From pa-info at poetsasylum.org Thu Aug 6 09:32:25 2009 From: pa-info at poetsasylum.org (Info mailing list of the Poets' Asylum) Date: Thu, 6 Aug 2009 09:32:25 -0400 Subject: [pa-info] Asylum update (08/06/09) Message-ID: Greeting from the Poets' Asylum. ------------------------------ Coming up on Sunday, August 9th [image: Jeff Stumpo] The team is heading back from Nationals and the poetry goes on... On Sunday, August 9th, the Poets' Asylumholds our regular open poetry reading and a feature by *Jeff Stumpo*. Stumpo is a Ph.D. student in English at Texas A&M University. He is a poet who crafts work that is meant to be read, seen, and heard. An active participant in the local arts scene, he is the founder & co-host of Javashock, the Brazos Valley's poetry slam. Check out his work by visiting www.jeffstumpo.com. Please join us at Jumpin' Juice and Java (335 Chandler Street, Worcester). The reading starts at 6:00 p.m. No cover; please throw some money in the bucket to pay the feature. ------------------------------ Poetry in the Local News [image: Extra Extra] The Worcester Telegram & Gazette has an story in the paper and online today about Massachusetts lawmakers taking up a bill to create a state poet laureate post. A handful of Poets' Asylum associated folks are quoted in the story plus a number of other area poets. Check it out if you have a chance and leave a comment if you think such a position should be created (or even if you just want to counter the "don't they have better things to do crowd"). Here's a link to the story... Lawmakers mull creation of poet laureate . ------------------------------ August 2nd Revisited Thanks to everyone who came to the Asylum this past Sunday for the *Team Send-off Feature*. After a short open four of the five team members shared well practice slam pieces, newer work and a handful of haiku and other poetic tributes to their team members. We thank Danielle Carriveau, Dave Keali'i, Danny Balel and McKendy Fils-Aime for sharing their work with us and wish them well at the 2009National Poetry Slam . Team member Trevor Byrne-Smith was already in route to West Palm Beach so he couldn't share in the festivities. His voice was missed. ------------------------------ Fundraising Wrap-up [image: Fundraising] The Worcester Slam team is now in beautiful West Palm Beach, FL for the 2009 National Poetry Slam and they wouldn't be there without the generous support of the people who make up the Poets' Asylum. Back in April slammaster Bill MacMillan put forth the challenge of raising $1000 by the end of the month. On the last Sunday of the month we raised enough to meet that goal and commit to sending a team to NPS. The larger goal was to raise $2500 before the team left for Florida. This was not an easy task yet it was met with the resilence we've come to expect from the community that gathers each Sunday night to share the poetry that moves them. With a buck here and a $20 there, through the sale of chapbooks & t-shirts, with a special performance and a regional or two we have come within $175 of our goal. While we didn't quite meet the final hurdle we raised enough to cover registration, lodging and most of the travel costs for the five member team & their coach. On their behalf we thank you for your continued support. ------------------------------ Find us online at http://poetsasylum.org/. This message was sent to you from the pa-info mailing list of the Poets' Asylum (poetsasylum.org). If you would like to no longer receive updates please click hereto unsubscribe. If all else fails please send an e-mail to webmaster at poetsasylum.org and we'll do our best to remove your e-mail address from the list. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From pa-info at poetsasylum.org Thu Aug 13 08:29:29 2009 From: pa-info at poetsasylum.org (Info mailing list of the Poets' Asylum) Date: Thu, 13 Aug 2009 08:29:29 -0400 Subject: [pa-info] Asylum update (08/13/09) Message-ID: Greeting from the Poets' Asylum. ------------------------------ Poetry Round-up We're going to start listing the poetry events taking place in Central Massachusetts at the top of the weekly newsletter. There's a lot more poetry taking place than just the Poets' Asylum. Thursday, Aug. 13 7:00 p.m Evan Plante @ the Street Beat (1 Ekman Street, Worcester) 8:00 p.m. David Perez @ The After Nine Poetry Series Friday, Aug. 14 8:00 p.m. extended open reading @ Worcester Storytellers (1 Ekman Street, Worcester) Saturday, Aug. 15 11:30 a.m. Lea Deschenes, Victor Infante & Mike McGee @ Marlboro Public Library Sunday, Aug. 16 6:00 p.m. Lara Bozabalian @ the Poets' Asylum Monday, Aug. 17 7:00 p.m. The Little "a" Poetry Series (362 Chandler Street, Worcester) 8:30 p.m. Lea Deschenes & Victor Infante @ the Dirty