This is the official blog of Northern Arizona slam poet Christopher Fox Graham. Begun in 2002, and transferred to blogspot in 2006, FoxTheBlog has recorded more than 670,000 hits since 2009. This blog cover's Graham's poetry, the Arizona poetry slam community and offers tips for slam poets from sources around the Internet. Read CFG's full biography here. Looking for just that one poem? You know the one ... click here to find it.
Showing posts with label Ed Mabrey. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Ed Mabrey. Show all posts

Wednesday, October 29, 2014

"Juno Se Mama (Open Letter to the People of Darfur)" by Ed Mabrey



Ed Mabrey is
  • Three-time Individual World Poetry Slam Champion (2007, 2012, tied in 2013)
  • National Poetry Slam Team Finalist
  • Individual National Poetry Slam Finalist
  • 3 Time Lake Eden Arts Festival Champion
  • Featured performer on Season 3 of Verses and Flow (brought to you by Lexus on TV One)
  • Two-time Feature on HBO All Def Digital
  • Emmy Nominee (MOW-Fox/ABC)
  • Three-time National Haiku Slam Champion
  • Ohio Arts Council Poet of the Year
  • National Best Selling Author (Contributor)
  • Eight poetry albums recorded
  • Performances seen on several continents
  • Tour professionally
  • One of the most sought-after performers and workshop teachers in the country

Visit www.EdMabrey.com


The Save Darfur Coalition


In September 2004, President George W. Bush declared the crisis in Darfur “genocide” — the first time a sitting American president had made such a declaration regarding a crisis that was still ongoing.

Despite the world’s growing outcry, however, the violence persists in Darfur and the number of dead and displaced continues to increase.

Currently, as many as 3 million people have been displaced within Darfur, with an estimated 263,000 refugees living across the border in Chad.

Overall, the UN estimates that more than 3.2 million people in Darfur (out of a total population of roughly 7.5 million) are still affected by the conflict.

On September 9, 2004, U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell declared the conflict in Darfur genocide. This was the first time the U.S. had ever declared genocide while the genocide was still occurring.
  • The genocide in Darfur has claimed 300,000 lives and displaced over 3 million people.
  • 3.2 million people, more than a third of Darfur’s population, remain in need of humanitarian assistance
  • More than 300,000 people have been displaced by violence in 2013

Saturday, June 4, 2011

"This Country: When You Tire of Travels, Come Home" audio recording

This Country: When You Tire of Travels, Come Home by FoxThePoet

This Country:
When You Tire of Travels, Come Home

when your feet grow tired of globetrotting
and all the monuments to forgotten kings
have blurred into obscurity


when your shoulders ache
from carrying your whole world tortoise-style
from one rest-stop lover to another


when you’ve heard all the foreign tongues
repeat the same stories for the last time
and you’ve grown tired of translating


when your shoes have fallen apart
unable to martyr their soles
for your hobo evangelism …

come home
this country still longs for your sunrise
its geography is easy to map:

to the East lie my arms
curling inward to hold back time
their digits stretch northward
ten fingertips on separate crusades to find you
they unite only to pen poems about
the futility of kidnapping you across the borders
back into the caverns of my chest
overwhelming vacant since you stole its last inhabitant
which you unraveled the way Hansel and Gretel taught
to fashion a string to trace your route back here
these cave walls still shudder with your laughter
turning ribs into organ pipes
I play in dreams to orchestrate your reconquest
fool my yearning that you are only a hitchhiker’s thumb
and an hour from my doorstep —
a lie, but at least I can sleep through the night
without filling the hollow in my bed with my wailing
instead, try to keep it warm for you

to the South
are mountains of memories
impossible to scale without oxygen and a Nepalese Sherpa
they stretch to the clouds and in winter, blot out the sun
I chip at them with a pick axe of ink
take the pieces home to an orange juicer
attempt to squeeze out story after story
told in Homeric fashion
the gods of Olympus jealously dwarfed in the shadows
find their epics insufficient
Odysseus, Gilgamesh and Arjuna
camp in the foothills unable to scale you
talk about the good old days
when there wasn’t so much poetry in which to live
on the cliff sides I hunt for the road trips
the afternoon siestas
the midnight embraces
the slow Sunday mornings
for new word wombs
new poems to trap, take home, raise to maturity
and release back into the wild
for the world to see how you changed this boy
I will climb them as long as a pulse thumps me into movement

