Imani Cezanne @ Heroes

0 CommentsThursday • June 23, 2016 • by admin

Born and raised in San Diego, CA, Imani Cezanne is a passionate
poet, workshop facilitator, community organizer and slam coach. She just recently returned home from taking 2nd place at the Women of the World Poetry Slam in Austin, Texas. In the past four years Imani Cezanne has been on four National Poetry Slam teams (San Diego (2), Oakland and Da Poetry Lounge), three of which placed in the top six at the National Poetry Slam. Last season, along with two of her team members, she was invited to perform on the TV One network’s Verses and Flow, a cable television show dedicated to showcasing performance poets from around the country, all while obtaining a bachelor’s degree in Africana Studies from San Francisco State University. Imani has
continued to grow as an artist while working with some of the
country’s leading poets including Rudy Francisco, Ant Black, and
Natasha Miller and been coached by San Diego’s Chris Wilson (San Diego Slam Team) and Da Poetry Lounge’s Shihan Van Clief (Da Poetry Lounge Slam Team). Imani is also the founding President of S.P.E.A.K. (SpokenPoetry Expressed by All Kinds), San Francisco State University’s first poetry-centered organization. She organized and hosted S.P.E.A.K.’s bi-monthly open mics which has showcased nationally known artists such as Rudy Francisco, Prentice Powell, Marshall Jones and more. She
facilitates their monthly writing workshops and coached SFSU’s first ever poetry slam team to 5th in the nation at the College Unions Poetry Slam Invitational this year.

WordSpace is honored to partner with Dallas Poetry Slam to produce Feature Readers on 3rd Fridays of every month at Heroes Lounge, 7402 Greenville Ave, Dallas, TX 75231.

Admission: $5 or Buy a VIP Season Pass
WordSpace Members Free: RSVP

Women of the World Poetry Slam

0 CommentsWednesday • June 22, 2016 • by admin

When: March 15-18
Hosted by: Candy and Dallas, TX
Sponsored by: Poetry Slam Inc
Ticket passes /More Info coming soon!

WordSpace is honored to partner with the national organization, Poetry Slam Inc. to sponsor the workshops component of the three day Women of the World Slam, coordinated and hosted by Candy for Dallas.  Special Thanks to Candy (also Slam Master of Dallas Poetry Slam) for bringing this prestigious festival to the City of Dallas. Additional volunteer coordinators include GNO and Princess McDowell. Events associated with this festival will be held throughout the day and night. Daily competitions at venues in Deep Ellum, lead up to the final competition held at The Majestic Theater on Saturday, March 18. Festival passes and entry submissions for the festival will be available soon. Additional volunteer coordinators include GNO and Princess McDowell.

Still have questions? Check it: Poetry Slam Inc. WOWPS FAQ

About Poetry Slam Inc.: The mission of Poetry Slam Incorporated (PSI) is to promote the performance and creation of poetry while cultivating literary activities and spoken word events in order to build audience participation, stimulate creativity, awaken minds, foster education, inspire mentoring, encourage artistic statement and engage communities worldwide in the revelry of language.

Poetry Slam, Inc. is the official 501(c)(3) non-profit organization charged with overseeing the international coalition of poetry slams. Though slams are maintained in a growing number of cities by local volunteer organizers, the vast majority of slam series follow the rules established by the governing body, and are certified by the governing body as slams that adhere to the vision slam’s founders established for the art form over a decade ago. Because of slam’s exponential growth as an art form, PSI has emerged not only as an administrative body to maintain the rules which govern slam, but as an organization that seeks to grow slam’s audience and protect slam’s interests. The Executive Council, headed by a seven-member Executive Council comprised of poets and slam organizers, and voted on by representatives of local slams, maintains a vigilant watch of poetry slam series worldwide, insuring that slam maintains itself as an art form open to all competitors. Through the certification process and its annual organizational meetings, PSI has created the backbone for a community of poets who are in frequent communication with one another, in order to pool ideas and share creative resources to insure the future growth and recognition of slam. Poets from the community frequently embark on poetry tours in other slam cities, relying on each other to set up the venues and housing necessary for such tours.

