That meeting happens quietly, inside their own interior worlds.
Shame? We refuse to limit ourselves
Slam poetry is different:
Spoken word removes the distance. When one performs a poem, there is no safe distance, no page between the room and the I performing. My breath carries my language. My nervous system becomes part of the delivery. My voice, my pauses, my trembling chest -- all of it becomes part of my poem.
In some ways, it feels easier to be naked than to perform one's own poem, in the woods, with someone you love, in front of Mother Nature, playing pretend it's Adam and Eve in a Sumerian garden.
I was in New York for a series of gatherings -- one of them a nude experience I was hosting with the Füde Experience: a roomful of naked people exploring embodiment, mindfulpresence, the simplicity of being in our bodies without the usual layers of social armor.
Standing naked in a room with others didn’t feel nearly as vulnerable as standing on this stage.
In fact, being naked felt surprisingly simple. Source: a poem is a different kind of naked (seeds of the self)
"No bikinis! Cover up those shameful bodies...or you are headed for hell!" - Loving Christian
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Lihi Be (Benisty)
AUTHOR: Lihi Be (Benisty), teacher of somatic self-inquiry, breathwork, movement, teacher, mentorship, poetry, summer retreat leader, author of The Self, Reframed. She leads a dynamic blend of somatic practices to navigate emotional landscapes. She is profoundly committed to the poetic art of self-inquiry through breathwork and movement. Her teaching is distinguished by her ability to weave these elements into a cohesive practice that respects the complexity of the human experience. Her poetry serves as a reflective mirror, deepening the themes she navigates in her somatic work and offering an additional avenue for connection and self-discovery. She lives in Los Angeles, California. (Substack, Instagram, FÜDEin LA, Amazon, Facebook, Omega Institute, lihibe.com)
This weekend (either Saturday or Sunday), Hsi Lai Temple will be conducting a noontime offering to the great Kwan Yin Pusa (GuanyinBodhisattva), who began as the male deva Avalokita (Avalokitesvara).
It is unknown which day it will be because it is officially posted as "Sunday, 8/1, at 10:00 am, but Sunday is 8/2, Aug. 2, 2026. So maybe it starts on Saturday at 10 and culminates with noontime offerings at 12 the next day? Call the temple for proper details.
It will be located in the Hsi Lai Temple main shrine at the top of the steps near the giant incense cauldron that looks like the Liberty Bell. Fortunately, for the Fo Guang Shan (lit. "Buddha's* Light Mountain") Movement Buddhists of the world and others, there will be a Livestream (live from Los Angeles):
Buddha's Light Mountain
Fo Guang Shan (FGS, Chinese 佛光山, Pinyin Fó guāng shān, lit. "Buddha's Light Mountain") is an international Chinese Mahāyāna Buddhist organization and monastic order. It is based in Taiwan and practices Humanistic Buddhism, whose roots are traced to the Linji School of Chan Buddhism.
The headquarters, Fo Guang Shan Monastery, is located in Dashu District, Kaohsiung, Buddhist Taiwan, and is the largest Buddhist monastery in the island country .
[Of course, mainland China lays claim to Taiwan as an integral part of the PRC (People's Republic of China) just as it insists that Bon/Vajrayana Buddhist Tibet and similarly oppressed Muslim XinjiangUyghur Autonomous Region in the northwest are part and parcel of the nominally communist actively capitalist post-kingdom].
The organization is also one of the largest charity organizations in Taiwan. Its counterpart for laypeople is known as the Buddha's Light International Association. Founded in 1967 by Hsing Yun, the order promotes Humanistic Buddhism and is known for its efforts in the modernization of Chinese Buddhism.
