Topics

46

General Discussion / $1000 prize available to young Michigan Poets

« on: July 04, 2005, 01:44:59 PM »

Just a note to all on these boards:

*** PLEASE DISTRIBUTE***

Shout Out! Young Poets Rising!
A Juried Spoken Word Competition In Honor of Broadside Press's 40-Year Anniversary

First Prize: $1,000
Second Prize: $500
Third Prize: $200

The University of Detroit Mercy McNichols Campus Library and Dudley Randall Center for Print Culture are pleased to announce a spoken word competition for 16- to 24-year olds residing or studying in the state of Michigan.
 
Rules:
1. Contestants may participate as groups or individuals
2. Each contestant must perform one poem by a Broadside Press poet and one original poem. Performance of both poems may not exceed 7 minutes. Many Broadside Press poets can be found in the new anthology, _A Different Image: The Legacy of Broadside Press_, which is available at many local libraries or for online sales. 3. Each contestant should fill out a registration form and, if under 18 years of age, a minor release form. Registration / release forms should be postmarked no later than August 6, 2005. 4. Two rounds of competition will be held. For the first round contestants may submit a videotaped performance of his/her/their two poems or audition live. Videotapes should be sent with completed registration and minor release forms and postmarked no later than August 6, 2005. Please send to: Prof. Rosemary Weatherston, Department of English, University of Detroit Mercy, 4001 W. McNichols Road, Detroit, MI 48221-3038. Live auditions will be held on Saturday, August 13, 2005 between the hours of 10:00am and 4:00pm in the UDM Commerce and Finance Building, Room 209. Audition slots will be scheduled upon receipt of contestants' completed registration forms, so early registration is encouraged.
5. Based on the first round of competition, 8 individuals/groups will be invited to perform in the final round of competition that will take place September 10th, 2005 from 6:00 to 9:00 pm on the University of Detroit Mercy McNichols Campus. This event will be free and open to the public and will include an exhibition about Dudley Randall and Broadside Press created by MicNichols Library personnel and a light reception. 6. The three winners of the competition will be invited to perform at the Broadside Anniversary Celebration on the evening of Saturday, September 24, 2005. Awards will be presented at the Celebration event.

A printable copy of this announcement and the registration form are attached to this email


For additional registration forms, minor release forms, a list of Broadside poets and texts, maps of the UDM campus, and further information, please visit http://libarts.udmercy.edu/english/randall/ or call Rosemary Weatherston at 313.993.1083


The competition is funded in part by Michigan Council for the Arts and Cultural Affairs, Michigan Humanities Council, and National Endowment for the Arts.


Professor Rosemary Weatherston
Department of English
University of Detroit Mercy
4001 W. McNichols Road
Detroit, MI 48221-3038
Phone: 313/993-1083
Fax: 313/993-1166

47

General Discussion / Notice to Past Champions

« on: June 21, 2005, 09:54:41 AM »

At SlamMasters meeting in April 2005 we adopted a new policy for PSI membership. Anyone who has ever been an individual champion at NPS or iWPS and anyone who has ever been on a team championship at NPS has now become a basic member of PSI for life. But we will need to have you fill out a form once a year so that we can maintain contact information on you. Please send an e-mail to Abbey Craft at psimember@charter.net requesting your form, but only if you were the champ. (No runners up, or anything other than first place. TIES for first place do count though.) BUT DO NOT fill out the membership form you find online. That comes directly to me and applications which come without payment are automatically rejected.

Soon, we will come through with the second part of this promise. All Champions who provide product to sell in the PSI online store at the usual 80-20 consignment rate will get a Poets Gallery page for free too. It will work like a mini-website for you. And help promote your products and services. But we are probably four weeks away from that going live. We will contact you when we are ready to roll.

In the meantime, get in touch with Abbey so we can get you signed up for your lifetime membership. It's a service that was a long time coming. Glad to finally get this done.

