The WB crew is pleased to announce a new rule that will affect all of our slam seasons moving forward: no poem may be repeated in any competitive slam in that calendar year.

This means that a poem you slam with to try to get on the NPS team in January 2011 - April 2011 remains ineligible for use in a qualifying or grand slam for iWPS 2011 or WOWps ( Read more... )

Of all the things that could be said about last week's WOWps (Women of the World Poetry Slam) - like how much fun it was or how awesome it was or how great it is to see so many of my tribe in my town or how well run it was and so on - the one thing I find I'm fixating on is the slightly bubbling idea of "safe space" as it pertains to Slam ( Read more... )

Last night was the first prelim slam for 2011's Nats season. Packed list, full house, good times ( Read more... )

(Preface: I’m not using this article in my regular “Poetry is Doomed” column space on GotPoetry.com because it’s too Slam-centric. Sure, I’ve talked about poetry slams a couple of times there in the last few years, but rarely. The audience for my column tends to have a broad appreciation for poetry, and I try to cater to that by addressing issues ( Read more... )

In the most recent issue of Columbus Monthly (October 2010), columnist Jory Farr penned an article entitled “My Problem With Poetry Slams”. Being not only a poet but someone who runs a poetry slam in the magazine’s target area and demographic, I was certainly curious to see what he had to say. Beyond that, I am the president of the only national- ( Read more... )

If you wanted to win what I jokingly and COMPLETELY non-commitally refer to as the Columbus Slam Mega Crown you’d have to place first in all of these competitions:

Writers’ Block NPS Grand Slam
Writers’ Block iWPS Grand Slam
Writing Wrongs NPS Grand Slam
Writing Wrongs iWPS Grand Slam
Columbus Arts Festival Poetry Slam
Comfest Poetry Slam
Hot Times ( Read more... )

Okay, now, the drum circle non-cypher part of the show last night? Hilarious ( Read more... )

Dragged myself out of bed this fine Wednesday morning and FINALLY checked email ( Read more... )

A weekend full of poetry...and other assorted madnesses.

Saturday I worked all day then had to book over to the Arts Festival for my feature, only to find it rained out. Once the rain passed I got to squeeze in some of the feature, but my heart wasn't in it at that point and I didn't know it was being cut short. I was tired, wet, hungry and had ( Read more... )

Still feeling dopey (these drugs are POW.  UR.  FULL.) and at work (why be loopy at home when you can give people highly suspect customer service and get paid for it?), but wanted to take a few minuites to see how far I can get through this today.

So I pulled a 3 and read "Cruise Director" in the first round.  "Cruise Director"? you cry, "What the ( Read more... )