Tag Archives: slam poetry

“We-Slam” Not “Wes-Slam” / poetry reading + open mic

we-slam weslamGiorgia Sage ’18 has a message for all of Wesleyan’s poets (and a correction for everyone who keeps saying “wes-slam”):

Come kick off the first weekend of the semester with WeSlam, Wesleyan’s slam poetry group and community. Get a small sample of the spoken word scene at Wes and even read your own work if the mood hits you! We will have several planned readers and a limited number of open slots for sign-up on site! Don’t hesitate to email us at weslam.wesleyan[at]gmail[dot]com or Facebook message us if you have any questions!

Date: Saturday, September 10
Time: 7-8:30 PM
Place: WestCo Café

Circles & Ciphers: Restorative Justice Event

Camila Tili Recalde ’16 writes in:

“Yeah, prisons and police are awful – but what alternative do we have?”
Answer: Restorative Justice!

Join Evan Okun ’13 for a two day Alternatives to Incarceration event led by Circles & Ciphers, a Chicago based restorative justice organization led by young people who are court-, gang-, and DCFS- involved. Participants will experience hip-hop infused peacemaking circles led by young restorative justice professionals from Chicago! The event will conclude with a Slam/Hiphop showcase!

Anti-Violence Workshop
Friday, April 22nd (5-7pm)
200 Church

Restorative Justice Hip-Hop Peace Circle
Saturday 1-3pm
Downey House

Slam/Hip-Hop Show Case
Saturday 8-10pm
Downey House

Dates: Friday, April 22- Saturday, April 23
Times: 5 PM Friday – 10 PM Saturday (See breakdown above)
Places: 200 Church and Downey House

WeSlam presents: The Season Showcase

weslam showcaseFrom Wesleyan’s resident poets:

The Wesleyan slam poetry team is headed to Austin, Texas on April 5 to compete in CUPSI, the national intercollegiate poetry slam, but before they depart they want to share the work they have prepared with their fellow Wesleyan students.

“do not want to miss! so many poems! so many feelings! please come out and support! we’ve been bending backwards forwards and a million other directions to get ourselves and our work to CUPSI. come see some literary gymnastics!”

featuring performances by
Hazem Fahmy
Joy Feinberg
Destiny Polk
Giorgia Sage
Lexi Slater

We will also be selling copies of our chapbook “POETRY HOUSE PARTY” for $5 to fundraise for our last few fees for CUPSI and travel.

Date: Saturday, April 2
Time: 7:30-8:30 PM
Place: Malcolm X House
Cost: suggested donation $3–$5 (comes with chapbook)

WeSLAM presents: WOR(L)DS, a non-english poetry night

worlds

Alexis Jimenez ’19 writes in:

Join WeSlam for our first-ever non-English performance poetry event. Our focus in doing this is to create a space that celebrates language in all its forms. This is NONCOMPETITIVE, and students do not need to have experience performing or writing poetry to participate. Students do not have to be native speakers of the language they choose to perform in; they can  be majors of that language, or have studied it independently.

The sign-up list IS OPEN NOW, and closes on March 2nd at 5:00PM. If you sign up to perform, you have the choice to provide an English translation for those who do not speak in non-English languages. The translation must be in by the 2nd, as well. Email all sign-ups and submissions to weslam.wesleyan[at]gmail[dot]com

If you have any questions, feel free to contact Lex: ajimenez[at]wesleyan[dot]edu or Teresa:  tnaval[at]wesleyan[dot]edu

Date: Thursday, March 3, 2016
Time: 7:00PM
Place: Albritton 311

 

The Grand Slam Featuring Neil Hilborn

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From Giorgia Sage ’18:

The semester has sped by and the time is upon us to select the 5 poets who will make up Wesleyan’s traveling slam team, which will represent our school at regional slams and the national slam, CUPSI.

While scoring poetry and ranking poets is awful, we live in a capitalist world, so it must be done. Come watch it happen.

Our feature will be Neil Hilborn, hailing from Minneapolis, who will also be leading a workshop earlier that afternoon. (Workshop information here.) Neil Hilborn is a College National Poetry Slam champion, and a 2011 graduate with honors from Macalester College with a degree in Creative Writing. He is a founding member of Button Poetry and speaks on issues of mental illness, among others. Watch one of Neil’s performances here.

Date: Saturday, November 21st
Time: 7-9pm
Place: 
Memorial Chapel

The Third Preliminary Poetry Slam ft. Crystal Valentine

12208813_960148257378017_5363716519211046783_nFrom WeSlam:

Join WeSlam for the third preliminary poetry slam, where 10 poets will compete for one of 3 spots in the WeSlam Grand Slam to qualify for the traveling slam poetry team. Then stay and kick it at our short third round open mic to share some non-competitive poetry, music, freestyling, etc. and then possibly dance the night away, although we can’t make any promises.

