Ann Arbor Poetry Slam

Dear friends of the Ann Arbor Poetry Slam,
Tonight is the night! It’s the first Tuesday of the Month and we are excited about poetry.

Brave the cold and get yourself to the Heidelberg by 7:30PM to share some poetry with us. We will have a brief open mike, followed by a phenomenal feature, and finally the Slam.  Time is running out to qualify for the Semi-finals, Slam tonight!

We have a BIG feature tonight. Five of Ann Arbors finest poets are dropping by to show you what this city can do.
Don’t miss it.

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Jeff Kass is a teacher of English and Creative Writing at Pioneer High School in Ann Arbor MI and currently works as the Poet-in-Residence for Ann Arbor Public Schools. A graduate of Yale University with a Masters in Journalism from Columbia University, he has been awarded a Certificate of Excellence for Ann Arbor District employees for his teaching and organizing of poetry programs; and was also named the 1995-96 California Education Placement Association’s New Teacher of the Year for Northern California Secondary Schools.

In addition, Jeff directs the Creative Writing Program at Ann Arbor’s Teen Center, The Neutral Zone, where he founded and continues to direct The VOLUME Youth Poetry Project; The VOLUME Summer Institute; The Ann Arbor Youth Poetry Slam; Poetry Night in Ann Arbor; NO COMMENT magazine; the performance poetry troupe Ann Arbor Wordworks; and The Second Tuesdays Visiting Writers Series. He was the Ann Arbor Grand Slam Poetry Champion in 1999 and 2000 and the runner-up in 2001 as well as the Champion at the inaugural Ann Arbor Book Festival Poetry Slam in 2004.

He was selected by readers of Current Magazine as the runner-up for 2006 Best Poet of Washtenaw County and also by readers of the Ann Arbor News as the runner-up for Best Poet of Ann Arbor for 2006. He has performed his work all over the country and has delivered keynote addresses at numerous conventions and conferences. His poems have been published in several literary reviews, magazines and anthologies and he has taught poetry workshops to thousands of young people in schools, juvenile detention centers and synagogues. He was also the winner of the 2005 Current Fiction Contest, a runner-up in the 2006 Georgetown Review Fiction Contest and an editor’s honorable mention for the 2006 E.M. Koeppel Short Fiction Award. He is the Poetry Director in the acclaimed theatrical production Lay Your Comfort Down and recently co-edited the anthology Unsquared: Ann Arbor Writers Unleash Their Edgiest Stories and Poems.

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Angel Nafis is a graduate of Huron High School in Ann Arbor and a two-time member of the Ann Arbor Youth Poetry Slam team. She is the newest member of the performance poetry troupe Ann Arbor Wordworks and a cast member of the poetic drama Lay Your Comfort Down. She has appeared on stage at the famed Apollo Theater in Harlem, at the San Francisco Opera House and with such luminaries as Saul Williams, Ross Gay, Patrick Rosal, and Roger Bonair-Agard.

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Claire Forster is a graduate of Pioneer High School in Ann Arbor and a two-time member of the Ann Arbor Youth Poetry Slam team, as well as the 2005 Ann Arbor Youth Poetry Slam Champion. She is a member of the performance poetry troupe Ann Arbor Wordworks and a cast member of the poetic drama Lay Your Comfort Down. She has appeared on stage at the San Francisco Opera House and with such luminaries as Saul Williams, Ross Gay, Patrick Rosal, Regie Gibson, Jeff McDaniel, and Roger Bonair-Agard.

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Ben Alfaro is a junior at Pioneer High School in Ann Arbor and a member of the 2006 Ann Arbor Youth Poetry Slam team. He is recently returned from a mini-residency at Bates College in Lewiston, ME where he taught workshops and gave performances. He is a member of the Board of Directors at The Neutral Zone, Ann Arbor Teen Center.

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Maggie Ambrosino is a senior at Pioneer High School in Ann Arbor and a three-time member of the Ann Arbor Youth Poetry Slam team, including being the Ann Arbor Youth Poetry Slam Champion in 2004. She is a cast member of the poetic drama Lay Your Comfort Down and has appeared on stage at the San Francisco Opera House, and with such luminaries as Saul Williams, Ross Gay, Patrick Rosal, Regie Gibson, Jeff McDaniel, and Roger Bonair-Agard. Her poem in Unsquared has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize.

