Monday, April 25, 2005

Youth National Poetry Slam

Just got back from four wonderful days in San Francisco at the 8th annual Youth National Poetry Slam. The final event was the best attended poetry slam in the history of slam with 3000 poetry fans going nuts. New York won and will host the event next year. The team pushed the boundaries of poetry into what is being called "Hip Hop Theater." It is quite amazing to see 3000 people leap to their collective feet to cheer a poem.

The real success story on the festival was the Chico Team, who also made the finals. The team put together by Aaron Yamaguchi had strong writing and dynamic group pieces. More on this latter but for now many thanks to James Kass and everyone at Youth Speaks who put together the event.

NPR's "All Things Considered," aired a segment on the Precision Poetry Drill Team and you can listen to the story here:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4615966

I am off to the airport for a reading at a school in Savannah!

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