48

General Discussion / Call for THree Penny Poems

« on: June 02, 2005, 08:22:09 AM »

I received this off the website and am passing it on here. Please don't contact me about this; go directly to the contact in the notice. This is all I know.

Sender's Name: Mirella
Sender's Email: mgonzalez@molaa.com
Message: Hi,

My name is Mirella and I work for the Museum of Latin American Art.  We are planning an event surrounding the Threepenny Opera.  

I'm looking for poems that talk about brothels, pimps, thieves etc, for our event.  

Do you have any idea how I can start?  Which poets should I be looking at?

49

General Discussion / Teams at NPS 2005

« on: May 02, 2005, 07:49:12 PM »

As of 7/10/05, these are all the teams that have met all the criteria for inclusion in NPS 2005. If your slam is not on the list and you have reason to believe it should be, contact steve@poetryslam.com to work out the details. So, in no particular order:

NPS 2005 teams

1 Milwaukee Poetry Slam
2 Delray Beach Poetry Slam
3 Corpus Christi Poetry Slam
4 Orlando Broken Speech Poetry Slam
5 Atlanta poetry Slam
6 Palatine Poetry Slam
7 Brooklyn Poetry Slam
8 Las Vegas Stop Drop and Slam
9 Say Anything Winter Park Poetry Slam
10 Madison Poetry Slam
11 Pittsburgh Steel City Poetry Slam
12 Kalamazoo Combined
13 Seattle Poetry Slam
14 Boston Poetry Slam at the Cantab Lounge
15 Denver Poetry Slam
16 Providence Poetry Slam
17 Da Poetry Lounge Holloywood Poetry Slam
18 Mahogany Sacramento Poetry Slam
19 DC Baltimore Poetry Slams
20 Dallas Poetry Slam
21 Colorado Springs Thin Air Poetry Slam
22 Omaha Healing Arts Poetry Slam
23 Los Angeles LAGreen
24 San Jose Poetry Slam
25 Eugene Poetry Slam
26 SlamMN! Minneapolis
27 Detroit
28 Oneonta Poetry Slam
29 Austin Poetry Slam
30 Worcester Poet s Asylum Poetry Slam
31 Mental Grafitti Chicago
32 New Orleans
33 NYC-Urbana
34 VanCouver Poetry Slam
35 Berkeley Poetry Slam
36 Palo Alto Poetry Slam
37 Flint MI Poetry Slam
38 Lizard Lounge Poetry Slam
39 Albuquerque
40 Houston Southmore Slam
41 HawaiiSlam
42 Louder Arts Bar 13
43 Oklahoma City Poetry Slam
44 Baton Rouge Electric Truth Poetry Slam
45 FlagSlam Poetry Slam
46 Normal Poetry Slam
47 Modesto Slam on Rye
48 Oakland(ish) Poetry Slam Series
49 Central New Jersey Poetry Slam
50 puro ¡SLAM! San Antonio
51 Mesa EssenzaSlam/Slamology Poetry Slam
52 Columbus Writers Block Poetry Night
53 Winston Salem Poetry Slam
54 Montevallo Poetry Slam
55 Chicago Green Mill Poetry Slam
56 Ann Arbor Poetry Slam
57 Nuyorican Poetry Slam
58 Taos Poetry Slam
59 San Francisco Poetry Slam
60 Miami Masters Poetry Slam
61 Salt Lake City Poetry Slam
62 Ithaca Poetry Slam
63 Newark DE Poetry Slam
64 Columbia Poetry Slam
65 Durham Jambalaya Poetry Slam
66 Farmington Four Corner Poetry Slam
67 Newark (NJ) Poetry Slam
68 St. Louis Poetry Slam
69 Bowling Green (KY) Poetry Slam
70 Fort Worth Poetry Slam
71 Charlotte Poetry Slam
72 South Florida Poetry Slam
73 Santa Fe Poetry Slam
74 France Poetry Slam

