Remembering Sedona poet Jack Egan (March 1, 1934 - Oct. 11, 2020)

Jack Egan read poetry at the Sedona Poetry Slam a few times; I was able to capture him on video at the Sedona slam on Dec. 3, 2011. His "Up" poem became legendary.

He wrote me a few letters to the editor and press releases, all about his work with charities and the St. Vincent de Paul Society. When he popped in to drop these off, I always encouraged him to come and slam.

Twice, when interstate lotteries reached record high levels, he came to the Sedona newsroom and told me he bought a ticket, gave me a copy and said he agreed to split it with me should we win the jackpot.

He will be missed.

Jack Egan performs in the first round of the Sedona Poetry Slam on Dec. 3, 2011

Jack Egan performs in the second round of the Sedona Poetry Slam on Dec. 3, 2011

Jack Egan performs "Up" in the third round of the Sedona Poetry Slam, 12-3-2011. Great poem, and with audience participation, too.

Jack Egan

March 1, 1934 - October 11, 2020

John Egan, 86, of Sedona, Arizona, passed away Sunday, October 11. "Jack" to his many friends was born in the Rogers Park neighborhood of Chicago on March 1, 1934.

As a teenager, he worked as a busboy to earn money to pay his tuition to Loyola Academy High School. A bright student and talented runner, he was awarded a scholarship to Loyola University of Chicago where he earned a degree in English while running sprints and relays on the track team. Such was his success as a runner that he was inducted into the Loyola University of Chicago Hall of Fame in 1980.

More importantly, at Loyola he met the love of his life, Mary Kay.

After graduating college, Jack served in the U.S. Navy for four years as a bombardier/navigator spending time on the USS Ranger (CV-61) aircraft carrier and was married. After his service, Jack returned to teach English at Loyola Academy. After a year of teaching, he took a sales job to support his growing family.

Jack was transferred from Chicago to Southern California while working for Avery Label Corporation. He had a very successful career in sales working for several companies. He lived in Whittier, Calif., and then Newport Beach. Along the way, he and Mary Kay had four children.

In 2010, Jack moved to Sedona to enjoy the beautiful Red Rocks and to be close to family. After a long illness, Jack passed away peacefully at home surrounded by his loved ones.

He is survived by his wife of 61 years. He was predeceased by his son Kevin, survived by his daughter Jennifer, his sons Dan and Martin and his three grandchildren.

A celebration of life will be planned for a later date. Consider making a donation to St. Vincent de Paul conference in his honor.

Poet Zachary Kluckman features at the third Sedona Poetry Slam on March 8

Poet Zachary Kluckman features at the third Sedona Poetry Slam of 2014, which kicks off at 7:30 p.m. On Saturday, March 8, at the Mary D. Fisher Theatre, 2030 W. State Route 89A, Suite A-3.

Zachary Kluckman

A performance poet since 2006, Kluckman is a two-time member of the Albuquerque, N.M., national poetry slam team, a Pushcart Prize nominee, and recipient of the Red Mountain Press National Poetry Prize.

When he is not amusing himself trying to untangle string cheese, Kluckman publishes poetry in anthologies and publications like the New York Quarterly, Cutthroat and Red Fez. Featured on more than 500 radio stations, with appearances on many of the nation's most notorious stages, he is an accomplished spoken word artist, as well as the Spoken Word Editor for the Pedestal. An activist, youth advocate and organizer, he has been recognized twice for making world history as the creator of the world's only Slam Poet Laureate Program and an organizer for the 100 Thousand Poets for Change program, the largest poetry reading in history.

As a youth advocate, Kluckman donates hundreds of hours a year to working with and empowering the youth. His first full-length collection, "Animals in Our Flesh," has received warm reviews from Jimmy Santiago Baca among others and his second collection, "Some of it is Muscle" has just been released by Swimming with Elephants Publications.

All poets are welcome to compete for the $75 grand prize and $25 second-place prize. The prize is funded in part by a donation from Verde Valley poetry supporter Jeanne Freeland.

The slam is the third the 2014 season, which will culminate in selection of Sedona's third National Poetry Slam Team, the foursome and alternate who will represent the city at the National Poetry Slam in Oakland, Calif., in August.

Future slams take place Saturday, March 29, Saturday, April 26, and Saturday, May 17. The final Grand Poetry Slam takes place Saturday, June 7, to determine the team.

Slam poets will need three original poems, each lasting no longer than three minutes. No props, costumes nor musical accompaniment are permitted.

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 their audience with their creativity.

The poets will be judged Olympics-style by five members of the audience selected at random at the beginning of the slam.

Poets who want to compete should purchase a ticket in case the roster is filled before they arrive.

The local poets will share the stage with 300 of the top poets in the United States, Canada and Europe, pouring out their words in a weeklong explosion of expression. Sedona sent its five-poet first team to the 2012 National Poetry Slam in Charlotte, N.C., and its second to the 2013 NPS in Boston and Cambridge, Mass.

The slam will be hosted by Sedona poet Christopher Fox Graham, who represented Northern Arizona on seven FlagSlam National Poetry Slams in 2001, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2010, 2012 and 2013. Graham has hosted the Sedona Poetry Slam since 2009.

Tickets are $12.

Contact Graham at foxthepoet@yahoo.com to sign up to slam.

What is Poetry Slam?

Founded in Chicago in 1984 by construction worker Marc Smith, poetry slam is a competitive artistic sport. 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.