to the North is an ocean of your words
tide pools of sentences
waves of your stories
tsunamis of our arguments
to wash over any fool who braves to sail them
on maps print the words, “Here Be Dragons”
and I’m never sure which will swamp my boat
or carry me home
white-tip arrogance soothed by Sargasso Sea gentle honesty
choppy squalls when I lost myself to ego
pleas for forgiveness offered on Yom Kippur
all the poems over the phone blowing lost sailors to safe ports
someday when I have outlived you
I foresee abandoning shoes,
gripping frail hands on armrests,
rising from wheelchair
striping down to unflattering Speedo
and walking into these waves to drown
up to my ears in the waters of your laughter
filling my lungs with drops of your whispers

in the center is a house of paper
naked 8½ by 11s begging to be bathed in black ink
the first 30 stories are made of rough drafts
in preparation to meet you
the upper stories will be built to celebrate you
and when I reach my 90s
the tower will collapse with the weight
spreading the pages across this county
Billy Collins keeps an apartment across the hall from Derrick Brown
they meet in the lounge with Shane Koyczan and Ed Mabrey
have coffee on Sundays with R.C. Weslowski and Mike McGee,
each reading a new ode to you
they found that week on the cabinet
under the sink or behind the door
banisters Bill Campana will jot haiku from
window frames slam poems Klute will read aloud after bagels
dueling in rhyme with Shappy Seasholtz
sonnets on fireplaces Dan Seaman and Mikel Weisser will read in tandem
on weekends, CR Avery, Scott Dunbar and Lights
will play the ballroom made of canvasses
echoing through the vents all week long
on the upper floors
poets yet unborn ready to join to the conversation
there is room here
for whomever you choose to fill the house with
forgive the flesh of this man
for being made of flawed skin unedited
he knew not what he did
you always liked me better on paper anyway


to the West is an open country
as far as the eye can see
lie no walls nor borders
no future beyond what we make of it,
without a horizon to fall over
sunsets are unimaginable,
the land yearns for your footfalls
and I will chase you across it
until these feet break beneath me
never ask if it was all for naught
until you have seen the country you built here
the boy you reshaped who lives out in the open
uncertain of where to go now
penning poems from dawn to dusk
dreaming of your open arms
reading them to anyone who’ll listen


when you tire of travels
when you need shelter to rest weary limbs
when you want to see a boy left better
than the one you first met
this country is wherever you choose to meet me
ready to welcome you home


Written Sept. 28, 2010, a year to the day after meeting Azami.

Tuesday, September 28, 2010

This Country

when your feet grow tired of globetrotting
and all the monuments to forgotten kings
have blurred into obscurity


when your shoulders ache
from carrying your whole world tortoise-style
from one rest-stop lover to another


when you’ve heard all the foreign tongues
repeat the same stories for the last time
and you’ve grown tired of translating


when your shoes have fallen apart
unable to martyr their soles
for your hobo evangelism …


come home
this country still longs for your sunrise
its geography is easy to map:


to the East lie my arms
curling inward to hold back time
their digits stretch northward
ten fingertips on separate crusades to find you
they unite only to pen poems about
the futility of kidnapping you across the borders
back into the caverns of my chest
overwhelming vacant since you stole its last inhabitant
which you unraveled the way Hansel and Gretel taught
to fashion a string to trace your route back here
these cave walls still shudder with your laughter
turning ribs into organ pipes
I play in dreams to orchestrate your reconquest
fool my yearning that you are only a hitchhiker’s thumb
and an hour from my doorstep —
a lie, but at least I can sleep through the night
without filling the hollow in my bed with my wailing
instead, try to keep it warm for you


