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Poetry Cross Training--Sophomore Year
Poetry Cross Training 2005 is on the horizon and is looking for students interested in improving their performance skills, writing skills, teaching knowledge base and sharing it all in a warm and supportive educational environment. Sorry, this is not a high school writing camp. Someday we hope PSI will put on a youth camp, but Poetry Cross Training is strictly for participants ages 18 and over. The number of conferees who can attend is also limited by housing space and staff availability. Register early!

The dates this year are June 16-19, 2005 and classes, workshops and performances will be held again at SUNY Oneonta in Oneonta, NY. Yes, for those who ask, continuing education credit is available through SUNY Onenonta.

Last year was a great innaugural for this innovative programming of PSI, but this year promises to be the one that Cross Training comes into its own.

There are deep discounts in tuition available for members of PSI at any level (a $15 membership could save you $50 in tuition...How's that for incentive to sign up?) and a very limited number of partial scholarships.

And, in true Slam fashion, there are real, honest-to-goodness live poetry readings in front of real, honest-to-goodness live audiences as part of the educational process.

For all the details, go to www.poetrycamp.com
 
PSI makes cash gift to SlamPlanet Film effort
On March 2, 2005 Mike Henry, SlamMaster of Austin, TX and central figure in the Slam Planet film project wrote to say:

Hey family,

Early Monday morning, there was a two alarm fire in the building that houses our edit suite for Slam Planet: War of the Words (the documentary that we shot last summer including NPS 2004). Nobody was hurt, but our suite and most of our gear was heavily damaged or destroyed.

It will be a few days before we know the real extent of the damages. We've shipped off all the hard drives to media recovery specialists and are starting to rebuild a new edit suite.

It's a huge setback, but we're back on our feet and moving forward. I'm proud as hell of the movie that we're making, and am even more dedicated than before to tell this story about Slam in the biggest and best way that we can.

Much love to the family,

Mike Henry
Austin, TX

PSI is pleased to announce that by action of the Executive Council, we have sent payment to their PayPal account in the amount of $300. We encourage anyone to contribute to this effort, as we have by sending a PayPal donation to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or by dropping a check for any amount (it all helps) into the mail at:
Slam Planet Support Fund
c/o Slam Channel
500 San Marcos, Suite 102
Austin, TX 78702
 
National Poetry Slam Age Limit
As local Poetry Slams are gearing up for the National Poetry Slam in Albuquerque, NM August 10-13, 2005, it bears repeating that the SlamMasters passed a rule a couple of years ago making the minimum age of poets 21 for all PSI events UNLESS the host city took positive action to reduce it to 18 or over. Albuquerque has announced they will be able to accomodate 18 year old poets at NPS 2005.

This action by Albuquerque has no bearing on NPS 2006 or beyond, but this year at least, we open the doors to all poets 18 years and older.

Our lawyers and our insurance carrier prohibit us from allowing underaged poets from competing.

We are looking forward to seeing everyone in Albuquerque.
 
Final Preliminary iWPS Standings 2005
These are the final adjusted standings for the iWPS prelims. This is how the field sorted itself after Friday night prelims. This does not reflect final placement of the top twelve poets after finals.

Prelim Standing-Name-Total Ranks-Points

1. Chris August - 7 - 111.6
2. Roger Bonair-Agard - 8 - 112.6
3. Joaquin Z - 9 - 111.5
4. Black Butta Fly - 10 - 114.1
5. Versiz - 10 - 113.5
6. Maze Forever - 11 - 112.9
7. Buddy Wakefield - 11 - 109.4
8. Da Minista - 12 - 113.4
9. Future - 14 - 112.2
10. Bluz - 14 - 111
11. MAD - 15 - 111.5
12. Ansel Appleton - 15 - 106.9
13. Rachel McKibbins - 16 -112.3
14. Christabell - 16 - 111.4
15. Akua - 16 - 107.1
16. Andy Buck - 16 - 106.1
17. Alex Charalambides - 17 - 113.1
18. Jus Cause - 17 - 110.2
19. Carlos Gomez - 17 GÇô 109
20. Christopher Johnson - 17 - 103.3
21. Corbet Dean - 18 - 112.2
22. Scott Woods - 18 - 98
23. Alvin Lau - 19 - 110.4
24. Granma Dave Schein - 20 - 110.5
25. Zork - 20 - 101.6
26. Liam Coughlin - 21 - 112
27. Adam Stone - 21 - 110.6
28. Michael Guinn - 21 - 109.7
29. Marcel Murphy - 21 - 109.6
30. Nicole' Modaine - 21 - 108.9
31. Kit - 21 - 107.8
32. Logic - 21 - 98.5
33. Ria Thompson - 22 - 111.7
34. Dawn Saylor - 22 - 108.7
35. Michael Brown - 23 - 110.8
36. Taaj Freeman - 23 - 109.3
37. Ginger - 23 - 109.2
38. Ali Langston - 23 - 103.8
39. Veronica Smith - 24 - 105.5
40. Cuffee - 24 - 96.5
41. Darrell Supreme Payne - 25 - 109
42. Jerri Hardesty - 25 - 107.8
43. Lea Deschenes - 25 - 103
44. Dan Vaughn - 26 - 109.6
45. Big Poppa E - 26 - 109.5
46. Rachael Kann - 26 - 108.3
47. Rennaissance - 27 - 109.5
48. Geof Hewitt - 27 - 107.5
49. Innocence Bellows - 28 - 109
50. NAM - 28 - 105.2
51. Glenwood - 28 - 95.2
52. David Morgan - 30 - 109.9
53. Corinna Bain - 30 - 106.4
54. Dan Leaman - 33 - 99.3
55. Ayodele - 34 - 98.7
56. Kahn Davison - 35 - 107
57. Stefanie Weber - 35 - 104.4
58. Gabrielle Bouliane - 36 - 109.3
59. Jose Gouveia - 39 - 81.8
60. Damien Flores - *

* Adjusted for violation of tournament rule.
 
iWPS 2005 Crowns Buddy Wakefield...Again
The Individual World Poetry Slam concluded over the weekend in Worcester, MA to the mad applause of a packed house in a beautifully restored turn of the century theater and when the dust settled, the past was present again. Buddy Wakefield defeated a field of 60 of the best performance poets in the world to REPEAT as Indivdual World Poetry Slam Champ.

It was not an easy road to victory. Current and past regional champions from around the US and past National Champs stood in his way, but at the end, there stood Buddy so overcome by the emotion of it all he was unable to say much more than "Thank you. It's a huge honor," to the packed house.

Finalists in the field of 12 included: Mad, Ansel Appleton, Future, Da Minista.

Those who made it to the field of 7 were actually 8 because of an unbreakable tie: Chris August, Bluz, Mekka and Joaquin Zihuatanejo.

And the final four included Roger Bonair-Agard in 4th, Maze Forever in 3rd, Versiz in 2nd and, of course, Buddy Wakefield, the two-time Indivdiual World Poetry Slam Champ.

The weather in Worcester was cold, even by New England standrds, but the mic was hot and there was plenty of warm poet love to spread around.

If you were there, you know. If you weren't, we missed you. Hope to see you at National Poetry Slam in Albuquerque, NM August 10-13.
 
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