Poet looking for a slam team

[poet jack storm]

My name is jack storm.

I live in philadelphia I'm in need of a team.

I have a twitter only dedicated to poetry, with about 21k followers

www. twitter. com/isawjackstorm

My youtube just started around 6mos ago, and I started kicking out video poems weekly about a month ago.

www. youtube. com/isawjackstorm

I have about 44 photo poems on my tumblr now, I have yet to find a good site to hold my photo poems.

www. jackstorm. tumblr. com


Please let me know if anyone has any tryouts in the near future.

-Storm

[jesster]

It may be too late for this season, but check out the following:

http://www.brownbearsw.com/freecal/PhillyPoetry

http://www.infusioncoffeeandtea.com/calendar.cfm - Philly poetry slam

-Jesster

[poet jack storm]

Thanks- but I'm not looking at philly's team, I was wondering about the surrounding areas.

[amcehn]

There are only two Certified Slams in PA. The Fuze and the Steel City Slam.

[poet jack storm]

Been there.  Not interested.

Could you point me in the direction of Delaware's team?  Possibly Tennessee, Kansas and Minnesota? 

Or am I being a noob, as these are probably labeled somewhere I overlooked?

[Dahled]

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=Delaware+%22poetry+slam%22

also look for "Newark Delawhere? Open Mic and Poetry Slam!" on the various social networks...

and KY/TN/MN... really?

[poet jack storm]

Dope tutorial.   Yeah, these may be places I would move.   philly has been and is presently a place of blind and naked kings.

I grew up without a home, so going somewhere else, anywhere else: is my history- as anywhere is better than here usually fits better than patched socks.

I was just hoping some coffee shop owner turned local poet laureate would see this post and say "we have
humble writers here".   

Because philly lacks their own writers and my mentor from NJ is trying a new path.

Know of anyone here who talks that way?  Because I'm not location bound, kinda like a bedouin nomad.

[jesster]

Wow. Are you really looking for a new place to thrive, or just here to shit on your current scene in public?

You've gone from saying you live in Philly and need a team, to saying you want to look at surrounding areas instead of Philly, to defining surrounding areas as Delaware, Tennessee, Kansas and Minnesota. And now you are saying you'll go anywhere.

If you can go anywhere, do some research online. Find poets you admire and go to them. Better yet, go on a tour. Book at different venues until you find a home. Or just drive around checking out different areas and listen.

It's hard to give suggestions when your possibilities are endless.

-Jesster

[poet jack storm]

I'm from philly looking for a slam team, but I've looked around here already and I wasn't interested enough to stay.   I always found myself performing in NJ with my mentor or lured to NYC, MD, VA etc, for open mics or shows.   

The touring idea was something I was going to do when I settled enough cash.   Right now I'm focusing on video poems to develop a catalog of those first, as to supplement the photo poems- so that when I do perform there is material to further the work that I had performed.

You're right in saying I'll go anywhere, I just wanted to see who (managerial side of things) was opening up positions to perform (where I'd fit in) so that I could do research on their area / and their performances.

All my work is free, and I never charge a cover OR I foot everyones cover at the end of the night.   Everyones a poet, and charging someone money for it makes you just another normal writer.

While I'm on that high horse, are their any societies that do not try to sell their work to members in poetry?  I was in one a while back which disbanded 3 years back, and I've been wandering ever since.   I even started my own for a while, but it failed due to the lack of poetical prowess of the participant pool- only so many people can hear so many qoutes from modern songs-turned metaphor as well as love poems or situations your people just can't get out of.

That google map on events I found in the forum was legit, a very valuable roadmap for free touring.

[jesster]

If you're looking for a team, you are most likely too late. Most venues are wrapping up their seasons. If you are looking to find a place to start working for next year's team, your possibilities are vast.

If you just want a community of performance poets that may or may not field a team at nationals, your possibilities become vast...er

-Jesster

[poet jack storm]

So just lurk around open mics when I have the time and propose a grouping to individuals along the road?

I think art shouldn't be confined to a timeline- there has to be poets who don't schedule their creativity around slam competitions, that would defeat the purpose of poetry, and be so selfish.   

This isn't jumping out about members here? Any directions or individuals you could think of thats interested in these ideas?   

[jesster]

If you're not looking for a slam team that competes at Poetry Slam, Inc.'s National Poetry Slam event, I guess I got confused as to why you posted a request for a team on Poetry Slam, Inc.'s forum. Most folks on this forum are peripherally or directly involved in poetry slams, so when you say "team" you are mostly going to get slam oriented responses, because that's the majority of our experiences.

My recommendation would be to sit down, define what you are looking to accomplish, and clearly communicate and pursue that goal.

Try http://www.google.com

-Jesster

[Ransacked]

So just lurk around open mics when I have the time and propose a grouping to individuals along the road?
   

Actually, yeah. I think that's exactly what you want to do, if you can shake off any work/school obligations for a few weeks and listen with a good ear for talent. Find the voices that you respect and see if they'll join you in whatever you've got planned. I'm hoping to wander the country this fall, and a big part of that is my faith in the idea that there are voices out there I need to hear, collaborators I haven't met yet.

If you don't want to slam competitively, don't. Poetry still has room for you. My initial enchantment with poetry slams wore off eventually, and I realized I wasn't cut out for an NPS-style team. But there are a couple of voices in my venue I work very well with, and we've done some great local shows together. "Team" can mean a lot of things.

There are thousands of performance poets out there. Most of the people on this forum participate in slams, so that's why when we read that you are looking for a "team" we think "a team of registered PSI poets who can go compete at the National Poetry Slam." But if you mean "team" more like "troupe" or "band" or "retinue," then that's also completely legit.

Look up Solomon Sparrow's Electric Whale Revival (no, really, that's what they called it) for an example of a poetry "team" that wasn't trying to compete. Boston used to have "Dr. Brown's Traveling Poetry Show" and that was before my time, but it was a non-competitive "team" I think.

[poet jack storm]

Recap- Italic are edits.   But I'm pretty sure I was clear, Ransacked got it.


Please let me know if anyone has any tryouts in the near future. 

I'm not looking at philly's team, I was wondering about the surrounding areas since philly has been and is presently a place of blind and naked kings (a city full of chefs and not enough native Americans for me to keep my reserve – AKA not a poets city).

I was just hoping some coffee shop owner turned local poet laureate would see this post and say "we have humble writers here".    Hoping that someone on this site might have known someone else who would want to be in on a legit poetic think tank instead of riding the norm out until its fully dead.   SLAM, the suburban take on the nuyo's spoken word, is killing the art

I always found myself performing in NJ with my mentor or lured to NYC, MD, VA etc, for open mics or shows.   

The touring idea was something I was going to do when I settled enough cash.    Right now I'm focusing on video poems to develop a catalog of those first, as to supplement the photo poems- so that when I do perform there is material to further the work that I had performed.    I’d like a catalog before I begin performing again.



I was just wondering if there were any audacious poets here, or competition planners who knew a poet, or a poet who wanted out, and ALL of which who were ready to do something different since poetry hasn't changed in 30 years.

[poet jack storm]

thanks for the info, shit they may even have an open mic nearby.