Pure artist - James Navé

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James Navé

James Navé

James Navé is a poet, performer, teacher, and workshop creator based in Taos, New Mexico. In 1984 Navé co-founded Poetry Alive!, a theater company whose aim was to revitalize the study of poetry by performing in schools for children of all ages. By 1989 Poetry Alive! had seven teams traveling full-time around the country; to date the program has reached over seven million students.

In 1991 Navé left Poetry Alive! and began performing his own work. He competed in the National Slam Championships in 1992, 1993, and 1994 and won a competition at The Green Mill, Chicago, the birthplace of the slam, with a perfect score of 30 for an improvised poem. One of the most colorful characters on the slam circuit, Navé also works behind the scenes: he was house manager for the national Slam Championships in 1997, 1998, and 1999; he has run a regular twice-yearly slam at the Lake Eden Arts Festival in North Carolina (for which he is also on the advisory board) since 1996; he has organized the Taos Poetry Slam since 1995; and he was featured emcee for the 1999 Taos Poetry Circus Slam. <> Navé has been a featured reader at events including the Mystic Arts Association Summer Reading Series, 1997, in Mystic Connecticut; The New Journal's 1996 Body and Soul Conference in Seattle and the 1999 conference in Boston; and the 1996 and 1999 series organized by the Society of the Muse of the Southwest (SOMOS) in Taos. In 1993 he was a reader and speaker for the Association of International Schools conference in Accra, Ghana, which he followed with a reading tour of five West African countries.

In 1995 Navé began working with Julia Cameron on developing creativity camps based on the program laid out in her bestselling book The Artist’s Way. As well as teaching poetry, Navé produces and promotes the camps in association with Cameron. He explains them as "an opportunity for people to gather in a safe and supportive group to explore their creativity, their dreams, and their desires for the future. People learn to stand on their own creativity and learn how not to stand down when someone challenges their talent. To date twelve camps have been held in the US and Canada. Navé has also taught an Artist's Way creativity workshop for Duke University continuing education program, poetry seminars and workshops for Outward Bound, and numerous public workshops on poetry and performance across the country.

Since 1995 Navé has taught ideation to business people. He has taken part as a "proven creative" in idea-generating weekends for companies including Pepsi, Frito-Lay, Walker & Macy Landscape Architects, Adidas, and the pharmaceutical giant Baxter Industries. He is currently executive director of The Taos Storytelling Festival and is developing Taos Creativity Retreats, custom-designed workshops for businesses, non-profit organizations, and other groups which will draw their faculty from the wealth of artists, writers, and performers living in Northern New Mexico.