to the South
are mountains of memories
impossible to scale without oxygen and a Nepalese Sherpa
they stretch to the clouds and in winter, blot out the sun
I chip at them with a pick axe of ink
take the pieces home to an orange juicer
attempt to squeeze out story after story
told in Homeric fashion
the gods of Olympus jealously dwarfed in the shadows
find their epics insufficient
Odysseus, Gilgamesh and Arjuna
camp in the foothills unable to scale you
talk about the good old days
when there wasn’t so much poetry in which to live
on the cliff sides I hunt for the road trips
the afternoon siestas
the midnight embraces
the slow Sunday mornings
for new word wombs
new poems to trap, take home, raise to maturity
and release back into the wild
for the world to see how you changed this boy
I will climb them as long as a pulse thumps me into movement


to the North is an ocean of your words
tide pools of sentences
waves of your stories
tsunamis of our arguments
to wash over any fool who braves to sail them
on maps print the words, “Here Be Dragons”
and I’m never sure which will swamp my boat
or carry me home
white-tip arrogance soothed by Sargasso Sea gentle honesty
choppy squalls when I lost myself to ego
pleas for forgiveness offered on Yom Kippur
all the poems over the phone blowing lost sailors to safe ports
someday when I have outlived you
I foresee abandoning shoes,
gripping frail hands on armrests,
rising from wheelchair
striping down to unflattering Speedo
and walking into these waves to drown
up to my ears in the waters of your laughter
filling my lungs with drops of your whispers


in the center is a house of paper
naked 8½ by 11s begging to be bathed in black ink
the first 30 stories are made of rough drafts
in preparation to meet you
the upper stories will be built to celebrate you
and when I reach my 90s
the tower will collapse with the weight
spreading the pages across this county
Billy Collins keeps an apartment across the hall from Derrick Brown
they meet in the lounge with Shane Koyczan and Ed Mabrey
have coffee on Sundays with R.C. Weslowski and Mike McGee,
each reading a new ode to you
they found that week on the cabinet
under the sink or behind the door
banisters Bill Campana will jot haiku from
window frames slam poems Klute will read aloud after bagels
dueling in rhyme with Shappy Seasholtz
sonnets on fireplaces Dan Seaman and Mikel Weisser will read in tandem
on weekends, CR Avery, Scott Dunbar and Lights
will play the ballroom made of canvasses
echoing through the vents all week long
on the upper floors
poets yet unborn ready to join to the conversation
there is room here
for whomever you choose to fill the house with
forgive the flesh of this man
for being made of flawed skin unedited
he knew not what he did
you always liked me better on paper anyway


to the West is an open country
as far as the eye can see
lie no walls nor borders
no future beyond what we make of it,
without a horizon to fall over
sunsets are unimaginable,
the land yearns for your footfalls
and I will chase you across it
until these feet break beneath me
never ask if it was all for naught
until you have seen the country you built here
the boy you reshaped who lives out in the open
uncertain of where to go now
penning poems from dawn to dusk
dreaming of your open arms
reading them to anyone who’ll listen


when you tire of travels
when you need shelter to rest weary limbs
when you want to see a boy left better
than the one you first met
this country is wherever you choose to meet me
ready to welcome you home


I met Azami on Sept. 28, 2009. How my life has changed over the last 12 months.

Saturday, September 19, 2009

Ed Mabrey video, Sedona Poetry Slam round 3


Ed Mabrey is a two-time Haiku National Slam Champion and 2007-2008 Individual World Poetry Slam Champion.
He has been a member of and coached several winning Rust Belt Regional Poetry Slam Teams out of Columbus, Ohio. Mabrey has released two books, "From the Page to the Stage and Back Again" to critical acclaim and "Revoked:My GhettoPass(ivity)" which was a limited release item.Maybrey has released two CDs of his own work, and has been on projects with other artists and DJs.

He is the founder of Black Pearl Poetry based in Phoenix.

Friday, September 18, 2009

Ed Mabrey video, Sedona Poetry Slam round 2


This poem was my particular favorite at this slam because of its lyricism, because it captures our seemingly futile despiration to halt genocide despite seeing it and because my mother was in the audience. I almost imagined he was writing it about her because she sometimes still scares the bejeezus out of me.

Ed Mabrey is a two-time Haiku National Slam Champion and 2007-2008 Individual World Poetry Slam Champion.
He has been a member of and coached several winning Rust Belt Regional Poetry Slam Teams out of Columbus, Ohio. Mabrey has released two books, "From the Page to the Stage and Back Again" to critical acclaim and "Revoked:My GhettoPass(ivity)" which was a limited release item.Maybrey has released two CDs of his own work, and has been on projects with other artists and DJs.

He is the founder of Black Pearl Poetry based in Phoenix.

Monday, September 14, 2009

Ed Mabrey video, Sedona Poetry Slam round 1


Ed Mabrey is a two-time Haiku National Slam Champion and 2007-2008 Individual World Poetry Slam Champion.
He has been a member of and coached several winning Rust Belt Regional Poetry Slam Teams out of Columbus, Ohio. Mabrey has released two books, "From the Page to the Stage and Back Again" to critical acclaim and "Revoked:My GhettoPass(ivity)" which was a limited release item.Maybrey has released two CDs of his own work, and has been on projects with other artists and DJs.

He is the founder of Black Pearl Poetry based in Phoenix,
Sedona Poetry Slam, Round #1, Poet #2

Friday, August 7, 2009

Phoenix National Poetry Slam Team's Semi-Final Bout at NPS

The Phoenix National Poetry Slam Team will compete in the semi-final bout at The Lounge in West Palm Beach, Fla., at 8 p.m., Eastern Time.

The slam will open with the WoWPS Showcase, featuring four poets:
Ocean, from SlamCharlotte, T. Miller, from Detroit, Queen Sheba, from SlamCharlotte, and Jude Fageas, from Slam Nuatl.

The Phoenix National Poetry Slam Team includes NORAZ Poets alumnus Aaron Johnson, left, The Klute, Ed Mabrey and Myrlin Hepworth. Break a leg.

The Bout:
Phoenix Downtown (16th)

Oklahoma City's IAO Wayward Slam (2nd)
Albuquerque's ABQ Slam (7th)
Atlanta's Java Monkey (10th)
Philadelphia's The Fuze (19th)

The bout will be hosted by Seth Walker and bout managed by Sean McGarrigle and one of my favorite Texas poets, Bob "Whoopeecat" Stephenson (on his motorcycle at the 2005 National Poetry Slam in Albuquerque, N.M.)

Two Arizona Poetry Slam Teams Make Semis

Two of Arizona's four teams are going to the National Poetry Slam's semi-finals.

The Phoenix National Poetry Slam Team (NORAZ Poets alumnus Aaron Johnson, left, The Klute, Ed Mabrey and Myrlin Hepworth) came in at 16th place after winning their first bout Wednesday night and taking second place in their second bout on Thursday night.

In similar fashion, the Flagstaff National Poetry Slam team of Frank O'Brien (left), Brown, Antranormus, John Cartier and Jessica Guadarrama came in at 17th place after winning their first bout Tuesday night and taking second place in their second bout on Wednesday night (Thursday was a bye-day).

Flagstaff came in 0.9 points behind Phoenix in the competition in terms of total points scored.
Mathematically, while two teams from the same state often make semi-finals but the chance of them coming in so close is a statistical improbably.

As both three of the FlagSlam kids and Phoenix's Ed Mabrey competed in the last Sedona Slam on Friday, July 17, I would like to take complete credit for this highly unusual mathematical anomaly and dub it the "CFG Effect." Again, this is for no good reason whatsoever.

In my previous blog post on 8/5/09, I stated: "I predict that by the end of tonight, FlagSlam will be between 12th and 18th place, but no lower and perhaps a little higher."

In any case, the top 20 teams, which include both Phoenix and Flagstaff, are now headed to semi-finals. *This is the first time since 2005 that an Arizona team has made semi-finals (Mesa in 2000 and 2005, Tempe made it in 2007 but was disqualified before reaching the stage) and the first time ever that two Arizona teams have gone.*

Arizona now has a 20% chance of seeing one of its teams on the finals stage and a 4% chance of seeing them both.

Congratulations, good luck and break a leg to both teams. I want to see one of you on that stage on Saturday night.

Place, Slam Team, First Bout, Second Bout, Final Score
Rank 2 Teams:
1st Denver's Mercury Café: 115.5 (1), 116.5 (1), 232.0
2nd IAO Wayward Slam: 112.6 (1), 114.7 (1), 227.3
3rd Minneapolis' Soapboxing: 115.1 (1), 111.5 (1), 226.6
4th NYC's Nuyorican Poets Cafe: 107.8 (1), 116.2 (1), 224.0
5th Hawaii Slam: 114.4 (1), 108.5 (1), 222.9
6th Oakland Poetry Slam: 113.1 (1), 106.0 (1), 219.1


Rank 3 Teams:
7th Albuquerque's ABQ Slams: 114.9 (2), 115.8 (1), 230.7
8th Killeen Poetry Slam: 113.7 (1), 115.0 (2), 228.7
8th Slam Nuba: 111.1 (2), 117.6 (1), 228.7
10th Java Monkey: 116.3 (1), 112.1 (2), 228.4
11th Urbana: 114.8 (2), 110.8 (1), 225.6
12th Austin Poetry Slam: 118.3 (1), 107.2 (2), 225.5
13th LionLike MIndState Slam: 107.9 (2), 116.9 (1), 224.8
14th Orlando Poetry Slam: 112.7 (1), 109.5 (2), 222.2
15th New Jersey's Loser Slam: 113.1 (1), 107.8 (2), 220.9 (withdrew from semi-finals so they could compete in the Group Slam)

16th Phoenix Downtown: 104.8 (1), 113.6 (2), 218.4
17th Flagslam: 106.5 (1), 111.0 (2), 217.5


Rank 4 Teams going onto semi-finals:
18th San Francisco's The City Slam: 117.8 (1), 112.4 (3), 230.2
19th The Fuze: 112.4 (2), 115.6 (2), 228.0
20th Neo Soul: 116.4 (3), 111.3 (1), 227.7
21st Milwaukee Poetry Slam: 107.3 (1), 116.0 (3), 223.3


- - - - -

Rank 4 Teams not going onto semi-finals:
22nd Cantab: 105.1 (2), 116.5 (2), 221.6
23rd SlamRichmond: 113.6 (1), 107.9 (3), 221.5
24th Seattle Poetry Slam: 107.4 (2), 113.3 (2), 220.7
25th San Diego Poetry Slam: 105.4 (3), 114.0 (1), 219.4
26th Echoverse Poetry Slam: 106.3 (2), 110.7 (2), 217.0
27th Writing Wrongs Poetry Slam: 105.0 (3), 108.0 (1), 213.0
28th Lizzard Lounge Poetry Slam: 102.5 (2), 109.8 (2), 212.3
29th Hampshire Co Slam Collective: 109.5 (1), 99.2 (3), 208.7


Rank 5 Teams
30th Forth Worth Poetry Slam: 111.4 (2), 117.2 (3), 228.6
31st Berkeley: 111.4 (4), 116.3 (1), 227.7
32nd SlamCharlotte: 112.8 (2), 112.5 (3), 225.3
33rd Dallas Poetry Grind: 105.0 (3), 118.0 (2), 223.0
34th Dallas Poetry Slam: 106.1 (2), 115.2 (3), 221.3
35th Slam Free or Die: 107.6 (3), 112.0 (2), 219.6
36th Life Sentence Slam: 111.3 (3), 107.0 (2), 218.3
37th Providence: 106.0 (2), 110.4 (3), 216.4
38th DCSlam: 111.6 (2), 104.5 (3), 216.1
39th The Stage: 97.0 (4), 116.6 (1), 213.6
40th Toronto Poetry Slam: 101.6 (4), 111.7 (1), 213.3
41st Slam Nahuatl: 105.7 (3), 104.3 (2), 210.0
42nd Young Chicago Authors: 109.5 (1), 91.1 (4), Disqualified


