SPEAKER OF TRUTHS
GET TO KNOW THE AUTHOR
Ashten Leverick is a poet, a spoken word artist, and a teller of truths. He is a fierce yet gentle man, who scoffs at the traits of toxic masculinity; instead he is a nurturer, a lover of expression, and an all-around good fella. Derived from his muddled ancestry - from the Roma and brothel proprietors to staunch British personas - his musings are vibrantly portrayed. In his first book, Excruciate, he delves into the raw angst of adolescent love and reflects on the sculpting that the woman had on his life; torturously.
EXCRUCIATE
Come, sit with me for a while, as I bear naked to you – a stranger, a lover, a friend – my soul. If you would come to know the collective sighs of my sorrow, you would hear a monstrous moaning. Let it fill your ears and filter into the core of you. Let me be known in these, my darkest hours. Like tiny filaments that expand in breadth and depth let the anguishes of my existence rest for a moment upon your flesh as my words enter your consciousness and infiltrate your bloodstream. For a moment…become me.
Poetic and visceral. Excruciate: a raw and poignant tale of betrayal. A man looks back on his adolescent love-affair and finds the truth of what actually occurred...exploitation and catastrophe.
I HUMBLY AND GRATEFULLY ACKNOWLEDGE THAT MY WORK IS CREATED ON THE STOLEN LANDS OF INDIGENOUS PEOPLES
LISTEN UP
SPEAKING ENGAGEMENTS
SPEAKING ENGAGEMENTS
COMING SOON
COMING SOON
“The performance weaves together emotions of love and loss, inviting the audience to reflect on the beauty and fragility of life..”
“Celebrating nature, the performance paints vivid scenes that highlight the interconnectedness of all living things.”
“Blending spoken word and storytelling, the performance addresses hope and healing, inspiring a sense of unity among the audience.”
UNCOVER THE HARD TRUTHS
SHORT STORY EXCERPTS
“The boy in me loves her so much it makes me want to split into a million fragments of dust so that I can flow through the atmosphere and find my way back inside of her. To be breathed in by Her. To rest again in her breath. To lay down softly on her chest. To be inside of her and sheltered. To be absorbed by her and sheltered forever...To be captured by her again and again, to feel the swell of her ribs as I journeyed inward, and the rush of her scented breath pushing me out as though she knew she was releasing me only to draw me in again – maybe this time deeper. To float for eternity in waves of her inhalation and exhalation, and for precious moments – wait for it! – to be hovering just before fine features of her face. Ecstasy.”
“There are so many ugly things, Ezra. So many things that we think should not take up space in the light. But, if we sit with them, if we observe them, then they can become the vibration they are meant to be. They can morph and then settle into an existence we can bear to acknowledge them in.”
“There has been no sleep, there has been vomit, there has been a begging for morning so that finally the curtains would cease their shadow play on the wall and her hair would stop flowing from the fabric, her finger tips sliding along the walls reaching toward me, seeking to drag me into the scent and touch and taste filled dreams of her.”
“She is my virus. A chronic disease that punctuates my days with an acuity of pain an unrelenting mental confusion; like Lyme disease she creeps under my flesh and pronounces herself in idiopathic ways that baffle me and tease me – leading me farther from myself with her twists of symptoms pointing fingers in different directions until the dizziness of her torment leaves me wandering far off course and thinking that this really is a physical death I am facing. She is as a neurotoxin; my mind and my brain become severed from each other and I feel sensations that are not real to this moment. She is a demon virus dogging me. And I wonder if it will haunt me for all of my days.”
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OPEN THE LOCKED DOORS THAT SHELTER THE PREDATORY PEOPLE THAT HIDE BEHIND THEM.
-EXCRUTIATE