Rachel Kann

Rachel Kann is an American poet, spoken word artist, writer, actress, dancer, educator, and spiritualist. A TEDx UCLA poet, Kann has released three spoken word albums and published four poetry collections, as well as a children's book, You Sparkle Inside. She has performed her work at venues including Walt Disney Concert Hall and Nuyorican Poets Café, Kann has said that she and her siblings were roughly "50 percent of the Jewish population" in their hometown

As a child, Kann had narcolepsy, initially misdiagnosed as anxiety and treated with sedatives. Kann seriously pursued ballet between the ages of 3 and 17, before shifting her focus to theatre.

Kann attended the UCLA Extension Writers' Program and studied under Tod Goldberg and Rob Roberge; many of the short stories she wrote in their classes later appeared in her book 10 for Everything. Kann later earned a Master of Fine Arts from Antioch University Los Angeles. Anna in a 1999 production of Max Frisch's The Fire Bugs for Eclectic Company Theatre; and appearing in Erik Patterson's award-nominated plays Yellow Flesh/Alabaster Rose (2003) and Red Light Green Light (2004) for the Theatre of NOTE. For her performance in Yellow Flesh/Alabaster Rose, she was named as a Critic's Pick by Jennie Webb for Backstage Magazine.

Poetry, music, and spoken word Kann toured with Gary Mex Glazner's SlamAmerica tour in 2000 and Sheila Nicholls' Chicks in Arms tour in 2003, before embarking on a solo cross-country tour in 2004. She performed her poetry on HBO's Def Poetry Jam, BET's The Way We Do It, and ABC's Eye On L.A..

For a time, Kann stepped back from slam poetry to focus on teaching poetry workshops and hosting literary events. She released her first poetry film, "Familiar Taste of Blood" featuring enduser, in 2006.

Kann performed in 2010 at Beyond Baroque Literary Arts Center in Los Angeles as part of the poetry showcase Sparring With Beatnik Ghosts, where she appeared alongside poet Michael C. Ford among others.

Her composition "I Know This" was featured as "The Weather" on the podcast Welcome To Night Vale on the 2012 episode "Feral Dogs". Co-creator Jeffrey Cranor selected her for inclusion. She has also been featured on KCRW's Morning Becomes Eclectic. She appeared at TEDx UCLA, where she performed her poem "Prayer".

In April 2014, Kann performed at the Pico Union Project's second annual Downtown Seder, a pre-Passover event organized by musician Craig Taubman; the event was held at the former Welsh Presbyterian Church building in the Pico-Union area and also featured performances by Danielle Agami's Ate9 dANCEcOMPANY troupe, IKAR musical director Cantor Hillel Tigay, and an unscripted appearance by actor and folk musician Theodore Bikel.

Kann collaborated with producer Jaz 1 for her third album, The Upward Spiral, released in 2015.

In 2017, she performed at a Mardi Gras Grand Bal Masque at the Bootleg Theater in Los Angeles, hosted by comedian Al Madrigal, on a bill including actor Roger Guenveur Smith; and at Ralph's Rock Diner in Worcester, Massachusetts, as part of the Dirty Gerund Poetry Series. She was again awarded at that year's Rabbit Heart Poetry Film Festival, this time Best Overall Film and Best Sound/Music for her poetry film "Dancing Lesson".

To coincide with the release of her children's book, You Sparkle Inside, in 2018, Kann released a single of the same name, a spoken word reading of the book accompanied by guitarist Brock Pollock.

Kann released The Quickening in 2019, an EP and "visual album" with a video component released on YouTube.

Kann is currently pursuing an ethnomusicological research study in Morocco as a Fulbright Scholar for the 2023-2024 academic year. The project involves analysis of a collection (Romancero) of songs in Haketia written and sung by Sephardic women in Northern Morocco. Kann plans to write a poetry collection informed by this analysis and by observation of women in the local Sephardic community. A selection of these poems and songs is then planned to be presented live, in an effort to preserve interest in the culture and history of this dwindling community. She returned to the Bootleg Theater in 2017 for "Write Club Chapter 63: Better Off Fed", a competitive writing event co-hosted by actor Justin Welborn.

Kann's first children's book, You Sparkle Inside, was created with illustrator Rin Colabucci and published in 2018 by Orange Ocean Press. The book was launched at RuPaul's DragCon LA, where it was featured in a Drag Queen Story Hour hosted by Mrs. Kasha Davis.

