The Worcester Youth Poetry Slam

The Worcester Youth Poetry Slam & Clark University Poetry Slam Club are Proud to present:

THE “UNIFIED SLAM” Prelim #4

February 19th, 2010 7pm – “The Grind” at Higgins Student Center Clark University, 950 Main Street, Worcester, MA 01610

hosted by Alex Charalambides & Tak Mogel

We’re super excited to welcome special guest feature…

Strange Famous Recording Artist

JARED PAUL – poet, organizer, independent journalist, and social worker from Providence, Rhode Island. Known for thoroughly researched work, poignant presentation, and dedication to craft, Jared is also widely recognized as one of the top spoken word artists in the country.  His performance accolades include nation wide tours with world-renowned poet and Epitaph Recording artist Sage Francis, featuring at the 2007 Green-Build World Expo, and advancing to the Individual World Poetry Slam Final’s (click for video) in both 2006 and 2007. Explosive delivery and intense politics have made Jared a stand out on the mic, but nearly a decade of matching those words with constant involvement in direct action off stage, has made him nearly legendary in the world of performance poetry.  Jared has helped organize, and participated in, countless social forums, indy-media fundraisers, electoral campaigns for progressive candidates, street theater actions, block letter writing/phone banking endeavors, anti-war protests, labor rallies, and extensive working class lobbies throughout the United States, Canada, & England.  Jared covered the 2004 Democratic and Republican National Conventions for 90.3FM WRIU News, and both the DNC and the RNC in 2008 for the Rhode Island publication, “The Agenda.” Throughout national performance tours spanning over 150 cities and more than 20 National Poetry Slam tournaments, Jared’s versatility as a writer, vocalist, speaker, and emcee have allowed his work to thrive where many solo performers cannot.  Whether Training School, University, coffee shop, conference, lecture hall, street corner, festival, classroom, protest, or center stage in front of 2,000 Roaring Hip Hop fans with just a mic and his voice, Jared is a rare performer with the ability to captivate and inspire in any setting. Jared is also the founder and coach of the Providence National Youth Slam Team, assisting & encouraging Rhode Island youth to seize the reins of performance art as an outlet for both un-refined creative expression, and as a means of specific artistic statement as well.  Under Jared’s direction Team Providence has advanced to the national Final’s Stage at The Brave New Voices Festival in 2004, 2006, and 2007 (placing 2nd in the nation in 2007.) Jared has participated in and run workshops, slams, and open mics in youth correctional facilities, high schools, community colleges, writer’s groups, and universities across America. To see more of Jared online check out this VIDEO or go to www.myspace.com/jaredpaul for more on him and his band, Prayers for Atheists.

THIS PROGRAM IS SUPPORTED IN PART BY A GRANT FROM THE WORCESTER CULTURAL COMMISSION, A LOCAL AGENCY WHICH IS SUPPORTED BY THE MASSACHUSETTS CULTURAL COUNCIL, A STATE AGENCY

THIS IS GONNA BE ANOTHER JAM-PACKED 2 HOUR SHOW!!! Preliminary Youth Slam #4, top three teen poets will earn points that will land them into the final Grand Slam which will determine the 2010 Worcester Youth Poetry Slam Team traveling to Los Angeles for the Brave New Voices Youth Festival.

There will also be a Clark University Poetry Slam Preliminary Match #4 to help determine their representatives for the College Union National Poetry Slam happening this spring in Boston! Winners of past slams include Tak, Eric and Sarah!

This event is free & open to the public. We will be asking for and accepting donations on behalf of the slam teams as we try to raise money for our travel and registration expenses. We will also have merchandise on hand, t-shirts, CD’s, books, etc. So stop by that ATM Machine and help support the spoken word movement in Worcester!!!

JANUARY 22nd, 2010 – The Worester Youth Poetry Slam and the Clark University Poetry Slam Club are proud to present the UNIFIED SLAM #3 at the Higgins Student Center at Clark University. Our featured performer for the evening is David Blair!!!

BLAIR is a National Poetry Slam Champion.  He’s been nominated for 7 Detroit Music Awards, including a 2007 nod Outstanding Acoustic Artist. He’s been named Real Detroit Weekly Readers Poll’s Best Solo Artist and The Metro Times Best Urban Folk Poet.  In 2007 He won Seattle, WA based BENT Writing Institute Mentor Award.           

Blair 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, Oscar winner 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.

BLAIR was the January 2005 HBO Def Poetry Jam Website Featured Poet.  He currently studies privately with a poetry instructor as part of the writer’s collective Write Word / Write Now.

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. Check out some mp3’s of Blair with his band Blair & The Boyfriends see his East Tour Schedule at Seriousartists.com

or check out this video of Blair performing live right HERE

THIS IS GONNA BE A JAM-PACKED 2 HOUR SHOW!!! Preliminary Youth Slam #3, top three youth will earn points that will land them into the final grandslam which will determine the 2010 Worcester Youth Poetry Slam Team traveling to Los Angeles for the Brave New Voices Youth Festival.

There will also be a Clark University Poetry Slam to help determine their representatives for the College Union National Poetry Slam happening next spring in Boston!