While PSI’s main focus in past years has been the maintenance and growth of the National Poetry Slam, the organization is embarking on a series of programs and actions that seek to increase the public awareness of slams. These projects include the maintenance of an official website, an agreement with television producers seeking to stage slams for a major cable television network, and the formation of regional competitions, which would place officially-sanctioned team competitions in a number of host cities each year and concentrate the high level of talent present at the annual Nationals.

Poetry Slam, Inc. was first officially proposed in August of 1996, at the Slam Family meeting in Portland, Oregon, though it had been talked about at the annual spring meeting for at least two years prior to that.

A corporate Charter and official bylaws worked their way into existence through several steps over the course of the next year. But, by official and unanimous acclimation, Poetry Slam, Inc. was brought to reality on August 9, 1997.

About Women of the World Poetry Slam:

Women of the World Poetry Slam is a performance poetry tournament designed for individual competition, where poets will perform four poems of varying lengths during preliminary bouts. Taking place March 15th – 18th, the top poets will go on to finals to compete for the title of, The 2017 Women of the World Champion!
What are the rules?
Each poem must be of the poet’s own construction;
Each poet gets three minutes (plus a ten-second grace period) to read one poem. If the poet goes over time, points will be deducted from the total score.
The poet may not use props, costumes or musical instruments;
Of the scores the poet received from the five judges, the high and low scores are dropped and the middle three are added together, giving the poet a total score of 0-30.
Preliminary Bouts: Thursday & Friday – The order in which poets perform in the first round of each bout is assigned by a random draw at registration. Poets will compete in in one, two round bout each night, having a different slate of competitors each night. The first round of every bout will have a calibration poet, and if you’re lucky, maybe even a sorbet. Competing poets should be familiar with the Preliminary Bout format.
THURSDAY: 4 & 1 minute poems
First Round: poets read a four minute poem. The order of the second round is determined by the score in the first round: poets will read in order from high to low score. Second Round: poets read a one minute poem.
FRIDAY: 2 & 3 minute poems
First Round: poets read a two minute poem. The order of the second round is determined by the score in the first round: poets will read in order from high to low score. Second Round: poets read a three minute poem.
The top twelve poets of all bouts advance to the finals.
SATURDAY: Final Stage
The thirteenth ranked poet is designated the calibration poet. All poems in the finals are three minute poems and no poems may be repeats from earlier in the tournament.
First Round: Twelve poets read, top seven move to the second round.
Second Round: Seven poets read, top ranked four of to final round.
Final Round: Four poets read and the poet with the highest score is crowned the Woman of the World Poetry Slam Champion.  If there is a tie between the top two poets, they read one more poem in a sudden death match. Judges indicate which poet they prefer and the champion is crowned.

FIRST HEARINGS: MELISSA GINSBURG

0 CommentsTuesday • April 12, 2016 • by admin

When: Mary 12, 2016 at 7:30 pm
Where: The Wild Detectives, 312 West Davis, Dallas 75208
Hosted by: Charles Dee Mitchell

Melissa Ginsburg

Before turning to crime. Melissa Ginsburg was a respectable poet who had attended the Iowa Writers’ Workshop and published two books of verse. This April, she publishes her first crime novel, Sunset City. The story is set in her hometown of Houston, Texas, and it involves murder, drugs, betrayal, secrets, and the miserable weather the city is known for. In other words — all the good stuff.

But Melissa has not rejected her poetic lineage. Claire Vaye Watkins, author of Gold Fame Citrus has this to say:

“I am positively agog at this dizzying, addictive novel. A poetic meditation draped in the cloak of noir, an elegy with the heart-pounding pace of a murder mystery. Sunset City is raw, tough, and relentlessly exquisite.”

Please join for an evening of crime and poetry.