Discover the Bliss of Asheville's Spoken Word and Poetry Slams...
"Poetica Violencia" performed by at Asheville Fringe Festival
Asheville Fringe Festival
"... serves patrons of art from Asheville and beyond by facilitating the creation and production of avant garde work that may otherwise not find a venue. In past years the artistic mix has included actors, dancers, singers, videographers, painters and musicians, presenting a varied range of interesting work including cross-genre improvisation, Butoh dance, sketch theatre, modern dance, and multi-media performance art. The spirit of the festival also leaves the city “vulnerable” to random acts of art, such as fire-dancing in the street or mass mobs of poets...."
Asheville Poetry Slams
Apparently, despite persistent rumors of
its early demise, Slam Poetry in Asheville lives on!
Asheville Poetry Slam
"... The second Slam of Asheville was another great success,and very intimate. Two people read from their journals spontaneously, and this is a beautiful sharing. There was such a sense of genuine community and respect for all the Poet’s . . . so sweet.
Poets, you were amazing, in your sincerity and humility and beauty. Silent Knight hailing from New Jersey was the official winner, but truly we were all winners, and everyone recognized this. Jamila came in second, with Provost in a strong and vibrant third. a big hearty THANK YOU!!! to all the Poets, supporters, and lovers of Poetry. Please keep coming out, checking in here for future dates and venues, and keep sharing those gifts.
Please spread the word about the Slam far and wide. with Love and many Blessings, Kapila . . . “you’re humble Asheville slammaster and Poetic servant”
Outspoken Asheville
"... books, cafe, & community voices is a small independent business in West Asheville. We are located at 721 Haywood Rd., W. Asheville, NC 28806. Outspoken is Asheville's "straight friendly, queer bookstore" and a place where progressive folks of all sorts are welcome to gather, study, converse, relax, and raise their voices in song, spoken word, protest, and laughter. We offer:Great Books, Phenomenal Cafe,Free Wireless Internet,Kick-ass caffeination, Live Music, Spoken Word & Author Events, and Workshops As always, we challenge you to remain Well Read, Well Fed, and Well Said! Outspoken is open: Mon-Wed, 7am-7pm; Fri 7am-8pm; Sat, 9am-8pm; Sundays, 10am-5pm; and we are CLOSED on Thursdays....We want to meet people who want to raise their voices in protest, poetry, and song. We also want to meet people who are happy to lose themselves in a novel, collection of poetry, cookbook, or the lastest expose about Wal-Mart or the radical right. We want to meet people who are writing those books. We want to meet people who are not afraid to admit that they enjoy reading children's books. We want to meet people who want to create a better community in West Asheville, all of Asheville, the Carolinas, and beyond...."
Poetix Cafe
"... an open mic poetry night for the "less than old", meets with host Graham Hackett every 4th Tuesday of the month at 7pm...."
Poetry Readings
The Flood Gallery
"... hosts an ongoing, monthly poetry reading featuring the finest poets of the region every Friday at 8pm. For more information, please send us an email...." Flood Gallery is located on the second floor of the Phil Mechanic Building, on the corner of Clingman and Roberts Street(see map), situated in the heart of Asheville's River Arts District.
Poetry Magazine
Asheville Poetry Review
"... is a biennual literary journal that publishes 160–200 pages of poems, interviews, translations, essays, historical perspectives and book reviews. Since its inception, Asheville Poetry Review has published over 600 new and established writers from 14 different countries, including Robert Bly, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Joy Harjo, Gary Snyder, Sherman Alexie, Eavan Boland, R. S. Thomas, Yevgeny Yevtushenko, Fred Chappell, Ciaran Carson and Colette Inez. From its first regional issue, Asheville Poetry Review has grown into an international publication with distribution in 35 states and 5 European countries...."
"... Every Thursday at the Courtyard Galley! Come enjoy, relive and restore the previously demised Thusday night Beanstreets open mic. Hosted by Jarrett Leone, signup starts at 8:30PM and performances from 9pm-12, Podcasts every week...." 9 Walnut Street in Downtown Asheville
The "True Home" Open Mic PODCAST "... now has over 60,000 Subscribers in 35 countries including Farkministan and GROWING. This broadcast features the highlights of the Thursday Night Open Mic each week, and showcases the best audio artists and poets in Asheville and surrounding areas. Hosted by Jarrett Leone and featuring singer/songerwriter Ash Devine... find out what the buzz is about-- subscribe by clicking on the box or copy the address and paste into your player! Advertise on the podcast by calling 828-273-3332...."
