Evan made front page news!

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THURSDAY, JUNE 5, 2008
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N-J | Sean McNeil | BUY THIS PRINT Evan Ruffino, 13, hammers out the blues on his guitar. Evan has been playing guitar for about three years.

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June 05, 2008

Open mic night gets teens' adrenaline running

By SETH ROBBINS
Staff writer

DAYTONA BEACH -- While most teens click the plastic frets of games like "Guitar Hero," Evan Ruffino has honed his chops playing blues riffs on a cherry-red Fender Stratocaster he calls Sparky.

Ruffino, 13, first picked up a guitar when he was 10, but he never wailed in front of an audience until Tuesday night. Wearing a faded Doors T-shirt and talking about blues legend Robert Johnson, Ruffino had set the bar high.

"I was really nervous," he said, blond locks falling in front of his face. "My knees almost buckled."

He did not disappoint. The crowd chanted "encore" when he finished his first song.

"That got my adrenaline pumping," he said.

Ruffino from Port Orange was part of the first teen open mic night at the Hot Spot, a coffee shop on South Ridgewood Avenue. The event, which was put together by music promoter Phinesse Demps, was meant to give local teens a way to showcase their talents, and also a place to congregate away from the streets.

"I want to show our youth that they can earn a living through music and writing," said City Commissioner Dwayne Taylor, who sponsored the event. Taylor is also the author of a murder mystery novel called "Forced To Defend."

"If they start now, they have an even greater opportunity to reach their goals," he said.

Tayla Spivey, 14, recited her poetry to an audience for the first time. With her mom, she drove 45 minutes from Pierson to take part in the event.

"I felt nervous at first, but then it was cool," she said. "Everyone was very appreciative."

Dewoun Buchanan, who goes by the stage name "Young Prophecy," has been writing and reciting lyrics since the fourth grade. He was ridiculed at first for his passion, explaining to his friends that poetry can be more like hip-hop in its rhythm.

"A lot of kids in my neighborhood don't come to this kind of stuff," he said. But Buchanan, who lives next to the police station on Orange Avenue, hopes to change that.

"Some kids don't have an outlet," he said. "For me, I love the essence of poetry. Every time I perform, there is a spark."

Buchanan is part of the quartet "Love of the Spoken Word," which performs regularly at the Schnebly Recreation Center in Daytona Beach and tours throughout the Southeast. He has opened for the Rev. Al Sharpton, and his poetry takes on questions of spirituality like the poem he calls "Expiration Dates."

"We often choose things that are temporary," he said of the poem. "Things that just feel for the moment."

Meanwhile, Demps can hope the "Night of Poetry and Expression" won't have an expiration date -- he plans to hold one every month. And it has already produced its first rock star. Ruffino has been invited to play at the Bank & Blues Club on Main Street.

Though the teenager might need a note from his mom to get in.

seth.robbins@news-jrnl.com

Did You Know?

Sophisticated anti-establishment aficionados known as beatniks gathered in coffeehouses during the 1950s sipping java, listening to poetry performances and snapping their fingers, rather than clapping, in approval.

· The finger-snapping is said to have originated as a way to ease tensions between coffeehouse owners and local residents who didn't appreciate the noisy late-night applause.

· In some clubs, like the Gaslight in Greenwich Village, the heating systems were so antiquated that open ducts ran from the building's cellar, where the clubs were, directly into the apartments above.

· So the hip, laid-back response to performances by the likes of Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg might simply be attributed to club owners who never got around to soundproofing the basement.

SOURCE(S): Compiled by News Researcher Janice Cahill from The New York Times and St. Petersburg Times.

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