Poetry slam festival
For the first time ever, the National Poetry Slam, which is being held in West Palm Beach August 4 through 8, will co-present Page Meets Stage with the Palm Beach Poetry Festival. The event will be hosted by Taylor Mali, who originated the series at the Bowery Poetry Club in New York.
This particular pairing of Page Meets Stage will take place on Saturday, August 8, at 2 pm at Roxy’s Pub, 309 Clematis Street in downtown West Palm Beach. will feature Maureen Seaton, representing the page, and Blair representing the stage. More than any other, this event will likely give the clearest explanation of the difference between “slam poetry” and “regular” poetry.
Taylor Mali, a long-time friend of the Palm Beach Poetry Festival and a world-renowned champion performance poet himself, will serve as the emcee for this afternoon reading event. Describing the uniqueness of the format, Mali says, “It’s unlike any other poetry performance you’ve ever been to. The two poets remain on stage for the whole show and read back and forth, poem-for-poem. It is not a competition in any way. Rather, it’s a conversation on where poetry exists: the home of poetry.”
Miles Coon, Director of the Palm Beach Poetry Festival, said, �Ever since our festival began in 2005, we have featured not only the finest American poets writing today, but also such great performance poets as Patricia Smith, Jeffrey McDaniel, Marty McConnell, Roger Bonair Agard, Lynne Procope, Taylor Mali, and, coming to the 6th Annual Festival, next January 23, Andrea Gibson and Anis Mojgani. While our focus is primarily on the literary art-the poem on the page-we love and respect the vocal art-that is the poem written for performance on the stage. This event will bring Maureen Seaton and Blair together in a poetic dialogue that I believe will demonstrate the cultural value of both art forms in this unique meeting of two great poets and their work.”
Taylor Mali went on to say of the National Poetry Slam and the Palm Beach Poetry Festival, “You couldn’t ask for two more appropriate sponsors. What do you get when you mix the linguistic brilliance of the Palm Beach Poetry Festival with the raw power of the National Poetry Slam? Page Meets Stage!”
About the featured poets and host:
Maureen Seaton:
Her sixth book of poems, Cave of the Yellow Volkswagen, is recently out from Carnegie Mellon University Press. Her previous collections are Venus Examines Her Breast (Carnegie Mellon UP, 2004), winner of the Publishing Triangle’s Audre Lorde Award; Little Ice Age (Invisible Cities Press, 2001), which was nominated for a National Book Award; Furious Cooking (University of Iowa Press, 1996), winner of the Iowa Poetry Prize and the Lambda Literary Award; Fear of Subways (Eighth Mountain, 1991), winner of the Eighth Mountain Poetry Prize; and The Sea among the Cupboards (New Rivers, 1992), winner of the Capricorn Award and the Society of Midland Authors Award. Her work has appeared in Bloom, Best American Poetry, The Atlantic Monthly, Paris Review, New Republic, Green Mountains Review, Indiana Review, Prairie Schooner, Quarter after Eight, The Gay and Lesbian Review Worldwide, and many other publications both on and off line. The recipient of an NEA fellowship, Illinois Arts Council grant, and two Pushcart Prizes, she is also the author of a memoir, Sex Talks to Girls, published by the University of Wisconsin in fall, 2008, and winner of the Lambda Literary Award. She is an associate professor at the University of Miami, teaching poetry, collage and collaboration.
Blair:
Blair is an award winning Urban Folk, Afro-Punk, Poet, Singer, and Songwriter from Detroit, who has just been signed to the new start-up label, Repeatable Silence Records. Blair is a National Poetry Slam Champion, nominated for 7 Detroit Music Awards and named Real Detroit Weekly Readers Poll’s Best Solo Artist and The Metro Times Best Urban Folk Poet. He teaches poetry and music classes in Detroit Public Schools, Hannan House Senior Center, the YMCA and lectures at universities, colleges and high schools across the country. Blair has performed on bills with Stevie Wonder, Michael Moore, Mike Doughty, Bitch and Animal, Justin Bond, members of Sweet Honey in the Rock, Richie Havens, The Butchies, Tribe 8, Wilco, Cat Power and others. He was an HBO Def Poetry Jam Web Featured Poet. BLAIR has toured the United States and Europe extensively and performed in South Africa both solo and as part of Walk & Squawk’s The Walking Project of which he is a co-writer and cast member. He’s performed at New York’s historic CBGBs and The Knitting Factory, The San Francisco Public Library, at Miyagi’s on L.A.s famed Sunset Strip, Detroit’s Hart Plaza and Magic Stick and with a string section at the home of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra. His new CD, The Line, was released in June 2009 on Repeatable Silence Records.
Taylor Mali:
Taylor Mali is one of the most well known slam poets in the world and was one of the original poets to appear on the HBO series Russell Simmons Presents Def Poetry. His work has appeared in anthologies and other publications including The Outlaw Bible of American Poetry, The Idiot’s Guide to Slam Poetry, and Spoken Word Revolution. He runs the Page Meets Stage reading series at the Bowery Poetry Club in New York City. For more information, visit www.taylormali.com.
Please visit the National Poetry Slam at www.nationalpoetryslam.com and/or the Palm Beach Poetry Festival at www.palmbeachpoetryfestival.org.
About the Palm Beach Poetry Festival 2010:
Eight faculty poets, two Florida poets and two performance poets will be featured at nine ticketed public events, January 18-23, including readings, talks and a lively panel discussion. In addition, the workshop participants will give two afternoon readings, free to the public. For a complete list of the public events, refer to www.palmbeachpoetryfestival.org.
Tickets will go on sale October 15, 2009 through the festival website and at the Crest Theatre Box Office at Old School Square. General Admission ticket prices per event are $12/adult, $10/senior and $8/student. Special student group rates are available.
Presented in partnership with Old School Square, the Palm Beach Poetry Festival is sponsored by Morgan Stanley, the Palm Beach County Cultural Council, The Palm Beach Post, WXEL TV & FM and Murder by the Sea, Delray Beach’s independent bookseller. All events will take place in the Crest Theatre, Cornell Museum and Vintage Gymnasium of Old School Square in Delray Beach.
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Posted by admin on Jul 29 2009. Filed under Broward County, Theater. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry
