"Hell" by Thomas Cooper

Thomas Cooper performing "Hell" at The Rebel Lounge in Phoenix, on March 9, 2022.

Ghost Poetry Show is committed to creating a community of writers from the greater Phoenix area (and beyond) to share their work on stage. We take pride in having poets that have never performed their work in front of anyone, all the way up to poets that have competed at the national level. No matter gender, race, religion, ethnicity, sexual orientation, or age anyone can take the stage and compete in the three round poetry slam. 

"Mollycoddled" by Civil

Civil performing "Mollycoddled" at The Rebel Lounge in Phoenix, on Feb 16, 2022.

Ghost Poetry Show is committed to creating a community of writers from the greater Phoenix area (and beyond) to share their work on stage. We take pride in having poets that have never performed their work in front of anyone, all the way up to poets that have competed at the national level. No matter gender, race, religion, ethnicity, sexual orientation, or age anyone can take the stage and compete in the three round poetry slam.

"At Least That Way You Can Stay" by Emily Comstock

Emily Comstock performing "At Least That Way You Can Stay" at The Rebel Lounge in Phoenix, on March 9, 2022.

Ghost Poetry Show is committed to creating a community of writers from the greater Phoenix area (and beyond) to share their work on stage. We take pride in having poets that have never performed their work in front of anyone, all the way up to poets that have competed at the national level. No matter gender, race, religion, ethnicity, sexual orientation, or age anyone can take the stage and compete in the three round poetry slam.

Christian Perfas aka Soul Stuf features at the Sedona Poetry Slam on Saturday, Jan. 28

 With 2022 in the rearview and 2023 underway, the Sedona Poetry Slam enters its 15th year of performance poets bringing high-energy, competitive spoken word to the Mary D. Fisher Theatre starting at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 28.

Between rounds, Los Angeles area slam poet Christian Perfas will perform a featured set.

Open Slam 

A poetry slam is like a series of high-energy, three-minute one-person plays, judged by the audience. Anyone can sign up to compete in the slam for the $75 grand prize and $25 second-place prize. To compete in the slam, poets will need three original poems, each lasting no longer than three minutes. No props, costumes nor musical accompaniment are permitted. The poets are judged Olympics-style by five members of the audience selected at random at the beginning of the slam.

Slam poetry is an art form that allows written page poets to share their work alongside theatrical performers, hip-hop artists and lyricists. Poets come from as far away as Phoenix, Tucson and Flagstaff, competing against adult poets from Sedona and Cottonwood, college poets from Northern Arizona University and youth poets from Sedona Red Rock High School. All types of poetry are welcome on the stage, from street-wise hip-hop and narrative performance poems, to political rants and introspective confessionals. Any poem is a "slam" poem if performed in a competition. All poets get three minutes per round to entertain and inspire the audience with their creativity.

Mary D. Fisher Theatre is located at 2030 W. SR 89A, Suite A-3, in West Sedona. Tickets are $12. For tickets, call 282-1177 or visit SedonaFilmFestival.org.

The next poetry slam of the season will be held Saturday, April 1, in conjunction with the Northern Arizona Book Festival. The last slam of the season will be on Saturday, May 13, in 2023.

The prize money is funded in part by a donation from Verde Valley poetry supporters Jeanne and Jim Freeland.

Email foxthepoet@yahoo.com to sign up early to compete or by the Friday before the slam or at the door the day of the slam. Poets who want to compete should purchase a ticket in case the roster is filled before they arrive. 

For more information, visit sedonafilmfestival.com or foxthepoet.blogspot.com.

Christian Perfas

Christian Perfas, known by the stage name Soul Stuf, is a second generation Filipino-American spoken word artist based in the greater Los Angeles area. 

His work addresses a wide range of themes, from the seemingly mundane to the heart-wrenchingly familiar, such as youth, self-discovery and intersectional identity. 

Perfas has performed all across the country, from San Diego to Boston and was ranked in the "Top 25 Poets of the World" in the Individual World Poetry Slam of 2018. 

Featuring at Da Poetry Lounge, All Def Digital, House of Blues Anaheim, The Comedy Store, Electric Forest Festival and The Ghost Poetry Show in Phoenix, Soul Stuf is a consummate professional and all-around showman. 

His first officially published book, "Play: A Reclamation Of Soul" is now available for sale in person and online, along with a poetry EP in collaboration with Fictitious Professor. 

What is Poetry Slam? 