First Sedona Poetry Slam of 2014 is this Saturday, Jan. 11

The first Sedona Poetry Slam of 2014 kicks off at 7:30 p.m. On Saturday, Jan. 11, at the Mary D. Fisher Theatre, 2030 W. State Route 89A, Suite A-3.

All poets are welcome to compete for the $75 grand prize and $25 second-place prize. The prize is funded in part by a donation from Verde Valley poetry supporter Jeanne Freeland.

The slam is the first the 2014 season, which will culminate in selection of Sedona's third National Poetry Slam Team, the foursome and alternate who will represent the city at the National Poetry Slam in Oakland, Calif., in August.

Future slams take place:

• Saturday, Feb. 1
• Saturday, March 8
• Saturday, March 29
• Saturday, April 26
• Saturday, May 17
• The final Grand Poetry Slam takes place Saturday, June 7, to determine the team.

Slam poets will need three original poems, each lasting no longer than three minutes. No props, costumes nor musical accompaniment are permitted.

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 their audience with their creativity.

The poets will be judged Olympics-style by five members of the audience selected at random at the beginning of the slam.

Poets who want to compete should purchase a ticket in case the roster is filled before they arrive.

The local poets will share the stage with 300 of the top poets in the United States, Canada and Europe, pouring out their words in a weeklong explosion of expression. Sedona sent its five-poet first team to the 2012 National Poetry Slam in Charlotte, N.C., and its second to the 2013 NPS in Boston and Cambridge, Mass.

The slam will be hosted by Sedona poet Christopher Fox Graham, who represented Northern Arizona on seven FlagSlam National Poetry Slams in 2001, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2010, 2012 and 2013. Graham has hosted the Sedona Poetry Slam since 2009.

Tickets are $12.

Contact Graham at foxthepoet@yahoo.com to sign up to slam.

What is Poetry Slam?

Founded in Chicago in 1984 by construction worker Marc Smith, poetry slam is a competitive artistic sport. 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.

2013 Sedona National Poetry Slam Team: Verbal Kensington, Frank O'Brien, Josh Wiss, Valence and Ryan Brown

2013 Sedona National Poetry Slam Team: from left, Verbal Kensington, Frank O'Brien, Josh Wiss, Valence and Ryan Brown

Sedona Grand Poetry Slam, held Saturday, June 1, at the Mary D. Fisher Theatre, Sedona, ending the 2012-13 National Poetry Slam Season, hosted by Sedona Slammaster Christopher Fox Graham

Round 1

Draw based on points accumulated over the 2012-13 slam season

Sorbet: Christopher Fox Graham, seven-time member of the Flagstaff National Poetry Slam Team

Calibration: Zachary Bryant Hansen, of Flagstaff

Calibration: Jackson Morris, two-time member of the Flagstaff National Poetry Slam Team

Taylor Hayes, of Phoenix, 21.7 (after -1.0 time penalty), 3:27, -7.2 under, 10th place
Gary Every, of Sedona, 23.5, 2:43, -5.4 under, 9th place
Verbal Kensington, of Flagstaff, 27.0, 3:01, -1.9 under, 4th place
Ashley Swazey, of Flagstaff, 25.3, 1:41, -3.6 under, 8th place
Josh Floyd, of Flagstaff, 26.7, 2:03, -2.2 under, tie 5th place
Valence, of Phoenix, 26.3, (after -0.5 time penalty), 3:13, -2.6 under, 7th place
Frank O'Brien, of Prescott, 28.0, 2:38, -0.9 under, 3rd place
Evan Dissinger, of Flagstaff, 26.7, 2:41, -2.2 under, tie 5th place
Ryan Brown, of Flagstaff, 28.9 (with one 10.0), highest score of the round, 2:57, 1st place
Josh Wiss, of Flagstaff, 28.1, 1:52, -0.8 under, 2nd place

Sorbet: The Klute, eight-time member of the Mesa and Phoenix National Poetry Slam Teams

Intermission

Sorbet: Jackson Morris, two-time member of the Flagstaff National Poetry Slam Team

Round 2

Reverse Order

Josh Wiss, of Flagstaff, 27.1, 55.2, 1:49, -1.4 under, 3rd place
Ryan Brown, of Flagstaff, 26.9, 55.8, 2:54, -0.8 under, 2nd place
Evan Dissinger, of Flagstaff, 25.5, 52.2, 2:50, -4.4 under, 8th place
Frank O'Brien, of Prescott, 26.5, 54.5, 2:21, -2.1 under, 4th place
Valence, of Phoenix, 28.1, 54.4, 2:24, -2.2 under, 5th place
Josh Floyd, of Flagstaff, 27.2, 53.9, 2:04, -2.7 under, 6th place
Ashley Swazey, of Flagstaff, 28.3, 53.6, 2:44, -3.0 under, 7th place
Verbal Kensington, of Flagstaff, 29.6 (with two 10.0s), highest score of the round; highest score of the night, 56.6, 1:58, 1st place
Gary Every, of Sedona, 23.3, (after -4.0 time penalty), 46.8, 4:26, -9.8 under, 10th place
Taylor Hayes, of Phoenix, 26.8, 48.5, 2:22, -8.1 under, 9th place

Sorbet: Christopher Fox Graham, seven-time member of the Flagstaff National Poetry Slam Team

Sorbet: The Klute, eight-time member of the Mesa and Phoenix National Poetry Slam Teams

