Sedona Poetry Slam kicks off 18th season Saturday, Oct. 10 — on the set of “The Dead Quilters Society”

The Sedona Poetry Slam opens its 18th season on Saturday, Oct. 10, with a twist: The first slam of the year takes the stage on the set of “The Dead Quilters Society,” the play being staged at the Mary D. Fisher Theatre that weekend and the next. Performance poets will bring high-energy, competitive spoken word to the theater starting at 7:30 p.m.

Poets will compete for cash prizes on a set built for the popular Sedona historical play — a  collision of page, stage and improvised scenery that regulars say only adds to the show.

Open Slam

A poetry slam is like a series of high-energy three-minute one-person plays judged by the audience. 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 Prescott and Flagstaff competing against local poets from Sedona and Cottonwood college poets from Northern Arizona University and youth poets from Verde Valley high schools. 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.

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 — except, for this one night, the play’s own quilting-themed backdrop, which stays put. The poets are judged Olympics-style by five members of the audience selected at random at the beginning of the slam.

Email host Christopher Fox Graham at foxthepoet@yahoo.com to sign up early to compete or by the Friday before the slam or sign up 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.

Tickets and Venue

The Mary D. Fisher Theatre is located at 2030 W. SR 89A Suite A-3 in West Sedona. Tickets are $12 in advance or $15 at the door. For tickets call 928-282-1177 or visit SedonaFilmFestival.org.

Upcoming Slams

The next poetry slams will be held on Saturdays, Dec. 5 at the Alice Gill-Sheldon Theatre, and Feb. 13, March 6, April 17 and May 22 at the Mary D. Fisher Theatre.

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

For more information visit sedonafilmfestival.com or foxthepoet.blogspot.com. For a full list of slam poetry events in Arizona visit azpoet.com or the Arizona State Poetry Society at azpoetry.net..

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 Simmons’ 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.

"They Held Hands" for the 200 people who jumped or fell to the deaths from the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001.

"They Held Hands"

By Christopher Fox Graham

For the 200 people who jumped or fell to the deaths
from the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001.

On a commonplace Tuesday morning,
not unlike that Sunday morning
60 years before, destined for infamy
they held hands as they fell

It was a working Tuesday
a date on the calendar
a morning like the morning before
but now they found themselves
standing on the window sill
of the 92nd floor
overlooking the city
and they felt weightless

They were not thinking
about the cause-and-effect history
of textbooks and CNN sound bytes
they weren’t debating the geopolitical ramifications leading up to that morning
he had decaf
she had a bearclaw and an espresso
and they talked about Will & Grace

jets impregnated buildings with infernos
and now the fire was burning
and the smoke was rising
and it was getting hard to breathe
even after they smashed the window out
the inferno was swelling
it had reached their floor
their stairwells were gone
and the options now
were to burn
or to fall

when the human animal realizes death is inevitable

psychologists say we want control

over those final moments

choosing suicide over surrender is a healthy reaction

because we choose to accept annihilation

rather than letting it choose us

So on one side

is unbearable heat

roaring flames

acrid smoke

and screams of the suffering

On the other side

fresh air

suicide is the final act of free will
that keeps the consciousness intact
even as it is destroyed

but they were not thinking about psychology

they were not thinking about terrorism

the debate about responsibility,

retalaiation,

wars, flags, and Patriot Acts

can wait until September 12th

this morning belongs to them
because they did not have a tomorrow
the true terror of that morning
is to know what they were thinking
as they decided then whether
to burn
or to fall
now, imagine having that conversation
with the stranger
sitting next to you:

The barricade at the door is on fire

the extinguisher is empty

we are blinded by the smoke

and on the windowsill of the 92nd floor

we wait until flames lick our clothes

before we lean forward

and choose that moment to fall

others who fell were scrambling

or screaming or on fire

but we held hands as we fell

survivors of falls from extreme heights report

that falls are slow-motion transcendence

and the experience is almost “mystical”

I don’t know if they felt “mystical”

I know it takes

1 …

2 …

3 …

4 …

5 …

6 …

7 …

8.54 seconds to fall 1,144 feet

just enough time to say a prayer

or regret a memory

or ask forgiveness

or say goodbye

or wonder how the sky 

can be so perfectly blue

on such a beautiful morning

"The Falling Man" by Richard Drew/Associated Press