Annual Poetry Slams
L.E.A.F. (Lake Eden Arts Festival) Poetry Slam "... Jim Nave' brings more than twenty years of experience to the craft of presenting poetry on stage. He is one of the cofounders of Poetry Alive! and has been active of the Poetry Slam community since 1991. In addition, he has memorized over 600 poems and performed thousands of shows in the U.S. and abroad. For the past ten years, he has co-taught with Julia Cameron author of The Artist's Way. Nave' holds his MFA in poetry from Vermont College. He splits his time between Asheville, NC and Taos, NM...." Below is a video clip from the 2006 L.E.A.F. Slam: Leaf Slam/Christ August/ADD
Check These Calendars for Occasional Spoken Word Performances
According to Alli Marshall in the May 30, 2007 issue of Mountain Xpress
"... In the 1990s, Asheville was defined by spoken-word poetry. There was the Green Door, a gritty little listening room set off Carolina Lane. Writer Allan Wolf was named Slammaster of the 1994 National Poetry Festival, putting Asheville on the literary map. The same year, local poet/rocker Keith Flynn printed the inaugural issue of Asheville Poetry Review (with writing by area scribes Richard Chess, Thomas Rain Crowe, Ann Dunn, Katherine Graham, and David Hopes), which would go on to become an internationally distributed publication.
" But by the new millennium, poetry slams had trickled down to a whisper and a new literary scene was gaining voice: that of the author backed by a major publisher....
".... “Slam poetry, as a movement, flamed out,” Flynn asserts. “What happened here is [that] the best of the poets, not necessarily the slammers, continued to thrive and to work. As a consequence, the slam movement died out. That happened everywhere; it wasn’t just local.”
“Slammaster” Allan Wolf, while still alive and well in Asheville, has parlayed his innate sense of verse and performance into children’s and young-adult books. He’s also an educator and a presenter; his continuing mission (as stated on his Web site, allanwolf.com) is “to take poetry to the people.”
Stepping into Wolf’s place at the mic is relative newcomer Graham Hackett. The presence behind Poetix Lounge—a bimonthly thematic poetry event—sees slam and spoken-word poetry as absolutely current.
“The Lake Eden Arts Festival slam is very valuable,” he notes. “It’s attracting poets from as far as Chicago, and a regional effort is one of the components to getting this area recognized again.”
WORD. (the spoken word collaborative), a group of nationally and internationally-known performance poets, local educators, administrators, students, and arts organizations, including the Asheville Area Arts Council (AAAC) developed thefirst annual, county-wide poetry slam for middle and high school youth in 2007
WORD.07's Poetry Slam ".... was a totally new experience for me…their poetry told me how they felt - regarding everything from every day to world issues. What depth and passion they revealed! … as students performed their memorized poetry, I began to grasp the freedom they felt through their personal self-expression; not only through their words, but also through their physical movement. ...Give kids the opportunity and freedom to create and demonstrate their thoughts and actions through poetry. They will amaze and inspire their audience...."
--WORD.07 Educator
Spoken Word Performances
Bobo Gallery
Hosts Smoking Word Poetics "...Smokin Word Poetics is the brainchild of frontman Kapila McNary. It is powered by the collaborative efforts of local Poet's and Musician's who bring their gifts together to entertain and enlighten those who bear witness to the cocreative combustion before them. We speak deeply to the socio political issues of the day in a way which is meant to awaken and inspire. WE SEEK TO ANNIHILATE APATHY AND POWERLESSNESS. We seek to connect you with your heart and with others in this momentous time . . . a counterbalance to a disconnected culture . . . and so, We speak to the heart and soul of our shared humanity, We are a passionate voice for Earth, People, Justice, Beauty, Wisdom, and but of course, Love . . . infused with Joy" Bobo Gallery is located at 22 Lexington Avenue in the heart of Historic Lexington Park in downtown Asheville
Travelling Poetry
Performances for Schools
POETRY ALIVE! "... fields groups of two-person teams who travel to school districts worldwide. Their high-energy presentations have taken Poetry Alive! to a total audience of more than 7,000,000 in all 50 states as well as the District of Columbia, Guam, Puerto Rico, Saipan, South Korea, China, the Bahamas, and Peru. Each year Poetry Alive conducts approximately 2000 performances, over 750 classroom follow-ups and 150 teacher workshops for an estimated 600,000 students nationwide. We also conduct several specialized on-site in-services of one to five days each year. Not a canned, ‘cookie-cutter’ event, PA’s performance techniques are fresh and focused on connecting students to text. PA techniques can easily be customized to emphasize reading, writing or performance...."