This event is free & open to the public. We will be asking for and accepting donations on behalf of the slam teams as we try to raise money for our travel and registration expenses. We will also have merchandise on hand, t-shirts, CD’s, books, etc. So stop by that ATM Machine and help support the spoken word movement in Worcester!!!

This friday’s ( Jan 15th, 2010) Worcester Youth Poetry Slam Performance Workshop has a small schedule change.

we’re moving it from 5-7pm, instead of the usual 6-8pm

sorry for the inconvenience.

Alex

Happy New Year -
Just wanted to pass this along:

Worcester Magazine Poetry Contest

Calling all rhymester! Worcester Magazine is hosting its annual Poetry
Contest and we want to hear from you! Submit your poem (one per person) to
A&E editor Doreen Manning via email: doreen@worcestermagazine.com by January
22.

Judges this year are local poets Matthew “Cowboy” Hopewell (2009 WoMag
Poetry Contest Winner) and Alex Charalambides.

Categories are First, Second and Third place, plus an addition First Place
Youth Category! Winner will be published in the February 11th issue of
Worcester magazine, and introduced at a live event and poetry reading that
month.

Show our readers that poetry is still alive! Email your poem today!

Hey -
Thanks to all who came to the last preliminary slam this past friday. Great crowd! Amazing feature from George Watsky! Congrats to Devin, Taylor and Melinda for placing in the top three, earning points towards making it to Youth Grand Slam in April!!!

This week! We’ve got back to back youth demonstration slams. Come on down and support the youth movement in Worcester!

Tomorrow – Tuesday, December 15th, Worcester Public Library 6:30-8:30pm – we’ll have an open mic and a demonstration poetry slam!

Wednesday, December 16th, Rutland Public Library 4pm-5:30pm
Both Shows are free and open to the public!
Links to these libraries are posted on the show schedule page

All teens who participate will earn a point towards making the youth grand slam finals. (a point is the same as placing third in a monthly prelim slam)

Both libraries are making generous donations to our group to help with registration and travel to Brave New Voices Festival. If we bring some folks out and put on a great show, we’re sure to be invited back. Let’s help spread the good words!

Youth Slam Merchandise will be available for all you semi-last minute holiday shoppers!

Hope to see you there!
Alex Charalambides

The Worcester Youth Poetry Slam & Clark University Poetry Slam Club are proud to announce!!!

Unified Prelim Slam #2

Friday December 11th, 7-9pm

Hosted by Alex Charalambides and Kate “Tak” Mogel

Music by DJ MUSE!!!

Clark University, “The Grind” Performance Space at Higgins Student Center, 950 Main  St. Worcester, MA 01610

featuring special guest… GEORGE WATSKY

George Watsky is a writer and performer who believes in the equal power of the tear and the belly laugh. Born and raised in San Francisco and now based in Boston, Watsky aims to cross-pollinate the stage, screen and stereo with work that speaks to both the humor and frustrations of modern life.

Watsky was featured on Season 6 of Russell Simmons Presents Def Poetry on HBO. He was the 2006 Youth Speaks Grand Slam Poetry Champion, 2006 Brave New Voices International Poetry Slam Champion, and performed in a record six consecutive Youth Speaks Grand Slam Finals. The last three of those audiences, all topping out at over 3,000, were the largest ever for poetry slams anywhere in the world. In 2009 Watsky was one of three poets who performed live on FOX at the NAACP Image Awards in honor of Russell Simmons’ lifetime achievement award.

Watsky has made strides to bring his poetic sensibilities to the theater world. His one-man show So Many Levels has been presented in Boston, San Francisco, Vermont, and at the Hip Hop Theater Festival Critical Breaks series in New York City. He has also been featured at the San Francisco and Washington, DC arms of the Hip Hop Theater Festival. He played the title character and co-wrote a 2004 adaptation of Dante’s Divine Comedy for the Living Word Festival and his stage play Harold’s Fall or King Will is the recipient of the 2009 Rod Parker Playwriting Fellowship.

Taking it to the page and stereo, George’s debut poetry collection and CD, Undisputed Backtalk Champion, was published by First Word Press in 2006. Edited by novelist Adam Mansbach, the book is currently in its fourth printing. As an emcee, Watsky has performed on both coasts with his band Invisible Inc. The trio’s self titled album, a blend of jazz and hip hop, features R&B sensation Passion. He served as a regular on-air personality for WERS Boston’s hip hop show 889@Night for several years.

An honorary graduate of the Centre for Sustainability Leadership in Melbourne, Watsky has emerged as part of a vanguard of artists involved in the sustainability movement. The inaugural Speak Green winner for poetry on climate change, Watsky was twice invited by Robert Redford to perform in Sundance, Utah. He served as host of Green Mic in San Jose, California and of the culminating concert of Powershift 2007 in Washington DC, and performed at Rock the Debate in Oxford, Mississippi, prior to 2008’s first Presidental debate. His work has brought him to the opening plenary of Green Cities 2008 in Sydney, Australia, and Greenbuild Chicago, where he took the stage immediately before President Bill Clinton.