Rank 6 Teams
43rd Art Amok: 113.5 (2), 115.1 (4), 228.6 44th Writers Block: 110.9 (3), 114.5 (3), 225.4 45th Eclectic Truth Poetry SLam: 104.5 (4), 116.3 (2), 220.8 46th Mental Graffiti: 111.3 (2), 109.0 (4), 220.3 47th Durham-Bull City Slam: 105.3 (4), 113.1 (2), 218.4 48th Boise Poetry Slam: 108.9 (3), 109.1 (3), 218.0 49th Worcester Poets Asylum: 109.0 (3), 108.1 (3), 217.1 50th Omaha Healing Arts Poetry Slam: 105.4 (3), 110.9 (3), 216.3

Rank 7 Teams
51st Respect Da Mic: 109.1 (4), 110.0 (3), 219.1
52nd Vancouver Poetry SLam: 109.5 (3), 108.6 (4), 218.1
53rd Tucson's Ocotillo Poetry Slam: 110.8 (3), 107.1 (4), 217.9
54th Paris: 107.1 (4), 109.8 (3), 216.9
55th Salt City Slam: 109.5 (4), 105.3 (3), 214.8
56th Slamarillo: 106.7 (3), 104.8 (4), 211.5
57th Second Tuesday Slam: 104.6 (4), 106.3 (3), 210.9
58th Houston Poetry Slam: 101.6 (3), 108.6 (4), 210.2
59th Lincoln: 98.6 (3), 108.1 (4), 206.7
60th Montevallo: 102.0 (4), 101.3 (3), 203.3


Rank 8 Teams
61st SlamMN: 116.7 (4), 106.0 (4), 222.7
62nd San Jose Poetry Slam: 107.6 (4), 112.9 (4), 220.5
63rd Puro Slam: 114.8 (4), 102.0 (4), 216.8
64th Ozark Poetry SLam: 108.8 (4), 104.0 (4), 212.8
65th St. Louis Poetry Slam: 106.6 (4), 103.1 (4), 209.7
66th Mesa Slam: 101.9 (4), 100.1 (4), 202.0
67th Madison Poetry Slam: 96.2 (4), 100.4 (4), 196.6
68th Kalamazoo: 85.2 (4), 98.2 (4), 183.4


*Correction as advised by The Klute. Thanks.

Saturday, July 18, 2009

Results from the Sedona Poetry Slam

Results from the Sedona Poetry Slam

Friday, July 17, 2009, Studio Live, Sedona, Arizona, 7:30 p.m.

Calibration poet and host Christopher Fox Graham, "To the Girl Riding Shotgun"

Round 1
Mikel Weisser, 26.5 (1:55)
Ed Mabrey, 29.3 (3:08)
Markus Eye, 24.5 (1:04)
Gary Every, 27.5 (1:55)
Frank O'Brien, 27.4 (2:40)
Wendy Davis, 26.4 (3:02)
Norberto Cisneros, 24.3 after -2.0 time penalty (3:49)
Ryan Brown, 29.9 (3:05)
Maple Dewleaf, 27.9 (2:00)
Antranormus, 28.1 (2:13)
Jack the Mick, 28.0 (2:48)
---intermission---

Sorbet poet and host Christopher Fox Graham "We Call Him Papa"

Round 2
Jack the Mick, 27.2 (2:38), 55.2
Antranormus, 28.1 (2:27), 56.2
Maple Dewleaf, 28.4 (1:32), 56.3
Ryan Brown, 29.8 (3:03), 59.7
Norberto Cisneros, 27.9 (3:02), 52.2
Wendy Davis, 23.6 after -5.0 time penalty (4:49), 50.0
Frank O'Brien, 29.7 (2:37), 57.1
Gary Every, 28.6 (2:53), 56.1
Markus Eye, 25.4 (0:42), 49.9
Ed Mabrey, 30.0 (2:56), 59.3
Mikel Weisser, 29.6 (2:28), 56.1

Sorbet poet Nika Levikov, "My Country"

Round 3
Ryan Brown, 29.3 after -0.5 time penalty (3:13), 89.0
Ed Mabrey, 29.5 after -0.5 time penalty (3:16), 88.8
Frank O'Brien, 57.1 (30:0), 87.1
Maple Dewleaf, 29.8 (1:49), 86.1
Antranormus, 29.4 (2:30), 85.6
Gary Every, 28.6 (2:12), 84.7
Mikel Weisser, 28.0 (2:48), 84.1
Jack the Mick, 29.0 (1:28), 84.2
Norberto Cisneros, 28.3 (2:03), 80.5
Wendy Davis, 26.8 after -2.0 time penalty (3:41), 76.8
Markus Eye, 25.5 (1:35), 75.4

Final scores
1st: Ryan Brown, 89.0, $50

2nd: Ed Mabrey, 88.8

3rd: Frank O'Brien, 87.1

Maple Dewleaf, 86.1
Antranormus, 85.6
Gary Every, 84.7
Jack the Mick, 84.2
Mikel Weisser, 84.1
Norberto Cisneros, 80.5
Wendy Davis, 76.8
Markus Eye, 75.4

Slam staff
Scorekeeper and Timekeeper: Danielle "Deeds" Gervasio
Host: Christopher Fox Graham
Organizers:
Susan Schomaker, April Holman Payne, Jenn Reddington, Studio Live
Christopher Fox Graham, Sedona 510 Poetry

Saturday, July 4, 2009

Studio Live needs 12 spoken word poets for July 17 poetry slam

Studio Live needs 12 spoken word poets for July 17 poetry slam

Sedona's Studio Live needs 12 poets to compete in a poetry slam Friday, July 17, starting at 7:30 p.m.

In late June, a dozen of Arizona's best performance poets competed in a team poetry slam at Sedona's Studio Live. The event drew a packed house that enjoyed three hours of original spoken word as the teams vied for first place in a high-energy bout.

Before the slam was over, the leaders of the Sedona Performers Guild were so moved by the skilled poets' ability to emote that they offered to host a second poetry slam before the team heads off to the National Poetry Slam in West Palm Beach, Fla., in August.

Video from the June 27 poetry will soon be available on YouTube.

Proceeds from both the June and July poetry slams benefit the Flagstaff National Poetry Slam Team.

All poets are welcome to compete. Slammers will need three original poems, each lasting no longer than three minutes. No props, costumes nor musical accompaniment are permitted. The poets will be judged Olympics style by five members of the audience selected at random at the beginning of the slam. The top poet at the end of the night wins $50.

Already slated to appear are the five members of the Flagstaff Poetry Slam Team.

Jessica Guadarrama is a Sedona Red Rock High School alumna and current Northern Arizona University student. Guadarrama describes herself as a bilingual Mexican-American. She started writing in eighth grade but it wasn't until ninth grade that she discovered slam poetry when NORAZ Poets held a slam at the SRRHS auditorium.

Frank O'Brien is a 20-year-old student at Coconino Community College, focusing in the general studies and pre-nursing. Originally from Phoenix, O'Brien entered the slam poetry scene in fall 2007. In August 2008, he traveled with Cartier, Brown and Guadarrama to Madison, Wis., as a member of the 2008 Flagstaff National Slam Team. O'Brien is now an active poet and administrator of the FlagSlam Poetry Slam in Flagstaff.

Ryan Brown stated that he is a kid from Phoenix who spends most of his time posing as a writer and poet. He now goes to school and lives in Flagstaff, where he is the SlamMaster of the FlagSlam Poetry Slam.

Antranormus is a hip-hop artist who stated that he constantly seeks to redefine or blur completely the boundaries between hip-hop, poetry and absolute absurdity. Known for his complex, multisyllabic rhyme schemes and controversial subject matter, he has shared the stage with members of the Wu Tang Clan, Jurassic 5, Abstract Rude, Illogic, and Sole.

