Tag Archives: weslam

EVENT
Born to Heal: The First Preliminary Poetry Slam ft. Mike Rosen

From WeSLAM: bth

you either saw or didn’t see our semester kick-off showcase and open mic, but either way you absolutely should see our first scored slam of the semester!

come see student poets perform for a spot in our grand slam (in november) and spit the realest fire you’ll hear in all of nescac, with a feature performance by WeSlam founder, Mike Rosen (’11).

weslam believes in poetry’s power to heal, change, and transform the world into a more compassionate and honest place. we hope you will join us in this mission this coming friday, as poet or audience member. either way, your company is essential and necessary.

sign-ups open at 2PM day-of (Saturday, Sept. 24) and are limited to only 10 slots, so email weslam.wesleyan@gmail.com right at 2 to sign up! if you have any questions/anxieties/concerns/speculations you can direct them there as well, or to Giorgia Sage, Lexi Slater, or Hazem Fahmy. poems do not need to be memorized, only written by you. they do not have to be slam poems and you do not have to have ever performed before!

about our feature:
Mike Rosen is a poet, performer, and educator. Best known for the viral video “When God Happens” (UpWorthy.com), Mike was named Best Male Poet at the Wade-Lewis Poetry Slam Invitational 2011, was a finalist at Rustbelt Regional Poetry Slam 2012, and has twice finished in the top ten at College Union Poetry Slam Invitational. As a student at Wesleyan University he founded the nation’s largest collegiate poetry slam, and has gone on to perform and teach internationally. His workshops focus on community building, perceptions of masculinity, and breaking down rape culture on college campuses. Recently, Mike traveled to India to meet activists, poets and teachers; he performed in several cities including a capacity crowd in Pune.

Date: Saturday, September 24
Time: 7:00-9:00 PM
Place: The Bayit (157 Church Street)

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

Giorgia 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

EVENT
The Outlast Project

The Outlast Project Poster From Michelle Fisher ’19:

Join poet-activist Rachel McKibbens for an interactive poetry event and healing arts movement designed to empower survivors of sexual assault. Following the poetry performance, there will be an art therapy and writing workshop where survivors are invited to contribute to an ongoing cross-country poem & art installation, praising their own brilliant & immutable voices.

You can read more about Rachel and the project here.

The event is open to survivors of sexual violence and all who want to help make Wes a true community of care.

The Outlast Project is being presented in conjunction with WesWell’s Sexual Health Awareness Week. Be sure to check out their other events!

Brought to you by WestCo, WeSlam, ASHA, and WesWell

Facebook Event

Date: Thursday, April 21
Time: 4:15-6:15 PM
Place: WestCo Cafe

EVENT
WeSlam presents: The Season Showcase

From 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)

EVENT
The Third Preliminary Poetry Slam ft. Crystal Valentine

From 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

EVENT
Second Preliminary Poetry Slam

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

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

EVENT
WeSLAM Community Showcase

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

EVENT
WeSLAM presents: The Big Slam ft. Jon Sands

WeSLAM’s doing it big:

Wesleyan’s THIRD ANNUAL INTERCOLLEGIATE POETRY SLAM is coming to you this Friday at 8 PM in the CFA Hall! The 2014 WeSLAM team will be competing against Oneonta and a storm team: you (and your prefrosh; bring them, too!) don’t want to miss this. Four rounds of incomprehensibly awesome poetry, a taste of the WeSLAM team doing what it does on the intercollegiate scene and the talented (and, rumor has it, ridiculously huggable) Jon Sands – why would you miss this? Show up early and guarantee yourself a seat.

Date: Friday, April 18th
Time: 8pm
Place: CFA Hall
Facebook: Get at it

FEATURED
Spring Break Trips Round-Up

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Spring Break 2014. Some went home. Some went to the beach. Some stayed on campus. And some went on spring break trips, participating in a wide variety of activities ranging from volunteering to performing to playing frisbee. Wes took the country by storm, traveling to places with exotic state birds such as the pelican, the brown thrasher, and the lark bunting. Take a look at what some of your friends were up to:

ServeUp trip to New Orleans

The Wesleyan chapter of ServeUp traveled to New Orleans to help rebuild communities and work with Katrina victims. ServeUp is a program under InterVarsity Christian Fellowship, a network of campus ministries. Stacy Uchendu ‘17 graciously educated me about their experience.

The purpose of the trip, in addition to rebuilding, was to explore the relationship between social justice and faith for Christians and non-Christians alike. Eighteen Wes students were part of a larger group of 300 university students who worked in the Lower Ninth Ward, one of the hardest-hit areas of the city. Some students built a whole house in three days for the St. Bernard Project. Others painted houses in cheerful colors to brighten up the community. A third group worked on a community garden at Our School at Blair Grocery (check it out! Blair Grocery rocks).

The students found it rewarding to work as a team and make closer friendships with their peers. They learned from the perspectives of the Lower Ninth Ward residents: it is hard to believe that nine years post-Katrina, there is still so much to rebuild. In addition, they were grateful for others’ openness to discussing faith without judgement.

Back on campus, the students hope to bring more attention to ServeUp, for people of all faiths or no faith, for those who just want to learn about social justice, or for those who want to go to NOLA.

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