Round 3

High to Low

Verbal Kensington, of Flagstaff, 27.0, 83.6, 1:43, tie 1st place
Ryan Brown, of Flagstaff, 27.8, 83.6, 2:34, tie 1st place
Josh Wiss, of Flagstaff, 28.2, 83.4, 1:42, -0.2 under, 3rd place
Frank O'Brien, of Prescott, 27.9, 82.4, 1:57, -1.2 under, 5th place
Valence, of Phoenix, 28.1, 82.5, 3:08, -1.1 under, 4th place
Josh Floyd, of Flagstaff, 28.0 (with one 10.0), 81.9, 2:06, -1.7 under, 7th place
Ashley Swazey, of Flagstaff, 28.6 (with one 10.0), 82.2, 2:56, -1.4 under, 6th place
Evan Dissinger, of Flagstaff, 27.1 (after -1.5 time penalty), 79.3, 3:30, -4.3 under, 8th place
Taylor Hayes, of Phoenix, 28. 9 (with one 10.0), highest score of the round,77.4, 1:58, -6.2 under, 9th place
Gary Every, of Sedona, 24.3 (after -2.5 time penalty), 71.1, 3:59, -12.5 under, 10th place

Sorbet: Christopher Fox Graham, seven-time member of the Flagstaff National Poetry Slam Team

Haiku Death Match

Ryan Brown, of Flagstaff, 4 votes - Verbal Kensington, of Flagstaff, 1 vote

Final Scores

2013 Sedona National Poetry Slam Team:

Ryan Brown, of Flagstaff, 83.6 +Haiku Death Match, 1st place

Verbal Kensington, of Flagstaff, 83.6, 2nd place

Josh Wiss, of Flagstaff, 83.4, 3rd place

Valence, of Phoenix, 82.5, 4th place

Alternate:

Frank O'Brien, of Prescott, 82.4, 5th place

Ashley Swazey, of Flagstaff, 82:2, 6th place

Josh Floyd, of Flagstaff, 81.9, 7th place

Evan Dissinger, of Flagstaff, 79.3, 8th place

Taylor Hayes, of Phoenix, 77.4, 9th place

Gary Every, of Sedona, 71.1, 10th place

Scorekeeper: Azami

Visit my new website, FoxThePoet.org

Visit my new website, FoxThePoet.org. 

Read all my performance poetry and slam poetry in one, easy-to-search location, plus updates on the upcoming and past Sedona Poetry Slams, as well as current standings.

Enjoy.

"He Needs It Bad" by Christopher Fox Graham

This is a very old poem from my first chapbook, which I was able to recover.
It's not deep by any means, and it's just a list of punchlines, but it a funny poem when targeting someone in the audience.
I originally wrote if for John Kofonow, then applied it to Josh Fleming, and then used it in the 2002 Mesa Grand Poetry Slam against Corbet Dean, who took it a little too personally, but have since applied it Josh Wiss, Ryan Brown and John Q,

"He Needs It Bad"

My friend [first name], [full name], needs it bad

he needs the kind of sex that makes paint peel, stars supernova, and changes your neighbor's religion

he needs the kind of physical lovin' every sexual fantasy promises but reality can't deliver

he needs the kind of freaky-freaky that brings empires to their knees, time to a halt, and the cops to the front door with the suspicion that “Shit! Someone is getting murdered in there!"

he needs the kind of sweet love-fest that's better than immortality, better than nirvana, Better Than Ezra, and better than a jumbo-size chocolate fudge sundae with sprinkles and side of, "oh, God … oh, God … oh, God ….

he needs the kind of orgasmic ecstasy that makes a 14-hour three-way with Lindsay Lohan, and 18-year-old Catholic school girl with no inhibitions, and a double-jointed Italian prostitute with great person hygiene, a killer body, and no gag reflex seem as boring as visiting your grandmother in a coma

he needs the kind wild monkey lovin' to rock his world, alter his destiny, save his soul, restore his faith, blow his … mind

he needs the kind of body-rockin' that's illegal in 44 states and the District of Columbia because it's just too damn good

he needs the kind of horizontal mambo that makes tantric sex laughable in comparison and would make the writers of the Kama Sutra blush

he needs the kind of white-knuckle, teeth-gnashing, back-scratching, tongue-twisting, earth-shattering, soul-cleansing, hair-splitting, brain-altering, mind-erasing, headboard-shattering, heart-stopping, atom-smashing, idiot-proof sex that we all say our exes had with us

he needs the kind of erotic free-for-all every love poem desires, every religion secretly promises and every girlfriend has had with me

he needs it for one simple reason: because I'm sick and tired of hearing him bitch and moan about being single, because dammit, when I'm drunk at after a slam with a glass of beer in my hand, all I want to think about is being drunk at after a slam with a glass of beer in my hand

so please, for the love of Pete, if you know what this shit is like, please talk to the man over there, take him home, rock his world, make him yours and get him to stop whining. his phone number is [target’s phone number] because if I have to listen to his sex poetry anymore I'm going to have to fuck him myself

Copyright 2001 © Christopher Fox Graham

"In the Blood" by Christopher Fox Graham

"In the Blood"

by Christopher Fox Graham

Fair warning,
you die first.