Podcasts Kann is a fan of podcasting, describing it as "one of my favorite media". portraying a fictionalized parody of herself that interacted with Bluestein's Madge Weinstein character. She has also been featured on HevriaCast, hosted by Elad Nehorai, Kann also hosted her own podcast, Out with Rachel, between 2017 and 2018, via Rabbis Brad Hirschfield and Irwin Kula's The Wisdom Daily website.

Spiritual leadership A graduate of The Kohenet Institute, Kann was an ordained kohenet in the states of California and New York, in addition to being a kohen by ancestry. Kann was featured as an expert on Hebrew Shamanism at the 2021 Jewish Psychedelic Summit, and completed an apprenticeship in medicine work in a Shipibo lineage.

In late 2022, Kann disaffiliated from The Kohenet Institute after learning of misconduct within the organization.

Other work Kann spoke at a 2015 conference entitled "SoCal Sessions: Catalyzing Creative Consciousness" alongside Rabbi Tzvi Freeman and screenwriters David N. Weiss and David Sacks. Later that year, her artwork was featured at the opening of Big Art Church, a performance venue in East Hollywood, alongside the work of artists including Amanda Sage and William Stout.

Since 2006, Kann has taught poetry and fiction workshops through the UCLA Extension Writers' Program, She is also a fitness and Zumba instructor.

Kann has referenced depression and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder in her art, describing herself as having a "suicide gene" and suggesting that "ADD-doused hyperactivity" caused her childhood deafness to go undiagnosed.

Kann has been noted as a personal influence of poet Tiffany Dawn Hasse and a "dear friend" of musician and minister Amy Steinberg, who convinced Kann to start writing poetry. 2019 WORD: Bruce Geller Memorial Prize 2017 Asylum Arts Reciprocity Fellow 2017 Outstanding Instructor of the Year at UCLA Extension Writers' Program 2006 Writer's Digest Short-Short Story Awards (micro-fiction) 2004 LA Weekly Awards (best supporting actress) 2004 Backstage West Garland Awards Critic's Picks (best supporting actress) 2008: Rick Lupert, A Poet's Haggadah: Passover Through The Eyes Of Poets ("dayeinu") 2011: Knocking at the Door: Poems about Approaching the Other 2015: Suzanne Lummis, Master Class: The Poetry Mystique ("Special") 2021: Linda Ravenswood, X LA Poets ("Roses and Thunder", "The Most Unkindest Cut of All", "Jellyfish Dance of the Ten Infinities", "Kindness / The Murmuration of Starlings", "I Surrender") 2022: Stephen Gray, How Psychedelics Can Help Save the World

Discography

Albums

Word to the WHY?s (2002) ptolemaic complex (2005) The Upward Spiral (prod. Jaz 1) (2015)

EPs

The Quickening (2019; also billed as a "visual album" with a film component released on YouTube)

Singles

2018: "You Sparkle Inside" (ft. Brock Pollock)

Poetry films +YearTitleDirectorNotes2006"Familiar Taste of Blood" (ft. enduser)Edward FarleighLater appeared on enduser's 2018 album deliberate brakes2012"Lie Down Beside You" (ft. Tack-Fu & Chaircrusher)Bradford L. CooperOfficial 2012 selection at Landlocked Film Festival and 4 The Camera Dance Film Festival2015"Drunk" (ft. Jaz 1) Rahat Mahajan Winner: Best Sound/Music in a Production, finalist for Best Valentine and Best Overall Production at 2015 Rabbit Heart Poetry Festival Later included on The Upward Spiral2016"Mermaid Esther: An Astonishing Fire"Bradford L. Cooper Excerpt from The Quickening Curator's Choice and Shortlist: Rabbit Heart Poetry Film Festival2017"What to Tell The Children"Rahat MahajanMusic composed by Dave Lewis"Drunk" (ft. Jaz 1) (Purim 2017 Edition)"I See You"Jeffrey BombergerMusic composed by Dave Lewis"Dancing Lesson (or how to let the words leave you)"Bradford L. Cooper Excerpt from The Quickening Best Overall Production, Best Sound/Music and Curator's Choice: Rabbit Heart Poetry Film Festival 20172018"Another Star/Another Queen (A Purim Poem)" Performance piece on Vashti Excerpt from The Quickening"Rock The Bells" (ft. Hillel Smith) World Premiere: 10/20/18 Rabbit Heart Poetry Film Festival Excerpt from The Quickening"New Style Inauguration"Excerpt from The Quickening2019"Burn This" (ft. Laura Escudé)The QuickeningVisual adaptation of EP of the same name

Compilation appearances

2001: The Big Damn Poetry Slam CD ("The Hollow Cost")