50

General Discussion / SLAM fights AIDS

« on: March 14, 2005, 10:59:36 AM »

Got this through the website the other day. Put it up here and in the Members area for all to see:

SLAM AIDS
SAVING LIVES WITH AIDS MEDICATION

TOGETHER, WE CAN RAISE $50,000 TO PROVIDE LIFE-SAVING MEDICATION FOR THE PEOPLE LIVING WITH AIDS IN NAMUWONGO, UGANDA

LOCATION
Hotel 41
206 West 41st
New York, NY

8pm - 10 pm
$20 for Students
$30 for Young Professionals/Adults

SLAM AIDS WASHINGTON, DC
Wednesday, April 13, 2005
Blue Room DC
8pm - 10pm
Students: $15
Young Professionals/Adults: $25

SLAM AIDS is a nationwide effort that supports the work of Project Namuwongo Zone B in Uganda. SLAM AIDS is an awareness and advocacy campaign that offers the opportunity to get involved and bring support to people living with AIDS.

The evening benefit will feature slam poetry, dance, theater, and other expressions of artistic talent of students and local artists. All proceeds will bring life-saving medication for people living with AIDS in Uganda.

URL:
http://WWW.RELIEVEZONEB.ORG

51

General Discussion / Who was that football poet?

« on: January 06, 2005, 09:39:40 AM »

I received this e-mail through the website but, as much as I follow college football, I say neither of these presentations. A little help out there?

Message: I was wondering if you know or can direct me to someone who would know, who the slam poet was that did a segment during the 2005 Heisman Trophy award show as well as opening the 2005 Orange Bowl. Any info you have would be appreciated. Thanks!

52

General Discussion / Letter to Santa from PSI

« on: December 16, 2004, 10:41:53 AM »

Dear all,

With only a short time left before the end of the year, PSI is making this plea to anyone who reads this note and can pass it on to Santa.

First, thank you to all of you who have made contributions to PSI over this year. PSI continues to be a vibrant organization that relies heavily on donations of time and money from its members and friends of its members. Those gifts come in large and small packages. And we love them all.

Second, there are significant tax advantages to contributing to PSI, which is a 501(c)3 organization. (I'm not certain if Santa needs any more tax breaks, but if he does, we'll write the receipt for him!)

PSI is always in need of cash. The money is most useful if it comes without any strings on it. It can be used for any PSI need in that circumstance. But that doesn't mean we won't accept gifts in support of specific programs or even in support of specific local slams through the GrantBack program. Please give what you can before December 31. You can send a check or money order for a cash contribution or you can even paypal a contribuition from your PayPal account or credit card to steve@poetryslam.com if it is more convenient. We will be certain you get an IRS approved special receipt and letter for your contribution if it is over $250. If it is under $250, your regular receipt is perfectly legal and acceptable.

PSI is always in need of expertise. While we can't give you a tax receipt for your contribution of expertise or time, we love it. Volunteerism looks to be the best hope for PSI and the nation for the next four years. If you have something you can do and want to do for PSI, contact Steve Marsh at steve@poetryslam.com and I'll put you to work. Warning: I always try to get 10% more out of you than you thought you were giving, but I do it out of love. I know you can do it!

PSI has need of some equipment. This would be a great opportunity for anyone who has a piece of equipment they don't need or can't use any longer. You probably know that I also run a little for-profit company called The Wordsmith Press. So far, TWP's equipment acquisitions have been geared toward what TWP can use that also has benefit for PSI. But we've reached a point where some additional equipment would only benefit PSI and I can't justify the purchases through the other company. And I've already maxed out on my tax deductible contributions to PSI for this year.