"...written with his own blood" by Janina-Photography

I know, you’re thinking that with all my whiskey nights
I’d cease the fight first
but fate plays dice —
my eulogy isn’t profound, but between us
it’s the only poem worth all the blood I’ve verbalized
my heart beats after yours
because I never could imagine the world without you
so you had to show me the hard way
even this old, I’m still chasing you
like I did at the beginning

— 10 —

Our daughters visit one by one
find me holding one hand
while a machine holds the other
beeping,
beeping,
beeping
with clockwork regularity
counting down the heartbeats you have left —
I read you 60 years of blood poured into poems
“The Peach” still makes you laugh

— 9 —

We send our son a message to the colony on Mars
he can never visit,
when he boarded the shuttle
we knew it was a one way trip
I tell him to hold his sons tonight
gaze across the terrain
and remember that the red in his blood
is deeper and darker
binding him forever to home

— 8 —
On the first day of our retirement
we burn all your business cards
and all my button-down white shirts —
we make love in the kitchen like horny teenagers
I later find your red underwear in the sink —
the pasta boils over and burns the pot
so we feed it to the neighbors’ dog
you hate the neighbors
but like the dog

— 7 —
after my wedding toast,
I swing dance with our youngest daughter at the reception
because I save all my slow dances for you
rest my hand in the small of your back
kiss your crimson lips like the first time
when we get to our empty nest,
we split a bottle of Jameson
and wake cuddling each other’s pounding hangovers

— 6 —
you get almost leave me three times
the first two are admittedly my fault —
I don’t learn about the third until years later
when your reasons have faded to such silliness
you laugh when you tell me why
I buy red roses for a month anyway

— 5 —
in the Red Chair Hotel lounge in Prague
we hold hands
not saying a word
and for an hour
no one else enters
that was the moment —
the one I’d hold onto
when asked,
“what was the best day of your life?”

— 4 —
By the last one, you’re a pro —
but you leave my arm bruised
when our first child is born
one fingernail drew blood
and the scar is my joy
that I became a father

— 3 —
the proposal was unexpected
I stood on the stage
performing a poem you’d heard before
but you noticed two lines changed
and midway through, a new stanza flipped the meaning
before I dropped to a knee and asked
the time penalty cost me points
and the other poets called you a “prop”
but we got four 10s and a red heart
when you said "yes"

— 2 —
I apologize for our third date
everything goes wrong
the restaurant is terrible
you kiss me so deep I get hiccups
the sex is sloppy
I cut my hand changing the flat tire
so the first time you say it
I am staring at the bloody bandage
wondering about stitches
so I have to ask, “what do you say?!”

— 1 —
I small talk
to mask my skipping heart
although I can’t tell if you like me
when you finally ask me out
blood rushes from my fingers and toes
leaving me warmly cold

but all the way home
I think how the first poem
should start at the end
and work backward
so the only mistake I’ll ever regret
was waiting so long to begin

Kevin Holmes features at Sundara on Aug. 25

Touring slam poet Kevin Holmes features at Sundara Boutique & Gallery, 22 East Route 66, Flagstaff, at 7 p.m., Saturday, Aug. 25.

Kevin Holmes is the Santa Cruz Slammaster, Team Coach, and Anchor Poet.

Kevin led the first Santa Cruz slam team to a 3rd place finish at the 2010 National Poetry Slam's Group Piece finals. In 2011, as a poet coach, he returned to NPS to tie for 5th. 


Kevin Holmes (famed Santa Cruz Slam Poet) Came up with Dusty Rose to Feature at the Chicoslam. Flmed April 15, 2010 in 1080i HiDef
 
Before co-founding the new Santa Cruz Slam, Kevin's surreal political commentary somehow won a 2009 Berkley finals and took a top 20 finish at the Individual World Poetry Slam. Kevin enjoys homemade deep fried tofu, Doctor Who, and dry gin.

Kevin has been involved with the University of California Santa Cruz's campus slam team since 2004 as poet and then a coach. In 2009 his coaching pressed the UCSC team to a 2nd place finish at the Collegiate Union Poetry Slam Invitational.

When not lingering around dimly lit rooms with microphones, Kevin works with special needs students.

Kevin Holmes' winning poem at Tourettes Without Regrets. Filmed and edited by Zero Coordinate Inc.

National Poetry Slam draw for the Sedona, Flagstaff slam teams

Sedona National Poetry Slam Team

Bout 8 (Venue 2, 9 p.m.), Tuesday

Sedona Poetry Slam:

Tyler "Valence" Sirvinskas, Evan Dissinger, Josh Wiss, Frank O'Brien, Spencer Troth

Poetry Slam Springfield, (Springfield, Ill.):
Michelle Nimmo, Sarah Woosley, Kait Rokowski, Khary Jackson "6 is 9"
Portland Poetry Slam (Portland, Ore.):
David Doc Luben (former Prescott and Tucson slammer), Meg Waldron, Samantha Peterson, Robyn Bateman, William Stanford
Red Dirt Poetry Slam (Oklahoma City):
Melissa May, Rob Sturma, Michael Pearce, Grae

Bout 30 (Venue 6, 7 p.m.), Thursday

Sedona Poetry Slam:

Tyler "Valence" Sirvinskas, Evan Dissinger, Josh Wiss, Frank O'Brien, Spencer Troth

ABQ Slams (Albuquerque, N.M.):
Jessica Helen Lopez, Khalid Binsunni, Damien Flores, Zachary Kluckman
WU Slam (Washington University, St. Louis, Mo.):
Pat Hollinger, Lauren Banka, Bryan Baird, Jacqui Germain,
Neo-Soul (Austin, Texas):
Shae Harris, LaLove Robinson, Danny Strack, Zai, "Korim" Jonathon Sterling

FlagSlam National Poetry Slam Team

Bout 14 (Venue 2, 7 p.m.), Wednesday

FlagSlam Poetry Slam:

Christopher Fox Graham, Ryan Brown, Shaun Srivastava "Nodalone", Tara Pollock, Jackson Morris

HawaiiSlam, (Honolulu):
Liam Skilling, Tui-Z, Jenna Robinson, Sterling Higa, Ink
Lake Effect (Cleveland, Ohio):
T.M. Göttl, Mello da Poet, Carla Thompson, Cory Mikesell
Nuyorican (Lower East Side, New York City):
Jaamal St John, McPherson, Falu, Cyn Thompson

Bout 34 (Venue 4, 9 p.m.), Thursday

FlagSlam Poetry Slam:

Christopher Fox Graham, Ryan Brown, Shaun Srivastava "Nodalone", Tara Pollock, Jackson Morris

Louder ARTS, Bar 13 (Union Square, New York City)
Mokgethi Thinane "Mega", Megan Falley, Jamaal May, Catalina Ferro  
Louisville Poetry Slam (Louisville, Miss.)
Zamir, Cherish Triplett "Cheri B", True, Sireal
Seattle Poetry Slam (Seattle, Wash):
Sara Brickman, Rose McAleese, Roma Raye, Amber Flame

"Manifesto of an Addict" by Christopher Fox Graham

you see I’ve got a problem
I’m addicted to that one thing
that everything that true thing
every moment I’m looking for another fix
wandering from here to there
trying to get just one more hit
you see I'm addicted to humanity
it’s just this power that overwhelms
this power that draws me in
I don’t know what it is
I can’t escape
humanity has me addicted
every time I kiss a girl
talk to a friend
hear the story of a stranger
I get just that much more addicted
and it’s just that much harder to break myself away

when a 75-year-old black man
tells me how he earned a vicious scar on his face
from a near-lynching in 1952
just outside Birmingham, Alabama
I get more addicted
his story
that human story
draws me in

when a mother of two
tells me what it was like
to explain her boys
that daddy is never coming home again
because semi-trucks don’t leave survivors
I get more addicted
her story
that human story
draws me in

when an elderly Jewish matriarch
tells me what was like
to grow up in a Polish concentration camp
to see her family get shot
then rolls up her sleeve to reveal a tattoo of
4
7
3
2
8
carved in the flesh
of her forearm
her story draws me
in every gesture
every feature
every wrinkle crease earned through survival
draws me in
like a moth to a flame,
like a comet to a star

I can’t escape
I tried once
I tried to withdraw once
ever gone through human withdrawal?
I left the world for a day
and it almost killed me
I couldn’t function
I couldn’t act
I couldn’t breathe
I couldn’t walk
I couldn’t talk
do you know what it’s like
for a poet who cannot talk?
a poet who cannot talk
who cannot write
is dead

I had to come back
my addiction keeps me alive
do you know how easy is to get this stuff?
they don’t even sell it
they give it away
I can’t round a corner without getting another hit
and it’s killing me

if I could break his addiction
I could live forever
but what would my life be like without my humanity?
they say we’re all made to die, does that mean we’re all addicted?
are you?
are you?
are you?
I am
I my love my addiction
I want to experience the stories of everyone
because what differs us is just time and space
I want to know what other possibilities my soul had
before it chose this time
this space
this body to occupy
I want to know
I want more and more
I want to do the lines of every human face
I want to walk the features
memorize the names
live the stories that of every human who ever lived and I still want more

I want to feast with Gilgamesh
I want to besiege Troy
I want to drink with Alexander
I want to walk the halls of Camelot
I want to meditate with Buddha
I want to pray with Mohammed
I want to burn with Joan of Arc
I want to ride with Crazy Horse
I want to stand in the streets of Hiroshima with 140,000 other human beings
and feel the skies turn instantly
into the wrath of God
and want to sacrifice myself on Calvary
and become your Messiah
because God
if there is one
was just the first addict

I love being addicted
even if it’s going to kill me
I ask for more
I beg for more
I would sell my soul for more
but what makes this addiction my curse
is that I’m just one man
and I don’t have much time

Christopher Fox Graham © 2000

I guess I never posted this poem online before. Originally just a solo poem, I performed with Nick Fox and Chris Lane as a three-man group poem at the 2001 National Poetry Slam in Seattle.

Tonight: New York City poet Jahnilli Akbar features at Sedona Poetry Slam

Sedona’s Studio Live hosts a poetry slam Saturday, Dec. 3, starting at 7:30 p.m. featuring New York City poet Jahnilli Akbar.

All poets are welcome to compete for the $75 grand prize.

Poets expected to slam tonight:
Jack Egan, Sedona
Shaun "Nodalone" Srivastava, Flagstaff
The Klute, Phoenix
Lauren Perry, Phoenix
George Yamazawa Jr., Durham, North Carolina
Thom Stanley, Sedona
Brian Towne, Flagstaff
Frank O'Brien, Prescott
Mikel Weisser, So-Hi (near Kingman)
Ryan Brown, Flagstaff
Gary Every, Sedona

The slam will the first of the 2011-12 season, expected to be more moving, more energetic and more intense because this year, poets will be competing for a slot in Sedona’s first National Poetry Slam Team.

After four years of collaborating with the Flagstaff and Phoenix metro area poetry slam scenes, the Sedona scene has developed the reputation and strength to muster its own team to send to the 2012 National Poetry Slam in Charlotte, N.C., in August. The eventual four-poet team will share the stage with 300 of the top poets in the United States, Canada and Europe, pouring out their words in a weeklong explosion of expression.