The modernist order is famous for its use of technology, and its temples are often furnished with the latest equipment [1, 2]. Hsing Yun's stated position for Fo Guang Shan is that it is an "amalgam of all Eight Schools of Chinese Buddhism." More
(*Sadly, while it sounds like one big, united Buddhist family, in fact the Buddha in the title refers to the "Cosmic Buddha" Amitabha, as in Amitofu, not the historical one from Earth, who is lovingly called the Sage of Scythian Shakya/Saka Clan, Shakyamuni, Siddhartha Gautama)
Hsi Lai Temple, Los Angeles; CC Liu, Crystal Q. (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly Wiki edit FGS
It's time to don the Vans and get ready to slam. The Warped Tour is here! Vans Warped Tour Long Beach | July 25-26, 2026. The two-day extreme sports and music festival is back from the grave on the LA border town with the OC, Long Beach, what Snoop Dogg introduced the world to calling it, "The LBC." But T.S.O.L. and others were calling it home long before that. It's a big town. With stops in Mexico, Montreal (Canada), and Washington, D.C., and Orlando (Florida), it seems the tour is being cut short. We bet our very own Dukkha Girl will be running into a certain Punk Rock Girl there, as she vamps and acts out her attention whure aesthetic like she did when we last saw her at the private KROQSocial Distortion show. What a poseur, model, and music influencer she's turned out not to be. Right, Erin? We know what Wisdom Quarterly fans are probably asking, How do I get my band on this tour?Here's how: Ernie Ball Vans Warped Tour Battle of the Bands Powered by Guitar Center
2026 TOUR: Los Angeles (Long Beach), Mexico City, Orlando, Washington D.C., Montreal
The greatest live display in the history of rock music: SLAYER METAL GRAMMYS PERFORMANCE in front of the three remaining Beatles (John, Ringo, and Yoko) and Hollywood celebrities, performing "Angel of Death"
Slayer's fast and aggressive musical style made them one of the "big four" bands of thrash metal, alongside Metallica, Megadeth, and Anthrax.
💀 Since Hanneman's death from a flesh-eating spider bite in 2013, things haven't been the same. ☠️ Araya became a fat backache-complaining stay-at-home dad, King created Slayer 2.0 (the new band "Kerry King"), Lombardo left after getting fed up with never getting paid.
In the original lineup, King, Hanneman, and Araya contributed to the band's lyrics, and all of the band's music was written by King and Hanneman.
The band's graphic lyrics and album art -- which cover religion, occultism, terrorism, serial killers, fascism, racism, and war -- have generated censorship, album bans, delays, lawsuits, and criticism from religious groups.
However, Slayer's music has been highly influential, frequently cited by many bands as an influence musically, visually (tee-shirts are everywhere), and lyrically... More
Could pop and alt rock fans from LA and the OC ever be interested in seeing acts like Sublime, Jack White, Olivia Dean (Queen of the Summer), Khruangbin, or Coco & Breezy without a long drive through the desert stuck in traffic with building anticipation?
Goldenvoice is betting locals would. There's a new "Coachella" by the same outfit that runs the one in the desert (as well as country and Western themed Stagecoach), but this one is going to be in Santa Monica, the Ocean Way Festival.
Register for access. Tickets go on sale Thursday, July 23rd, at 11:00 am (Pacific Time). Register now to receive a presale code and link to purchase tickets. For help registering, email: register@goldenvoice.com.
NEMOPHILA takes over The Glass House in the Pomona Arts Colony (next to the Fox Theater Pomona), Los Angeles County, on Tuesday, July 14, 8:00 pm. The cost of attending the future Babymetal overlords in Los Angeles is $25 (DOS) or $39.87 (full price in advance, no surprises later).
Female fronted Mortalis opened, but they need a lot more practice. The drummer was struggling, the singer was nervous, and... what can be said that they don't already know? Next was Islander, which was a significant improvement with the metalcore growling for every song and real guitarwork, though between bands we left and worked our way into neighboring all-ages nightclub The Haven to see A November Morning (a kind of early Job for a Cowboy). The sign at the door clearly says, "No Crowd Killing, Moshing, Slamming, Mosh Pit, Crowd Surfing, or expressions of aggression," the floor was cleared by berserkers doing the tornado with fists, feet, and cartwheels, practicing their karate high kicks. It was all well and good until the young girl with bone earrings in the striped suspenders got kicked in the face and had to be taken out crying, bleeding, and lamenting her choice to participate in the ultraviolence. But A November Morning and the other acts on the bill were good, so good it delayed us returning to the Glasshouse to continue the show. Eventually, we had to and, boy, was it worth it! Nemophila are fantastic.
We love that crazy Disney plush toy fish?
First, what's with the name? Like the unspeakable act known as necrophilia, "love of corpses," the band loves (philia) Nemo from Finding Nemo? Maybe they meant Nemo'tode.
It's not a gimmick. There's very little "hard rock" about it, except that the singer has clearly listened to a lot of Iron Maiden. This is aggressive metal core in the vein of Hanabie. (shown above) and the goddesses that are Babymetal. But every song was solid, as they were coming off of an 11-stop North American tour that started in Chicago, hit New York, and crawled its way to LA. These are future stars with tremendous drumming talent, no ego, young girls who dress more like Billie Eilish or Tokyo schoolgirls than the rockstars they already are. The rhythm section just kept chugging along non-stop. It was amazing. And how the singer, who must weigh all of 80 pounds, can keep that Chester Bennington yell going song after song, tour stop after tour stop, boggles the mind. The highlight was when each member got the mic to speak their love of LA in very broken English. The first few songs were marred by technical issues, no fault of the band, that the club couldn't seem to fix. So they had to delay the show and turn on the lights. In the meantime, the singer got on her phone, seeming to make a call to her mom in Japan about how it was going, but actually using a translation app to explain to the audience that these technical issues were no fault of theirs and please be patient. She later read a speech to the audience that must have taken her hours to compose on the tour bus with a thesaurus. The audience -- mostly white and Latino, older with lots of dads and grandpas, with an unusually high number of teenybopper Asians and their guardian chaperones for an extreme metal show, and not a single Black person -- loved it, chanted along, and after the fifth song broke into a continuous circle pit of appreciation. Watch out, Black Pink and Katseye, these gals are coming.
LYRICS: Babymetal's "Gimme Chocolate!!" - "Give me chocolate! Atatata taata taatatata zukkyun Watatata taata taatatata dokkyun Zukyun, dokyun Zukyun, dokyun/ I won't, won't, won't, won't/ Never, never, never!// [CHORUS:] Check-it-out chocolate/ Can I have a bit of chocolate?/ But my weight worries me a bit these days/ However, chocolate/ Can I have a bit of chocolate?/ But wait a while!/ Wait a while! Wait! Wait! Wait!/ Atatata taata taatatata zukkyun Watatata taata taatatata dokkyun Zukyun, dokyun Zukyun, dokyun/ Not yet, yet, yet, yet/ Never, never, never!/ Check-it-out chocolate/ I can have a bit of chocolate, can't I?/ But my weight worries me a bit these days/ However, chocolate/ I can have a bit of chocolate, can't I?/ But wait a while! Wait a while!/ Wait! Wait! Wait!/ Parappappappaa rappappappaa rappappappaa paapapapapaa/ Too, too late/ Too, too late/ Too, too P! P! P!/ Come on!"
NEMOPHILA’s music can be described as a mixture of various styles ranging from loud rock to grunge.
The band displays a sound heavier than heck, while presenting a soft [infantilized] and gentle-cute character at the same time. The band aims to exhibit an unpredictable mixture in their appearance and fashion along with a positive heavy metal sound bringing a smile to everyone around the world. Full lineup:
NEMOPHILA
Islander
Mortalis
This is an all-ages event presented by The Glass House Concert Hall. Doors open 7:00 pm. The Glasshouse APP: Discover the best nights out in this city, with tailored recommendations synced to any music library.
Keep track of what’s coming up by saving events, sharing them with friends, or even listening to new music in the app.
The Glasshouse has made it easy to swap a ticket with a friend or return it to the waitlist no stress (iOS
Android). MoreVENUE:
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