Gerund Poetry Show (148 Grove Street, Worcester) Thursday, Aug. 20 8:00 p.m. Liz Heath @ The After Nine Poetry Series ------------------------------ Sunday, August 16th @ the Poets' Asylum [image: Lara B.] Come out to the Poets' Asylum this week for Canadian slammer *Lara Bozabalian*. Lara's poetry and prose have been published in journals, magazines and newspapers, as well as in two literary anthologies. She is currently a member of *Four Women*, Canada's first all-female slam team. She is the author of four chapbooks, *Exhale to December*, *The Morning Glories *, *New Dream and Free*, and her first full length collection will be published by Piquant Press in Fall 2009. She founded and runs a spoken word festival for high school students across York Region. We kick the night of with our regular poetry open mic. Please join us at Jumpin' Juice and Java ( 335 Chandler Street, Worcester). The reading starts around 6:00 p.m. No cover; please put some money in the bucket to support the feature. ------------------------------ August 9th Revisited We had light attendance this week, not surprising with many of the regulars still making their way back from NPS '09. Congrats to Team Soapboxing from St. Paul, MN on their win by the way. After a medium sized open feature *Jeff Stumpo* took to the mic. This was the first time many of us had the opportunity to hear Jeff's work and he wowed the room. With a well crafted style and a quick turn of phrase he left the gathered eager for more. Of note were a spectacular piece dedicated to his wife and the power of marriage and a pair of poems with a unique take on Icarus. Brisk chapbook sales followed the feature so you gotta figure people liked what they heard. Thanks for sharing your words with us Jeff. Jeff will be featuring at the Cantab on the 19th if you missed him or want to hear more. ------------------------------ Find us online at http://poetsasylum.org/. This message was sent to you from the pa-info mailing list of the Poets' Asylum (poetsasylum.org). If you would like to no longer receive updates please click hereto unsubscribe. If all else fails please send an e-mail to webmaster at poetsasylum.org and we'll do our best to remove your e-mail address from the list. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From pa-info at poetsasylum.org Thu Aug 20 12:43:48 2009 From: pa-info at poetsasylum.org (Info mailing list of the Poets' Asylum) Date: Thu, 20 Aug 2009 12:43:48 -0400 Subject: [pa-info] Asylum update (08/20/09) Message-ID: Greeting from the Poets' Asylum. ------------------------------ Poetry Round-up Here's a quick snapshot of the poetry events taking place in Central Massachusetts during the next 8 days. Thursday, Aug. 20 7:00 p.m. Liz Heath @ The After Nine Poetry Series Friday, Aug. 21 7:00 p.m. poetry reading @ Starry Night Cafe (201-205 Main Street, Webster, MA) Saturday, Aug. 22 11:30 a.m. Bill MacMillan @ the Saturday Evening Open Mic (Barnes & Noble, Lincoln Plaza, 541D Lincoln Streeet, Worcester) Sunday, Aug. 23 6:00 p.m. David Perez & iWPS Qualifier @ the Poets' Asylum Monday, Aug. 24 7:00 p.m. The Little "a" Poetry Series (362 Chandler Street, Worcester) 8:30 p.m. Sean Conlon @ the Dirty Gerund Poetry Show (148 Grove Street, Worcester) Thursday, Aug. 27 8:00 p.m. Naomi Christianson @ The After Nine Poetry Series ------------------------------ Coming up on Sunday, August 23rd It's going to be a busy night at the *Poets' Asylum* this Sunday, August 23rd, with the regular poetry open mic, a feature and a slam on the docket. Tonight we will host a feature by *David Perez* and hold the second *iWPS Qualifying Slam*. [image: David Perez] *David Perez* enjoys jet skiing, racquetball and starlit walks on the beach with the Queen of Denmark. In 2008 he represented San Jose at the Individual World Poetry slam. In 2009 he is pried again from the bosom of the Bay Area to compete at the National Poetry Slam with team San Jose. For the past two years he has coached San Jose's youth slam team and worked as Performing Arts Program Coordinator for MACLA, Movimiento de Arte y Cultura Latino Americana. After the feature we'll hold the second *iWPS Qualifying Slam*. Up to eight poets will compete in the Slam tonight. It will be two 3-minute rounds with the usual rules . The top two poets tonight move on to the iWPS Selection Slam next Sunday night. You can find out more info on iWPS by visiting http://iwps.poetryslam.com. Please join us at Jumpin' Juice and Java (335 Chandler Street, Worcester). We'll have a shorter than normal open this week since we have a busy night. The reading starts at 6:00 p.m. and we hope to start much closer to that time than usual, again due to the busy night. Come early and plan to stay until the end of the slam. You