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FEBRUARY 2007
First Ever North West Youth Poetry SLAM
Bluebell Arts, in association with the Northern Ireland Arts Council,
invites all poets aged between 15 - 24 years to the First Ever North
West Youth Poetry SLAM in the café area of the Gasyard Centre,
Lecky Road, Derry on Friday 9th February at 7pm From 2:30pm - 5:30pm,
the same day, poetry contributions, Writing on the Wall, are also
being sought to be included on The Poets’ Corner
This exciting, highly entertaining SLAM and the Writing on the
Wall event will be facilitated by the Poetry Chicks: Pamela Brown,
Jenni Doherty and Abby Oliveira - themselves no strangers to either
event. Abby is the current holder of the CAF Belfast Poetry Cup
2006 with Pamela as runner-up and Jenni represented Brisbane in
the Queensland Slam in Australia last summer.
The Poet’s Corner, a wall adjacent to the Gasyard Centre,
already has a selection of poetry from local teenagers and Primary
School children on view to the public.
SLAM Poetry was created in 1985 by Chicago native, Marc Kelly Smith,
and initially involved two poets dueling against one another by
performing their poetry. This has quickly evolved into a popular
worldwide competitive knockout style event whereby all participants
read/recite their work, and are awarded points ranging from 0-10
by a panel of judges, often with the lowest and highest scores being
disregarded.
Pamela has been holding a series of successful performance poetry
workshops for young people, at the centre, in order to help them
prepare for the upcoming SLAM. She said: “Importance is not
just placed on the actual poem, but also on the actual style and
strength of the deliver of the poem with the audience’s reactions
as much a part of the performance and judging. There is no restriction
in terms of content, which can range from political to comedic or
from something very personal to an observation of sorts but all
work has to be the writer’s own. At the Gasyard SLAM, each
performer will be given a limit of two minutes each with a ten second
grace period to perform their poem. There will be two rounds to
determine the winners and cash prizes will be awarded to the top
three poets.”
There are currently a few places left on the workshops and this
is an ideal opportunity for interested participants to polish both
their poems and performance as well as meet other competitors before
the SLAM.
To avoid disappointment, please reserve a place A.S.A.P. by contacting
Jim Collins of Bluebell Arts, on Tel:
028 -71-262812 (or 048-71 from the ROI)
The Poetry Chicks will be available from 2:30pm - 5:30pm in the
Gasyard Café on Friday 9th Feb to assist and advise all those
willing to take part.
For more information, or just to register your interest, please
contact the
Poetry Chicks by sending an email to: info@poetrychicks.com
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