Sedona’s Studio Live hosts a poetry slam Saturday, Dec. 3,
starting at 7:30 p.m. featuring New York City poet Jahnilli Akbar.

Jahnilli Akbar

Jahnilli Akbar is a 22-year-old poet and activist, born in Chicago and raised in northern Mississippi. Currently he splits his time between Harlem and Brooklyn, N.Y.

Akbar’s poetry is best defined as an artistic mesh of alternative black, Semitic and queer life in America.

Akbar won the 2010 Rookie of the Year award at the Wade-Lewis Invitational, the second largest colligate slam in the country with more than 100 participants, held at the State University of New York at New Paltz.

Akbar is also the recipient of the 2011 Fresh Fruit Festival Queer Poet of the Year Award. He is a known face on the underground New York City art scene, as part of a movement called the Bushwick Renaissance, and as a member of Ground- Floor Collective, a leftist, African diaspora-based, predominately lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer group of artists. The Ground-Floor Collective, the Brecht Forum & Malcolm X Grassroots Movement curates the annual Black August art show, a fundraiser for political prisoners abroad.

Many stages, venues and spaces have hosted Akbar’s poetry, including Nuyorican Poets’ Café, Bowery Poetry Club, Louder Arts, NYC Intangible Poetry Slam, SUNY New Paltz and the Brooklyn Museum, all in New York, the Seattle Poetry Slam, Chicago’s Mental Graffiti Slam and Wordplay Chicago.

In early November, Akbar published his first book, “Chronicles of a Contemporary Alternative American Negro,” and headed out on tour.

To compete in the slam, poets need at least three original poems, each three minutes long or shorter. No props, costumes or musical accompaniment are permitted. All types of poetry are welcome.

Photo by Harley Deuce

The Dec. 3 slam will be hosted by Sedona poet Christopher Fox
Graham, who represented Northern Arizona on the Flagstaff
team at five National Poetry Slams between 2001 and 2010.

The Dec. 3 slam will be hosted by Sedona poet Christopher Fox Graham, who represented Northern Arizona on the Flagstaff team at five National Poetry Slams between 2001 and 2010.

Sedona National Poetry Slam Team

Competing poets earn points with each Sedona Poetry Slam performance between Dec. 3 and Saturday, May 5. Future slams will take place on Saturdays, Jan. 7, Feb. 18, March 10, April 7 and May 5. Every poet earns 1 point for performing or hosting and 1/2 point for calibrating. First place earns 3 additional points, second place earns 2 and third place earns 1. Based on points, the top 12 poets in May are eligible to compete for the four slots on the Sedona Poetry Slam Team, which will represent the community and Studio Live at the 2012 National Poetry Slam in Charlotte, N.C. All poets are eligible in the slamoff except those already confirmed members of or coaching another National Poetry Slam or Young Voices Be Heard team. Poets can compete for multiple teams during a season and still be eligible to compete in the Sedona team.

What is Poetry Slam?

Founded in Chicago in 1984, poetry slam is a competitive artistic sport. 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.

Tickets are $7 in advance and $12 the day of the event, available at Golden Word Books and Music, 3150 W. SR 89A, and online at studiolivesedona.com.

Studio Live is located at 215 Coffee Pot Drive, West Sedona.
For more information, call (928) 282-2688 or visit http://studiolivesedona.com.

To slam:
Sign up at Studio Live by 7 p.m. or send a text message with your name to Graham at (928) 517-1400. Slots are first come, first serve.

"Wake Up Call" by Dre Johnson and Patrick Ohslund

"Wake Up Call"

Co-written by Jackhammer Serenade, the spoken word duet composed of Dre "Duke Bossman" Johnson and Patrick Ohslund

When the student is asked for his homework,
he laughs like I must be joking.
This school is in East Palo Alto
but this substitute teacher has seen these walls
before in Oakland, Detroit,
anywhere else forgotten about by real estate booms.

The student laughs because
he sees desperation leaking out of walls
built in the seventies lit by dim blinking fluorescence.
He laughs because his eyes are open, 
This young boy is no fool
He knows that this desperation
is a learned behavior.

His spine cheers with a shiver
that causes a sun to rise that only he can see.
His personal path of illumination
rises from his rib cage like a hot air balloon,
Fueled by words a teacher told him,
"your mind is a tool
sharpen it on books like they were wet stones,
to cut chords and hover above
desperate patterns to think for yourself."

This student is awake, won't sit down,
shut up, or listen blankly anymore.
But we are seeding our youth
With vines designed to choke out life,

Cafeterias in prison and school train gut as mind to
turn off and swallow the blandness
provided by Sysco Systems.
Blueprints for school buildings
fall from the same architects that churn out prisons.

Both structures clenched around the necks of their inhabitants
Strangling enthusiasm that would grow outside the bricks
Lining student prisoners in cell or desk
accustomed to jumping at the sound of a bell
Off to the next detention center.

IT IS TIME FOR A WAKE UP CALL!
But we are seeding our youth
with vines designed to choke out life.
And are surprised that babies drop out
of teenagers as teenagers drop out of high school.

Surprised at students with numb noses and punctured veins
to punctuate the "I don’t give a fuck" attitude
that drains into classrooms from
Governator’s budget cuts.
Trimming a little future out of our lives.

Education being cut down to the cold efficiency of
a mechanized factory has been an American theme since the days of
Francis Bellamy winding up a sales pitch
In the form of the flag salute, a wholesale
conditioning of government school kids.