won't be sorry. No cover; please throw some money in the bucket to pay the feature. ------------------------------ August 16th Revisited The Poets' Asylum this week was full of good words with a packed open mic and a feature by *Lara Bozabalian*. Lara brought a quiet strength to the mic with a no-nonsense performance style and power words. Delving deep into the psyche of relationship she pulled out great nuggets of truth. Thanks for sharing your words with us Lara. Welcome and thanks to the handful of first time readers in the open. We hope you'll read for us again. ------------------------------ Stay In Touch [image: animated connections icon] The Poets' Asylum has a number of ways for you to keep up with our activities besides this website. We have an e-mail list (then again, you knew about that one), a LiveJournal community, a public Google calendar,a listing on the Social Web and a MySpace page. The handy *Stay In Touch * page details all of that info. That page also has a contact listfor bookings, fundraising, the slam, and so on. Please check it out. We are always looking for new methods of spreading the word about the Asylum. If you have an idea or suggestion, or are willing to help with maintaining the Asylum presence on the Internet, please drop an email to webmaster @ poetsasylum.org . ------------------------------ Find us online at http://poetsasylum.org/. This message was sent to you from the pa-info mailing list of the Poets' Asylum (poetsasylum.org). If you would like to no longer receive updates please click hereto unsubscribe. If all else fails please send an e-mail to webmaster at poetsasylum.org and we'll do our best to remove your e-mail address from the list. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From pa-info at poetsasylum.org Thu Aug 27 09:47:14 2009 From: pa-info at poetsasylum.org (Info mailing list of the Poets' Asylum) Date: Thu, 27 Aug 2009 09:47:14 -0400 Subject: [pa-info] Asylum update (08/27/09) Message-ID: Greeting from the Poets' Asylum. ------------------------------ Poetry Round-up Here's a quick snapshot of the poetry events taking place in Central Massachusetts during the next 8 days. Thursday, Aug. 27 9:00 p.m. extended open mic @ The After Nine Poetry Series Friday, Aug. 28 7:00 p.m. poetry reading @ Starry Night Cafe (201-205 Main Street, Webster, MA) Sunday, Aug. 30 6:00 p.m. iWPS Selection Slam @ the Poets' Asylum Monday, Aug. 25 7:00 p.m. The Little "a" Poetry Series (362 Chandler Street, Worcester) 8:30 p.m. Matt Hopewell @ the Dirty Gerund Poetry Show Thursday, Sep. 3 9:00 p.m. 2nd Anniversary Celebration @ The After Nine Poetry Series ------------------------------ Coming up on Sunday, August 30th [image: Poetic Boxing] Join the *Poets' Asylum* for the 2009 *iWPS Selection Slam*. Nine poets will compete for the opportunity to represent Worcester at this years Individual World Poetry Championship . This will be a four round slam with 1, 2, 3 and 4 minute rounds. Other than the change in round length the usual rulesapply. It should be an interesting night. We hope you'll join in the fun. Expected to compete are Bobby Gibbs, Bill MacMillan, Gary Hoare, Nick Davis, Danny Balel, Trevor Byrne-Smith, Danni Carriveau, McKendy Fils-Aime and Dave Keali'i. Come on down to Jumpin' Juice and Java (335 Chandler Street, Worcester). The reading starts around 6:00 p.m. No cover; please put some money in the bucket to support the reading. ------------------------------ August 23rd Revisited An open mic, feature and a slam makes for a busy night at the Poets' Asylum, even when we limit poets to 1 poem in the open. Following the full open mic San Jose slammer *David Perez* took to the mic for a tight feature of well practiced work. His set included references to mental health, Quinceaneras, Black Friday and Tickle Me Elmo as well as a cover of Geoff Trenchard's *Grand Larceny*. After the feature we held the *second iWPS open slam* with Alex Charalambides, Nick Davis, Gary Hoare, Jackie and Charles competing. At the end of the two rounds Gary & Nick the two highest combined scores. They move on to the iWPS Selection Slam on August 30th. Thanks to all those who came out, read a poem, listened to the feature and cheered on the slammers. We hope you'll join us again for the next exciting episode of the Poets' Asylum. ------------------------------ Find us online at http://poetsasylum.org/. This message was sent to you from the pa-info mailing list of the Poets' Asylum (poetsasylum.org). If you would like to no longer receive updates please click hereto unsubscribe. If all else fails please send an e-mail to webmaster at poetsasylum.org and we'll do our best to remove your e-mail address from the list. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: