National Poetry Month: Verbal Kensington performs "Earthquakes"

With a background ranging the spectrum from accounting to pyrotechnics, Meg (Verbal) Kensington shamelessly abandoned her previous brainchild, Verballistics, to step into her role as Necessary Publishing’s Creative Director. She’s also a writer, poet, artist, and mentor. Others know her as a verbal mercenary, with an uncanny knack for organization. Her most valued achievements include the ability to speak unabashedly in the third person, the precise calculation of road-trip gas mileage in her beloved vintage Subaru, and the unobtrusive creation of an amazing array of late-night snacks. She aspires to become more like her favorite animal, the platypus – the only earthly creature who is both astonishingly cuddly, and horrendously poisonous.

With her unique combination of extreme intelligence and stunning good looks, she plans to one day take over the world – starting today, with Necessary Publishing.

Like Verbal Kensington and performance poetry? 

Donate to "Holy Spoken Word," Necessary Poetry's 1st Anthology:

A multimedia anthology, showcasing the amazing writing, artwork, and spoken-word performance of the Necessary Poetry collective, a group of poets from Sedona, Flagstaff and Prescott.



Click here to help support our efforts on Kickstarter. A donation of even $10 or $20 gets us closer to our goal of our first publication and establishment of a nonprofit spoken word collective open to all.

National Poetry Month: Austin Reeves performs "Thing Like Love"

Austin Reeves is a 19-year-old Flagstaff poet studying to become an English professor. Born in Washington state at the height of the grunge movement — and quality ’90s music, Reeves moved to Arizona when he was 7. Then he was moved back to Washington. Then he was moved back to Arizona.

Having lived in and around the Phoenix area for far too long, Reeves opted to attend college at Northern Arizona University — a wise choice, he thinks.

It was in Flagstaff that Reeves truly discovered poetry, having dabbled in it at times before. Joining up with the FlagSlam and Sedona Slam family in late 2011, Reeves placed second in the last slam of the Sedona Poetry Slam season and went on to compete in Sedona’s Poetry Grand Slam, narrowly missing out on making the first-ever Sedona National Poetry Slam Team. In 2013, Reeves is back for blood and doing his best to systematically *cough* remove his rivals from the competition.

So far, Reeves has already established himself as Flagstaff’s 2012-2013 Haiku Death Match Champion. Austin won Flagstaff’s 2012-2013 Haiku Death Match in his underwear. Real stuff.

Reeves takes the greater majority of his inspiration from national slam poets Buddy Wakefield and Anis Mojgani.

Reeves is a guitarist, singer and drummer for Tempe-based post-rock band Ursus Colossus, with whom he has recorded two full-length albums. He has also been recorded on a number of tracks for Phoenix-based alternative rock band The Upper Strata. Reeves finds his musical inspiration in the bloodline of his musically inclined family. He also tries his hand at visual art forms occasionally. Currently, Reeves is attempting to make his way back into skateboarding and to make a hobby of electronic music production with Ableton, a musical performance and production software.

Reeves believes in poetry, music and art always.

Like Austin Reeves and performance poetry? 

Donate to "Holy Spoken Word," Necessary Poetry's 1st Anthology:

A multimedia anthology, showcasing the amazing writing, artwork, and spoken-word performance of the Necessary Poetry collective, a group of poets from Sedona, Flagstaff and Prescott.



Click here to help support our efforts on Kickstarter. A donation of even $10 or $20 gets us closer to our goal of our first publication and establishment of a nonprofit spoken word collective open to all.

Kickstarter challenge: $20 by April 20

Kickstarter Challenge: If you haven't yet a donated to Necessary Poetry's Kickstarter project, donate $20 by Saturday, April 20.

$20 ain't much and it could do so much.

Why give? 'Cause the project is awesome. Check it out here:


Then ask 20 of your friends to to the same.

Click here and make your donation.

What does Necessary Poetry want to do?

Help support us on Kickstarter. Donate to help us publish Holy Spoken Word - Necessary Poetry's 1st Anthology: A multimedia anthology, showcasing the amazing writing, artwork, and spoken-word performance of the Necessary Poetry collective.

Click here to help support our efforts on Kickstarter. A donation of even $10 or $20 would do wonders to get us to our goal.

 The poets are some of the best in Northern Arizona:

Visit Kickstarter and support "Holy Spoken Word" - Necessary Poetry's 1st Anthology

"Holy Spoken Word" is Necessary Poetry's 1st Anthology:

A multimedia anthology, showcasing the amazing writing, artwork, and spoken-word performance of the Necessary Poetry collective, a group of poets from Sedona, Flagstaff and Prescott.

Click here to help support our efforts on Kickstarter. A donation of even $10 or $20 would do wonders to get us to our goal.

Necessary Poetry is the collaborative effort of over 15 Arizona slam poets.

Sparked by a common love for written and spoken word, and a collective desire to inspire and motivate positive creative expression, we've joined together to publish a multi-media anthology of our best individual and cooperative creations - Holy Spoken Word. We are a passionate band of dedicated volunteers, and this stunning collection of words, artwork, and recorded performances is sure to seduce minds and ignite hearts everywhere.
BUT, POETRY IS BORING. Not this poetry! This poetry is raw. This poetry is relentless. This poetry captures smiles - it takes mouths hostage.

The poets are some of the best in Northern Arizona:

FAQ

• Is this a religious anthology?
  Words are our religion... so in a way, yes. But in the way you probably meant it - um, no.
  The poetry submitted to Necessary Poetry may have religious themes or imagery from various traditions, but the project as a whole is secular and nonreligious. While some of the poets themselves may be religious or spiritual, others are secular, agnostic and atheist. The title "Holy Spoken Word" stems from the poets' belief that if anything is "holy," then surely it must be poetry and its power to connect peoples across time, languages, cultures, religious and spiritual or nonspiritual traditions.
  
• WHY poetry?
  Because everything is poetry. The way the rain falls, the way the light bounces off a glass, the way you cried hard when your first love dumped you because your freckles freaked him or her out... Inspiration can be found anywhere, and we're passionate about presenting ours in a way which connects us all on a human level. 
  
• What happens when you sell a gazillion copies of the book? Will you sit back to revel in your riches?
  Hell, no!  Necessary Poetry's contributors have all agreed that any monies received from the sale of this anthology will be used to fund a series of workshops on writing and expression, and to support the efforts of aspiring poets and spoken word performers in our community.
  The hardworking poets hope to use those resources to fund workshops and efforts to bring poetry to a wider audience and encourage those who want to want to speak to find the poet and Holy Spoken Word within themselves, whatever that may be.
  
  

  Click here to help support our efforts on Kickstarter.