American school children performing the original "Bellamy salute"
during the Pledge of Allegiance

I pledge allegiance to the flag

 In 1888 Francis Bellamy worked both as a producer and salesman of American flags.

To the United States of America

 He was obsessed with the efficiency of military and wanted school along with everything else to mirror this cold precision.

And to the republic for which it stands

 His mission was to use the flag salute to ingrain blind obedience into students.

One nation, under god

 In 1888 there was one slight difference in the flag salute,

With liberty and justice for all

students arms were raised to honor the republic, straight from the shoulder.

Francis Bellamy,
the programmed pirate infamous flag dealer
left his mark like the lynch letter,
slangin' the image of the red white and confused.

Francis Bellamy,
sold nationalism to government schools
to create armies of industrial militant minded
Pavlov's lap dogs instead of what should be students.
who are force fed falsified information
 while they sit entranced,
It is time for a wake up call.

Instead of a pledge to empire
how about a pledge to what moves us
Freedom from history books bound by chapters
That speak only of Eurocentric beginnings.

I pledge Allegiance to the light of knowledge
So that it may bounce off people like they were mirrors
transforming any classroom into this one. 

Copyright © Dre Johnson and Patrick Ohslund

One to create a new political slam poem is to examine the background behind a political action or activity, in this case the commercial and political history of the Pledge of Allegiance. 

The Bellamy salute was, and in some places still is, the way students were instructed to salute the flag beginning in 1892.

The pledge became compulsory for students in 1940 after Minersville School District v. Gobitis, opposed by Jehovah's Witnesses. That ruling was overturned in West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette in 1943, citing issues of free speech under the First Amendment.

The Bellamy salute was later used by the German Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei, or Nazi party, and fell out of favor during World War II, although it is still commonly used in the United States.

From "Face the Flag: The surprising history of the Pledge of Allegiance":

Francis Bellamy

The Pledge’s genesis had a strong commercial component of its own. [Francis] Bellamy worked for a magazine, Youth’s Companion, that had boosted its circulation by offering American flags as premiums to schoolchildren peddling subscriptions. One hundred sales equaled one flag, and over the course 
of a few years, the magazine’s Flag Over the Schoolhouse Program put the Old Glory in tens of thousands of public schools around the country.
To expand on such efforts, Bellamy’s boss in the Premiums Department at Youth’s Companion, James B. Upham, concocted the idea of partnering with the World’s Columbian Exposition, a.k.a. the Chicago World’s Fair, to promote a nationwide celebration of the 400th anniversary of Columbus Day (which wasn’t yet an official national holiday). The proposed ceremonies would take place in schoolrooms and feature lots of flags. It would honor the spirit of enlightenment and progress Columbus embodied, and acknowledge the public school system as an uplifting, democratizing force in American life. “Our public school system is what makes this Nation superior to all other Nations—not the Army or the Navy system,” Congressman Sherman Hoar (D-Mass.) insisted when discussing the coming celebration with Bellamy. “Military display…does not belong here.”
To lend gravitas to the occasion, Bellamy felt a more dignified salute to the flag than those that already existed at the time was in order. As The Pledge recounts, Bellamy penned the Pledge “at a time when anxieties over the impact of mass immigration coexisted with expansive optimism about the nation’s future.” The entire Columbus Day celebration was calculated, as Theodore Roosevelt approvingly observed, to inculcate a “fervent loyalty to the flag,” and Bellamy himself viewed his Pledge as an “inoculation” that would protect immigrants and native-born but insufficiently patriotic Americans from the “virus” of radicalism and subversion. A few years after writing the Pledge, The Pledge recounts, Bellamy would eventually write a less inspiring ode to indivisibility: “A democracy like ours cannot afford to throw itself open to the world where every man is a lawmaker, every dull-witted or fanatical immigrant admitted to our citizenship is a bane to the commonwealth; where all classes of society merge insensibly into one another.”

Dre Johnson, right, and Patrick Ohslund

Dre Johnson and Patrick Ohslund are the co-founders of the 501(c)(3) non profit, Voice of a Generation presents: Digital Storytellers.

This organization serves to provide spoken word workshops, hands on education in the production of poetry based documentary films and to forge connections between students and Community-Based Organizations.

Voice of a Generation Presents:

The Digital Storytelling Project

Our mission is to engage a new generation of informed, skilled and creative leaders capable of harnessing the power of media to preserve their community’s voice, share heritage and culture through the development of spoken word based documentaries.

Dre "Duke Bossman" Johnson, longtime Oakland, Calif., poet.

Photo by Big Poppa E.

This is a call for financial support to provide in-class spoken word workshops and hands on education for the production of digital documentaries at Sky Line Public High School in Oakland, Calif. The end results will be youth poetry and film projects used in the media of community based organizations, a culminating spoken word performance and satisfaction of senior project graduation requirements.


Digital Storytellers has 501(c)(3) nonprofit status through fiscal sponsorship by the Community Life Network. Donations are tax-deductible. We currently have a philanthropic organization providing a 50% match of funds, you can contribute through our Kick Starter fundraising campaign.
In this campaign we will secure funding to run a customized pilot program at Sky Line Public High School. Our goal is to reach $8,000. 

