Poet and singer Gina Loring reads her poem This Side of Mourning.

This week's Pause for Poetry focuses on poet and singer Gina Loring's reading of her poem, "This Side of Mourning," at Beyond Baroque Bookstore in Venice, CA.

Gina Loring, top-ranking female poet at the 2002 National Poetry Slam, was featured on two seasons of HBO's Russell Simmons' Def Poetry and BET's Lyric Café. In 2007, this Spelman College graduate went to Kuwait as a guest of the American Embassy’s cultural envoy program where she made several television appearances, performed her original poetry and music, and conducted poetry workshops.

Gina’s debut album, The Git Back (lovely), was released earlier this year and is available now on her website, where you can listen to samples for free and contact Gina about visiting schools for performances or poetry workshops. These original songs, a smooth blend of live hip hop, soul, funk and jazz, is every bit as raw and as passionate as her poetry. Gina doesn’t have a full book of poetry published just yet, but she promised the LA Books Examiner that she’d let us know if this changes in the future.

Until then, let's all hit the Pause button on our lives for a few minutes and watch this musical performance of "This Side of Mourning" by Gina Loring. Warning: this video contains adult language.

To learn more about Gina, visit www.GinaLoring.com.