National Poetry Slam Comes to A-B-Q

Mikaela asks:
Haven't heard the buzz yet?

This year's National Poetry Slam -- the biggest event of its kind in the world -- will be hosted by little ole Albuquerque this summer, August 10-13.

Day events will be FREE at the beautiful National Hispanic Cultural Center, and evening events will be downtown in one of 10 venues, depending on your poetry preferences.

Festival passes are on-sale at Natural Sound, Blue Dragon, Bookworks, the Harwood Arts Center, and on-line. $30 gets you into EVERYTHING, including the finals night extravaganza.



The way to see everything for free is to VOLUNTEER for day events and for finals night.

Wait, what's this? See everything for free AND give back to your community when it sorely needs you?

That's right. Just click here, fill out the volunteer questionnaire, and join the Yahoo Group listserv. As the Assistant Volunteer Coordinator (thank you VERY much), I'll hook you up. Promise.

While you're there, check out the schedule and figure out how you can be everywhere at once. (Let me know how you're gonna do it, cause I've been working on that very thing for months now.) There's so much to see, and whatever you see will be amazing.

You can get a sneak peak of some of the performers tonight at the Golden West for Poetry and Beer, 8 pm, $3 at the door.

If you miss it, you can also tune in to KUNM this Saturday to Women's Focus. Yours truly and a bunch of the other women organizers and poets were interviewed last night from Out ch'Yonda in Barelas, the funky-cool community performance space we should all spend more time in.

As Marjorie recently learned, this is truly a proletariat event. Judges are chosen at random from the audience, and while the poets you'll be seeing represent the upper eschelon of talent, they've had to fight their way to the top through a series of bouts open to everyone in their cities.

The poetry slam was originally conceived by a working man's bar owner and poet, Mark Smith, in Chicago in the 1980s. Tired of quiet, respectful, and boring poetry readings, he introduced the element of competition to jazz up the poets and put the power in the hands of the people -- the judges and the audience. These bouts are loud, with cheering and booing, laughter and applause. If you haven't experienced anything like it (which is likely), this is your chance.

Really, I can't tell you how amazing it will be to witness your first ever poetry slam with the nation's best performance poets. They will BLOW YOU AWAY. People travel all across the country to hear these poets perform. They're coming to your backyard! DON'T MISS IT! You will be very, very sorry if you do.