Here's our wish list for Santa:

DAT tape deck in good working order. PSI has some great legacy DAT tapes that have not yet been converted to CD. As many of you know, the shelf life of DAT tapes is about 20 years. Some of our oldest DAT material dates back ten or more years. That material needs to be converted to CD as soon as possible. CDs provide about 100 years of shelf life. Let me give you an example. Ann Arbor has DAT tapes of the 1995 NPS. There are great performances by some legends of slam in that collection, including Patricia Smith, Danny Solis and Taylor Mali (as a young sophomore slammer). But it also contains the winning team of Asheville, NC which had Pat Storm on it. Pat is no longer with us, but his legacy performances are on these old DAT tapes. We are running a risk of losing some of this history if we don't get it converted soon.

Large external hard drives: There is a lot of video in a lot of places. We have most of the official video here in Whitmore Lake, but Both Tazuo Yamaguchi (on a Mac in California) and Gabrielle Bouliane (on a PC in New York) need lots of additional storage space to accomplish the editing process for PSI production needs as well as for individual poet requests for their own footage.

A method of converting from Video 8. We have a chunk of material recorded from over the years (dating back to 1991!) on 8mm video tape. It would be great to get this converted to miniDV but PSI has no deck to convert it, or even a digital 8 camera from which to cobble a tape transfer. Looking for a way to get rid of that old 8 mm deck or camera that's gathering dust in your closet? Here's a chance. Take a tax break for your generosity while you are at it.

High end miniDV equipment. Here's two items high on our list but low on our expectations. These are expensive items but would put us in a far more professional position for future video production. 1) High end camera (or cameras). Three chip, miniDV. If you work for a company with this kind of equipment, get the boss to think about us at the end of the year. 2) Video switcher. Man-o-man. This is the piece of equipment that would cut MONTHS off of our production schedule in producing video products from any multi-camera shoot. If you can swing the donation of either of these items, I will come to your slam, donate a feature, buy YOU dinner and babysit your cat. Oh yeah, and write you a receipt for this donation.

High-end photocopier. We have an old one that continues to limp along, so I put this down the list. But sometimes companies are willing to let go of a serviceable machine at the end of the year for the tax write-off. They can usually get a better tax break for a machine than their trade-in value.

Expendibles and media. Toners, ink cartridges, paper, blank CDs and DVD-Rs. If you or your company have access to this kind of thing, contact me directly for types and kinds. A dollar not spent on these things is a dollar we can spend on additional programming or projects.

And, of course, if you are spending money on line this season, it would be great if you signed up with iGive.com because a small percentage of your purchases will be donated back to PSI in the form of cash. Go to http://www.iGive.com/html/refer.cfm?causeid=22435 to sign up if you haven't already done so. Your purchases made through iGive.com will benefit PSI directly. If we have to play the game of consumerism, we might as well do it (partially) for our altruistic purposes.

Finally, whatever faith you are, whatever holiday you are celebrating in this season, PSI wishes you peace and good will. And thank you for all you do in the interest of PSI and performance poetry. Thanks always.

Steve

53

General Discussion / Utne Reader article

« on: August 28, 2004, 10:29:26 AM »

Just a general shout out to take a peek at the current issue of The Utne Reader's article on America's fear/shame relationship with poetry. Brief mention of "slamster Taylor Mali" with positive reference to his "How to Write a Political Poem." And also an on-point caution to not let Poetry Slam be MERELY the "entertainmentization" of poetry. That is a caution all of us should take seriously. It is only a slam, but remember, it's a POETRY Slam. Keep writing poetry.

54

General Discussion / A2 Bruté is done!

« on: June 25, 2004, 04:48:43 PM »

The new Ann Arbor Poetry Slam Team Anthology is out and will be on the Wordsmith website www.thewordsmithpress.com by Monday. $10 (or more as a contribution to the team's expenses). 72 pages, perfect bound. It's the best looking damned chappie that will be at NPS 2004!
 
 The companion CD will be ready by Slam night (July 6) ($12) but you can buy both for $20. C'mon. Cough up a Jackson for the old Ann Arbor team!

Should have it up on the PSI site very soon as well.