Offices are on Woodfin Street in downtown Asheville
Invites participation from students... including "Student Poem of the Month". CLICK HERE
Poetry Alive! Auditions
"...Poetry Alive! conducts open auditions for professional actors from February to April. Actors travel in pairs throughout the US presenting 4 different poetry shows for school audiences (grades K-12, some College, some Adult)..."
Click on each of the dozens of categories to the left to uncover what makes the Asheville area so vital, so intriguing and so, well, UTTERLY BLISSFUL!
Discover the Bliss of Poetry Slams, the Spoken Word and Open Mics
"... a collection of the written and performed works of more than 40 of the
most influential slam, hip hop and performance poets in the world
today. Slam poetry has evolved into an exciting cultural movement, with
attendance far surpassing the traditional open mike poetry readings
(anyone is welcome to participate and the crowd is generally
supportive)...."
"Poetry slams-the Olympics of poetry-have become a cultural phenomenon. This groundbreaking anthology documents 10 years of poetry slams, with 100 poems from national slam champions and a dozen essays on how to run a slam, winning strategies, tips for memorizing poems, and more...." "...A MUST have for any poet who is (or is considering) performing their poetry before audiences in any capacity. A necessary bit of packing for any poet with national aspirations of slamming, touring or just reading...."
In a little more than an hour, Billy Collins completely changes my mind about what poetry should be like. It's funny. It's witty. He's actually writing for an audience that isn't full of fellow poets who think that "deep" is a substitute for entertaining. And yes, it's entertaining. The poem about the dog that he put to sleep is sad and funny. The summer camp poem actually reminded me of that stupid craft that I also made at summer camp.....
".... For anyone who likes slam poetry or even if you just want to "hear" the emotion" the way the poet actually meant it, this is a great choice.
This one is right next to to the first book on my shelf of favorites. The ones I never loan out! AWESOME!...."
".... Great poems in this collection for your next poetry slam. Intriguing original works of art too...."
"... Through the poet's eyes and the poet's heart we feel a rebirth of the wonder of life, the depth of despair and the joy and hope of a lifetime of dreams. Path of the Poet is a perfect present for anyone!..."
A Bigger Boat chronicles the Albuquerque Slam Poetry scene's growth and success at the 2005 National Poetry Slam competition, which it hosted and won. This collection of poems and personal memories explores Slam from the voices of the poets who began developing the Albuquerque scene in 1990 to poets who witnessed and celebrated the 2005 hometown victory.
".... The history, the rules, organizing, performing, scoring: all these are the elements of a fascinating phenomenon known as "Slam Poetry." Designed and concocted more than 20 years ago in Chicago and what has come to be a "new American artform," slam poetry and poetry slams are lushly written about by veteran poet, Geof Hewitt. Vermont's 2004 state champion, Hewitt is a master of the game but reminds us that "the point is not the points, the point is the poetry."..."
"... The Freedom of the Mind: Open Mic contains 50 poems that are designed to be spoken over the open mic. An “open mic” is a microphone that is open to the public to freely express their thoughts and ideas. The open reading allows poets to entertain the audience with their personal expressions. This manuscript contains poems that were designed for the specific purpose of expressing the thoughts that capture the freedom of one’s intellect and dreams. Each poem has a creative tone and feel, which are vividly articulated by a plethora of similes, metaphors, nouns, and verbs; the author’s voice can undeniably be heard...."
"... Female spoken word artists have become the spokeswomen for a new generation. This demanding oral poetry of the early 21st century has defined a vanguard of lithely muscled voices; women who think and act decisively to create their distinctive and desperately earned realities. The combination of the eminent slam movement and the upsurge of bold underground feminism has created a unique pool of women who verbally challenge society on all fronts...."
".... This book provides a completely engaging narrative of the history of slam poetry in NYC. I was given this book by my husband -- as an infrequent reader of non-fiction with only a marginal interest in poetry slams, I did not expect to finish it quickly. The book was so engaging that I wound up finishing the last 100 or so pages in a single marathon reading session. I highly recommend it! The author does a fabulous job of blending together a truly fascinating narrative with in-person interviews with key figures in the NYC slam scene...."
What a good mix of new poets, well known Floridian poets, young, old, a true taste of NE Florida...whether you are from Florida or not you will enjoy this delightful anthology and bios of the 54 poets. Winner of a 2004 Royal Palm Award. Internationally recognized in Poetry Now Magazine the most read poetry magazine in all of Europe. "Open Mic Jacksonville" was also placed in the archives at the Cummer Museum of Arts & Gardens as part of Jacksonville, FL history...to be enjoyed 4 ever...It's a treasure.
MySpace Pages of Slam and Spoken Word Artists in Asheville Area