WeSlam is THRILLED to be hosting this with Ladies First and Malcolm X House. (If you are interested in hosting an event with us, please hit us up at weslam.wesleyan@gmail.com)

For those interested in signing up for the slam, all the necessary information is available in this PDF: https://goo.gl/qwiQI8

Watch one of Crystal Valentine’s performances here.

Date: Saturday, November 7
Time: 7 PM
Place: Malcolm X House

Second Preliminary Poetry Slam

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From Giorgia Sage ’18:

Join WeSlam for the second preliminary poetry slam, where 10 poets
will compete for one of 3 spots in the WeSlam Grand Slam to qualify
for the traveling slam poetry team.

INFORMATION ON SIGN-UPS HERE.

We are thrilled to be hosting this event with the help of QueerWes and
the Bayit, and to be bringing Alan Ginsberg to campus to feature and lead a workshop.

About Alan Ginsberg: Alan Ginsberg is an agender performer and writer from Baltimore City. They’re a Capturing Fire finalist, have competed at Louder Than A Bomb, Word War, and the Individual World Poetry Slam. Woof. View a performance here.

Alan will also be hosting a writing workshop focusing on queer poetry, although it is open to anyone regardless of gender identity or sexual orientation.

Date: Saturday, October 17
Time: 7 PM – 9 PM
Place: The Bayit (157 Church St)
Facebook event

First Preliminary Poetry Slam ft. Hanif Willis-Abdurraqib

Giorgia Peckman ’18 invites you to hear slam poetry:

WeSlam is hosting the first competitive poetry slam of the semester, featuring Hanif Willis-Abdurraqib. The top 3 poets from this slam will continue to our Grand Slam in November, where the top poets of the whole season will compete for a spot Wesleyan’s traveling slam team.
Writer’s Block (156 High Street program dorm) is hosting a writing workshop the day of the slam at 4:30pm at the Shapiro Creative Writing Center (across the street from 156 High) which will be led and taught by Hanif.
About Hanif: Hailing from Columbus, Ohio, Hanif currently resides in New Haven, Connecticut. He has been published in various journals including Muzzle, Vinyl, and Radius and has his first full-length book of poems forthcoming from Button Poetry. “He thinks poems can change the world, but really wants to talk to you about music, sports, and sneakers.”

Read more about Hanif here.

Information about sign-ups available soon at here (Facebook).

Date: Friday, September 25th
Time: 7:00pm – 9:00pm
Place: 200 Church

WeSLAM Community Showcase

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Giorgia Sage ’18 writes in:

Come kick off the start of the slam season with a noncompetitive
poetry event hosted by Wesleyan’s slam poetry community, WeSLAM!
Showcasing a variety of performers from all over campus, this reading
will serve as a space to welcome back poets who are already familiar
with WeSLAM’s work, and to introduce others (especially frosh) to what
we do as a group, and what we are trying to do in the future! However,
please note that this is a minuscule sampling of the range of voices,
styles, and identities present in the slam and non-slam poetry
communities of Wesleyan.

Date: Saturday, September 12th
Time: 7:00-9:00 PM
Place: WestCo Cafe

Puppets, Family, Slamily: Things Happened This Weekend

This wonderful photo completely sums up Avenue Q. We borrowed it from Andy Ribner ’14 at the Argus. 1470323_642176665834299_1848190613_n

An editor’s note from Gabe: 

Here are the events this past weekend that this post could not cover: Samsara at Crowell Concert Hall, An Intimate Party Experience at WestCo, “The Revolution of Evelyn Serrano” in Memorial Chapel, Greedy Lying Bastards at Downey, Magic Man at Art House, Chrome Sparks at Eclectic, Freestyle Rap Battle at WestCo Cafe, Stand Clear of the Closing Door, The Palm Beach Story, and Fruitvale Station at the Film Series, Feministing at PAC, Ricordati di me at Fisk, Zongo Junction at 200 Church, Wesleyan Experimental Music Festival at Russell House, Gamelan at World Music Hall, Improv Comedy Tri-Show in the Nics lounge, and probably other things. (If you want us to cover more of these things, then maybe you should think about joining the Wesleying staff. Just saying.) (Also, here’s separate coverage on Wes Thinks Big.)

On any given weekend at Wesleyan University, a lot of stuff happens. Honestly, it’s the biggest problem of my undergraduate experience that I can’t actually attend everything I’d love to. So, you see what you can and hear from other people how everything else went. 

I asked Wesleying staffers to attend one of the many theater or performance events going on this past weekend, between November 21st and November 23rd, and give them some proper coverage. These are the events they chose, and these are their observations, critiques, compliments, and impressions. If you want to take something from this post, it’s this: Leave your dorm room and attend something. It’s worth it, and the students here are damn talented. You might just enjoy yourself.