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See you tonight!
-Erik
The Ann Arbor Poetry Slam

http://a2slam.com

Thanks to all the folks who showed up (albeit late) for the Slam on Tuesday. Their reward was one of the best features we have had all year. Alvin Lau brought great energy and fantastic poetry to Ann Arbor.

Alvin, thank you for coming out.

Next month, which is in fact also next year, The Annual Ann Arbor Bad Poetry Slam is rearing it’s terrible head again on Tuesday January 2nd. This year, since Ann Arbor is dedicated to bucking trends and staying on the edge, The Bad Slam will also serve as our Individual World Poetry Slam qualifier ! Get your passport ready now, as IWPS is in Vancouver this year. More to come…

The Featured Poet for our December 5th show will be the amazing Alvin Lau. His bio:

Alvin Lau is a performance poet, working artist, and Chicago native. Combining an academic background with the fierce delivery of an emcee, Alvin performs with a bold, imaginative style that has been described as “Billy Collins meets Kanye West.” The son of first-generation Chinese immigrants, he often speaks of the Asian-American experience, his subjects ranging from Tiger Woods’ arrogance, to the importance of native languages, to the desexualization of Asian men in the media.

An avid competitor, he is a two-time Chicago youth poetry slam champion, two-time national youth poetry slam champion, the first Grand Slam Champion of both the Mental Graffiti poetry slam and the legendary Green Mill Poetry Slam, Midwest regional poetry slam team and individual champion, and a three-time individual finalist at the National Poetry Slam and Individual World Poetry Slam. In 2006 he ranked 2nd in the nation individually and captained Team Chicago to 6th place, the team’s highest finish in a decade. At age 20, he became the youngest poet to make individual finals at a national competition, and he is the only poet to make individual finals at both NPS and iWPS in the same year.

Over his career, Alvin has been the opening speaker at the Asian-American Film Festival, a panelist for the Illinois Humanities Council, and a featured poet on Amnesty International’s Spoken Word Tour and HBO’s Def Poetry Jam. He has been blessed to share stages with emcee Mos Def, rock legend Buddy Guy, and actor Danny Glover, as well as notable poets Li-Young Lee, Staceyann Chin, and Nikki Giovanni. Alvin has also spoken, performed, and held workshops at numerous colleges and universities across the country, including Grinnell College, Northwestern University, and Sarah Lawrence College. His poetry can be found in numerous literary journals, recently appearing or forthcoming in Wandering Hermit Review, Inkstains, and Red River Review.

It’s that time of the month again, poetry time! When you are finished voting for the one you despise the least, come out and vent your frustration with our Democracy via the art of Spoken Word. Everyone’s doing it!

No feature tonight, which leaves more stage time for you! Come read, Slam, smile.

The feature for October 3rd will be William Evans III don’t miss this poetry fans!

William H Evans III

William Evans has been writing for several years, but only recently came onto the poetry scene at large. In a short period of time this poet has become a fixture of the poetry scene in Columbus, winning slams throughout the state of Ohio, including the Dayton Poetry Slam, the infamous Green Mill Tavern Poetry Slam (finalist), University of Dayton Litfest Slam (2nd place), the 2006 Comfest Slam (champion), and took 2nd place in the 2006 Grand Slam which earned him a spot on the 2006 Black Pearl Poetry National Slam Team. A graduate of OSU with a BA in Business Mgmt., Will was hired and is now the Vice President of Black Pearl Productions, LLC which owns and operates Black Pearl Poetry. Since then, Will has performed throughout Ohio at open mics, featured at the local level as well as several prominent universities (Dennison, Ohio State University, OSU Newark, Wright State University), serves as co-slam master of Black Pearl Poetry and has his first national tour beginning in the fall of 2006 until spring of 2007. Already having shared the stage with international notables such as Talaam Acey, Ed Mabrey, and Umar Bin-Hassan to name a few, Will was a part of a compilation CD, “The Black Pearl Sampler-Unfiltered” and recently released his own full length album, “Living in the Hour Glass”.

Pearl Dive newsletter cited his work as, “Riveting, honest work. A complex yet conversational rhyme pattern laced with a focus on social empowerment, politics, and the internal struggles all human beings face when forced to look at themselves…”

For more information on Will, go to www.myspace.com/williamevans3rd

For booking information, interviews, etc., send requests to: blackpearl@blackpearlpoetry.com