Founded at the Green Mill Tavern in Chicago in 1984 by Marc Smith, poetry slam is a competitive artistic sport designed to get people who would otherwise never go to a poetry reading excited about the art form when it becomes a high-energy competition. Poetry slams are judged by five randomly chosen members of the audience who assign numerical value to individual poets' contents and performances.

Poetry slam has become an international artistic sport, with more than 100 major poetry slams in the United States, Canada, Australia and Western Europe. Slam poets have opened at the Winter Olympics, performed at the White House and at the United Nations General Assembly and were featured on "Russell Simmon's Def Poets" on HBO.

Sedona has sent four-poet teams to represent the city at the National Poetry Slam in Charlotte, N.C., Boston, Cambridge, Mass., Oakland, Calif., Decatur, Ga., Denver and Chicago.

"See No Evil Hear No Evil Speak No Evil" by Raad Syed

Raad Syed performing "See No Evil Hear No Evil Speak No Evil" at The Rebel Lounge in Phoenix, on March 9, 2022.

Ghost Poetry Show is committed to creating a community of writers from the greater Phoenix area (and beyond) to share their work on stage. We take pride in having poets that have never performed their work in front of anyone, all the way up to poets that have competed at the national level. No matter gender, race, religion, ethnicity, sexual orientation, or age anyone can take the stage and compete in the three round poetry slam.

Oak Creek flooding north of Sedona at Rainbow Trout Farm on Jan. 1, 2023

 

Oak Creek at the Rainbow Trout Farm and Rainbow Mobile Home Park in Oak Creek Canyon around 4:45 p.m. On Sunday, Jan, 1, 2023. Athena and I went for a drive to see snow and I shot this on the errand. 

The low-water bridge between State Route 89A and the Rainbow Trout Farm area is completely submerged. 

Oak Creek has its headquarters in Oak Creek Canyon, then flows through Sedona to the confluence with the Verde River between Cottonwood and Camp Verde in the Verde Valley of Northern Arizona. The Verde then flows south to the Salt River, into the Gila River and finally the Colorado River before emptying into the Sea of Cortez.

I also posted this to the Larson Newspapers YouTube page

"A Tree Story" by Seth Walker

Seth Walker performing "A Tree Story" at The Rebel Lounge in Phoenix, on Sept. 28, 2022.

Ghost Poetry Show is committed to creating a community of writers from the greater Phoenix area (and beyond) to share their work on stage. We take pride in having poets that have never performed their work in front of anyone, all the way up to poets that have competed at the national level. No matter gender, race, religion, ethnicity, sexual orientation, or age anyone can take the stage and compete in the three round poetry slam.

Seth Walker

I've known Seth for well over a decade, but we bonded with a host of other poets who survived the Desert Rocks Music Fest 2012. It's a long, dusty story ....

Starting a career as Houston, Texas’ premiere national poet and Grand Slam Champion of 2007, Seth Walker has earned titles in nearly every state in America. 

In November 2007 Seth Walker was Houston’s premiere national poet and had just claimed Grand Slam Champion, he then left Houston to follow his art and travel across the country to find it…

Since then Seth has performed at nearly every major venue in the country including Da Poetry Lounge in Hollywood, Calif., The Green Mill in Chicago and The Nuyorican in New York City. Along the way he won several noteworthy titles such as: Slam Champion of the Utah State Arts Fair Poetry Slam (2009), North Beast Indie Slam Champion (North-Eastern Regional 2010), slamming with the 2010 Austin Poetry Slam Team, as well as as slamming with Denver’s Slam NUBA in 2012.

While traveling with rotating national artists, this notorious “road dog” poet traveled 10 to 11 months out of the year, dedicating his art to whomever he meets. In 2012 he took 1st place for Denver’s famous Cafe NUBA at the iWPS competition, making Seth Walker their Individual World Poetry Slam Champion for 2012. Seth has been teaching and working with the Beyond Academia Free Skool since its beginning in 2012.

“Neobeat slam poet Seth Walker’s words were a perfect counterpoint to the message at hand. With lyrics that celebrated triumph of the spirit over the degradation of life circumstances, Walker engaged the audience and, hopefully, galvanized them to take up the cause even after the show was over,” wrote Melonie Magruder in The Malibu Times in Malibu, Calif.

“Floating above the seas of disposable ideas and so-called “news” presented by supposed “Fair and Balanced” hucksters, Seth Walker brings it real, raw and unrelentingly. His spoken word is emotional but not over-wrought; to the point but not simplistic. Seth Walker is a walkabout version of the evening news. In a world of false messengers, Seth is the real thing” wrote Kenn Rodriguez a National Poetry Slam Champion (2005)