John Cartier helped revitalize Flagstaff's poetry slam scene two years ago and is on his second nationals team. Cartier is well-known for his politically savvy and socially edgy performance poetry.

The team will represent Northern Arizona against more than 80 other teams from around the country.

Also signed up to compete are:
Prescott Area Poets Association founder, Arcosanti Slab City Slam co-founder and seven-year host Dan Seaman


Sedona MC Fun Yung Moon






Kingman slam poet Mikel Weisser. Son of a nightclub singer, Weisser spent his teens as a hitchhiker. Since then Weisser has gone on to receive a masters in literature and a masters in secondary education, published hundreds of freelance magazine and newspaper articles and political comedy columns, along with seven books of poetry and short fiction. A former homeless shelter administrator, contestant on "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire," and survivor of his first wife's suicide, Weisser teaches junior high history and English in Bullhead City. He and his wife, Beth, have turned their So-Hi, Ariz., property into a peace sign theme park.

FlagSlam poet Nika Levikov









Vermont slam veteran Kayt Perlman.Just in from Southern Vermont, Perlman aka Kayt Pearl, has recently relocated to Sedona with a deep sigh of relief. The north is cold. Co-founder of Women Divine Acapella & Rhyme, a traveling collaborative installment of all-women expression; Finder/Founder of Sound Foundation, an organization/movement for universal connection and cross cultural understanding through word and sound; northeastern regional slam poetess and co-master and founder of Martial Poetry Slams, the local slam scene in Brattleboro, Vt., local vocaless singer/songwriter and otherwise unknown human just trying to commun-i-kayt with the rest of us.

Recent Sedona Red Rock High School graduate Liana O’Boyle








two-time Haiku National Slam Champion and 2007-2008 Individual World Poetry Slam Champion Ed Mabrey, who has been a member of and coached several winning Rust Belt Regional Poetry Slam Teams out of Columbus, Ohio. Mabrey has released two books, "From the Page to the Stage and Back Again" to critical acclaim and "Revoked:My GhettoPass(ivity)" which was a limited release item.Maybrey has released two CDs of his own work, and has been on projects with other artists and DJs.

Mesa National Poetry Slam Team 2009 Grand Slam Champion Tufik "Tom" Shayeb. Shayeb has been writing poetry since 1997. His poems have appeared appearing in several anthologies, including "Lifelines" (2008) and "The Good Things About America" (2009). Additionally, he has published three chapbooks titled "Cracked Verses" (2007), "I'll Love You to Smithereens" (2008), and "How Did Things Get So Janked Up?" (2009); the second and third of which are selections from full-length manuscripts. Aside from slamming original poetry, from 2000-2008 Shayeb programmed the poetry of other authors into ten-minute selections for poetry interpretation performances on pre-collegiate and collegiate circuits. In 2007, he was one of the National Forensic Association's Poetry Interpretation semi-finalists, and then in 2008 he advanced to the American Forensic Association's National Poetry Interpretation quarter-finalist rounds.

Sedona Red Rock High School alumna Julio Perez is known for his graffiti art. His graffiti murals currently fill a 100-foot hallway at SRRHS and various arts venues around Sedona. As a bilingual poet, Perez cut his teeth on the stage performing poetry in both Spanish and English at the Sedona Arts Center, Tlaquepaque Arts and Crafts Village and the Sedona Poetry Open Mic. A lyricist, Perez and his band have also performed around Prescott and the 2007 and 2008 GumptionFests in Sedona.

Phoenix National Poetry Slam Team member Lauren Perry .








The slam will be hosted by Sedona poet Christopher Fox Graham, who represented Northern Arizona on the Flagstaff team in 2001, 2004, 2005 and 2006, attending National Poetry Slams in Seattle, Chicago, St. Louis, and Albuquerque.

Tickets are $10, available at Studio Live or Golden Word Books, 3150 W. Hwy. 89A. The team needs to raise around $2,000 to fund the trip.

Studio Live is located at 215 Coffee Pot Drive, Sedona. For more information, visit http://studiolivesedona.com.

For more information about the 2009 National Poetry Slam, visit http://nps2009.com.