Let's forget about the internationalism of slam

[andre michael bolten]

This is André Michael Bolten, chairman & moderator of the PSI International Slam Committee, moderator of the International Slammasters Forum & the International Slams Archiv.

I want to inform you, that neither inside nor outside the PSI world of slam enough people seem to be interested in or have the capacity to work for the internationalism of slam.

I am the only member of said committee, who really spent time to work for the purpose of it. And I am boared of writing mails to people, who don't answer. So it feels like I am at the dead end of the road.

But I still believe, it is a good thing to connect & build a network on the international level. So I am open to suggestions that will make me change my mind.

Anybody ?


andré

[karen_g]

I don't know of awareness from over here of events going on from over there.What networks of venue contacts can we make? I know Berlin has the slam with roses at the end. Is that still happening? I wouldn't even know about that if I wasn't trying to keep up with a friend over there.

Taylor Mali is touring places in France & Ireland.We should ask him to deliver the goods on the scenes and venues over there, since most of us aren't that well known and freewheeling.

There are a bunch of art & word festivals in the UK, too, but I always find out about them after they've happened.

Maybe part of the issue is that it's hard enough for many to keep their own scene together, so it's really easy to be insular, in local venue, city, state, and region.

[andre michael bolten]

Hey Karen,


my slam is a PSI slam since late 1999 & so lots of poets, who wanted to travel the old world, ran into my email adress. And because it became more & more poets over the years, I thought it might be a good idea, to set up a list with contact information to as much slams as possible & publish it in the net, so poets can contact, whomever they want to, on their own. But I found out that there is not much interest over here, not even in sharing some basic information about one's slam & for such a list. And this just feels stupid to me.

PSI started iWPS last year. And afterwards they knew that they should have tried to invite poets from outside North America, to make this a real i(nternational) event. First step, to get this going for the future, was the founding of the International Slam Committee (which turned out to be just me). And now Steve Marsh has too much work to do, to send me some invitation letter, I could forward to the contacts I have, so people might try in time to get some funding for traveling from Europe to Worcester, MA, in February.


I never heard of a Berlin slam with roses at the end, but in Bonn there is the "war of roses" slam, with the whole audience as jury & everybody, who likes the poem, raises the rose, she or he has gotten at the door, & then the hosts count them. And well, in the end they throw roses at the poets.

To get info on things in the UK before they take place, try www.poetrykit.org & subscribe to Marcus Moore at spiel@scarum.freeserve.co.uk with "Register" in the subject line & tell him that you want his monthly newsletter.


andré