Touring while finishing his college education on a condensed schedule, George has performed at conferences and universities in more than half the states in the US, and two in Australia, appearing at some of the nation’s most notable venues, including the Apollo Theater, the Kennedy Center Concert Hall, the San Francisco Opera House and the Shrine Auditorium. He has shared billing with, among others, Beyonce, Stevie Wonder, Bonnie Raitt and Mohammed Ali.

Watsky is completing an interdisciplinary B.A. in “Writing and Acting for the Screen and Stage” at Emerson College, where he has studied with Keith Johnstone, Ken Cheeseman, Robbie McCauley, Sarah Hickler, Amelia Broome and Andrew Clarke and worked with mentor Bonnie Comley.

for more info, links to video, etc check out www.georgewatsky.com

THIS IS GONNA BE A JAM-PACKED 2 HOUR SHOW!!! Preliminary Youth Slam #2, top three youth will earn points that will land them into the final grandslam which will determine the 2010 Worcester Youth Poetry Slam Team traveling to Los Angeles for the Brave New Voices Youth Festival.

There will also be a Clark University Poetry Slam to help determine their representatives for the College Union National Poetry Slam happening next spring in Boston!

This event is free & open to the public. We will be asking for and accepting donations on behalf of the slam teams as we try to raise money for our travel and registration expenses. We will also have merchandise on hand, t-shirts, CD’s, books, etc. So stop by that ATM Machine and help support the spoken word movement in Worcester!!!

Saturday, Nov. 28th -7pm

Members of the Worcester Youth Poetry Slam will be performing and reading poetry as part of a featured presentation at the Barnes & Noble Open Mic Series. The reading kicks off around 7pm and is hosted by Carle Johnson, good friend of the youth slam and Treasurer of the Worcester County Poetry Association.

The Barnes & Noble is located at Lincoln Square Plaza. There will be an open mic before youth slammers take the stage.

Hello -

Just a reminder notice that this Friday’s Workshop (Nov. 27th) at WCPA offices are canceled due to holiday schedule.

Next week, we’ll not only be back on track with the Friday Workshop, but will also be offering an additional and/or alternate weekly thursday workshop at www.worcesteryouthcenter.org -

ALSO!!! Saturday, Nov. 28th – Worcester Youth Slam Poets will be the feature at the Barnes & Noble Poetry Reading (Lincoln Square Plaza) in Worcester at 7pm. All teen poets wishing to participate will receive one point towards making the Worcester Youth Slam Finals that picks the 2010 Team next spring. Please write us at worcesteryouthslam2004@yahoo if you’d like to read at this family friendly event.

Telegram.com – A product of the Worcester Telegram & Gazette.

its all lead to this!!! great article today in the T&G

see you tomorrow!!!

It’s almost that time!!!

The Worcester Youth Poetry Slam in conjunction with the Clark University Poetry Slam is PROUD TO PRESENT!!!

Two Time National Youth Slam Champion JAMAICA OSORIO from Hawaii!

Jamaica is a recent graduate of Kamehameha Schools Kapalama and is a current Freshman at Stanford University in California pursuing a degree in Comparative Studies in Race and Ethnicity. In 2008 Jamaica was a part of the 5 person team that won the international youth poetry competition Brave New Voices in Washington DC and is featured in the HBO documentary “Brave New Voices.”JAMAICA ON HBO!!!                                                                                                                                                                                              Jamaica uses her voice as a vehicle of change and was recently named the 2009 Youth Speaks Hawaii Grand Slam Champion. In 2009 Jamaica Performed at the White House for the First family and other guests along with Joshua Bennett, Mayda De Valle, and James Earl Jones among others.                                                                                                                                               
Jamaica’s Interest in Hawaiian issues and art stems from her father’s deep roots at Kamakaku’okalani The Center for Hawaiian Studies at the University of Hawaii at Manoa and from attending Ke Kula Kaiapuni O Anuenue for 7 years studying her language and culture. Jamaica Plans on returning to Hawaii after receiving her degree to pursue Hawaiian studies under her father.  To check out videos & find out more check out        www.jamaicaosorio.com                                                                                    Jamaica is well known for her poetry and sees much promise in a career in writing and performing; however, music is another one of Jamaica’s passions she would like to pursue and she hopes to touch as many people with her music as she has with her poetry.

Event Details: Friday Night, November 20th, 2009

7pm-9pm at The Grind, Higgins Student Center, Clark University Campus, 950 Main Street, Worcester, MA 01610 - 

The show will kick off with a short showcase of Worcester Performance Poets, followed by the First Preliminary Worcester Youth Poetry Slam, top 3 scoring poets receive points towards making the 2010 team traveling to Los Angeles next summer for Brave New Voices International Youth Festival - slam will be followed by our featured guest, then… First Preliminary Clark University Poetry Slam, pitting Clark Student Poets on stage for a chance to represent Clark at the College Union National Poetry Slam at Emerson College next spring.

THIS EVENT IS FREE & OPEN TO THE PUBLIC, however, donations to the Youth Slam & Clark Slam are encouraged & greatly appreciated.