These funds will pay for workshop facilitators, grant writers, film and editing equipment, as well as our quarterly performance.
For more information check out our website: Digitalstorytellers.org
 
Digital Storytellers is a participatory media program that trains young people to become fluent in the arts of spoken word poetry and digital documentation. Through these art forms youth improve their ability to articulate thus creating personally empowered voices that are infused into digital media thereby creating a means to engage in public dialog. We are building a reputation as innovators of service-learning and media technology education by facilitating in-class writing workshops where we also provide hands on instruction in the production of community strengthening and poetry themed documentary films.
Our goals are to produce demonstrable results in the following capacities:
    * Youth written spoken word poems
    * Student produced spoken word based documentaries
    * Inclusion of youth poetry and film within the literature and media of
      community based organizations 
    * Students becoming involved with CBO's
    * Satisfaction of community service and senior project High School graduation requirements through student interview, documentation and involvement with CBO's
    * Increased abilities of articulation
    * A quarterly Multi-Generational Spoken Word Showcase where students and
      professional performers will share the stage with leaders of CBO's

For more information, contact Patrick Ohslund, Workshop Coordinator, at patrick@digitalstorytellers.org, (949) 285-9086.

New York City poet Jahnilli Akbar features at Sedona Poetry Slam on Dec. 3

Sedona’s Studio Live hosts a poetry slam Saturday, Dec. 3, starting at 7:30 p.m. featuring New York City poet Jahnilli Akbar.

All poets are welcome to compete for the $75 grand prize.

The slam will the first of the 2011-12 season, expected to be more moving, more energetic and more intense because this year, poets will be competing for a slot in Sedona’s first National Poetry Slam Team.

After four years of collaborating with the Flagstaff and Phoenix metro area poetry slam scenes, the Sedona scene has developed the reputation and strength to muster its own team to send to the 2012 National Poetry Slam in Charlotte, N.C., in August. The eventual four-poet team will share the stage with 300 of the top poets in the United States, Canada and Europe, pouring out their words in a weeklong explosion of expression.

Sedona’s Studio Live hosts a poetry slam Saturday, Dec. 3,
starting at 7:30 p.m. featuring New York City poet Jahnilli Akbar.

Jahnilli Akbar

Jahnilli Akbar is a 22-year-old poet and activist, born in Chicago and raised in northern Mississippi. Currently he splits his time between Harlem and Brooklyn, N.Y.

Akbar’s poetry is best defined as an artistic mesh of alternative black, Semitic and queer life in America.

Akbar won the 2010 Rookie of the Year award at the Wade-Lewis Invitational, the second largest colligate slam in the country with more than 100 participants, held at the State University of New York at New Paltz.

Akbar is also the recipient of the 2011 Fresh Fruit Festival Queer Poet of the Year Award. He is a known face on the underground New York City art scene, as part of a movement called the Bushwick Renaissance, and as a member of Ground- Floor Collective, a leftist, African diaspora-based, predominately lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer group of artists. The Ground-Floor Collective, the Brecht Forum & Malcolm X Grassroots Movement curates the annual Black August art show, a fundraiser for political prisoners abroad.

Many stages, venues and spaces have hosted Akbar’s poetry, including Nuyorican Poets’ Café, Bowery Poetry Club, Louder Arts, NYC Intangible Poetry Slam, SUNY New Paltz and the Brooklyn Museum, all in New York, the Seattle Poetry Slam, Chicago’s Mental Graffiti Slam and Wordplay Chicago.

In early November, Akbar published his first book, “Chronicles of a Contemporary Alternative American Negro,” and headed out on tour.

To compete in the slam, poets need at least three original poems, each three minutes long or shorter. No props, costumes or musical accompaniment are permitted. All types of poetry are welcome.

Photo by Harley Deuce

The Dec. 3 slam will be hosted by Sedona poet Christopher Fox
Graham, who represented Northern Arizona on the Flagstaff
team at five National Poetry Slams between 2001 and 2010.

The Dec. 3 slam will be hosted by Sedona poet Christopher Fox Graham, who represented Northern Arizona on the Flagstaff team at five National Poetry Slams between 2001 and 2010.

Sedona National Poetry Slam Team

Competing poets earn points with each Sedona Poetry Slam performance between Dec. 3 and Saturday, May 5. Future slams will take place on Saturdays, Jan. 7, Feb. 18, March 10, April 7 and May 5. Every poet earns 1 point for performing or hosting and 1/2 point for calibrating. First place earns 3 additional points, second place earns 2 and third place earns 1.

Based on points, the top 12 poets in May are eligible to compete for the four slots on the Sedona Poetry Slam Team, which will represent the community and Studio Live at the 2012 National Poetry Slam in Charlotte, N.C.

What is Poetry Slam?

Founded in Chicago in 1984, poetry slam is a competitive artistic sport. 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.

Tickets are $7 in advance and $12 the day of the event, available at Golden Word Books and Music, 3150 W. SR 89A, and online at studiolivesedona.com.

Studio Live is located at 215 Coffee Pot Drive, West Sedona.
For more information, call (928) 282-2688 or visit http://studiolivesedona.com.

Christopher Fox Graham Portrait #20 by Harley Deuce

Photo by Harley Deuce

Christopher Fox Graham Portrait #19 by Harley Deuce

Photo by Harley Deuce

Christopher Fox Graham Portrait #18 by Harley Deuce

Photo by Harley Deuce

Christopher Fox Graham Portrait #17 by Harley Deuce

Photo by Harley Deuce

Christopher Fox Graham Portrait #16 by Harley Deuce

Photo by Harley Deuce

Christopher Fox Graham Portrait #15 by Harley Deuce

Photo by Harley Deuce

Christopher Fox Graham Portrait #14 by Harley Deuce

Photo by Harley Deuce