This in from Lindsay:  “Check out the 2009 Tucson Slam Team at the Surly Wench Pub for the official release of our new CD, This Is Some Feminist Shit! Featuring brand spankin’ new tracks by Doc Luben, Lindsay Miller, Maya Asher, Mickey Randleman, and Laura Lacanette, as well as group work the likes of which you’ve never heard before, this CD is available for $10 and comes in five delicious flavors.”

The team takes the stage at 10 pm on Saturday, July 18 at the Surly Wench Pub, 424 N 4th Ave, for this 21+ show.  It’ll cost you $5.  They promise to perform tracks from the CD as well as a variety of exciting surprises.

If there’s anybody out there that doesn’t know what a poetry slam is, Poetry Slam, Inc. gives this definition “. . . a competitive event in which poets perform their work and are judged by members of the audience. Typically, the host or another organizer selects the judges, who are instructed to give numerical scores (on a zero to 10 or one to 10 scale) based on the poets’ content and performance.”

Ocotillo Poetry Slam is Tucson’s homegrown addition to the national scene and the Slam Team members are the winners of this years competition. They will represent us at the nationals.

You can usually catch a slam at Bentley’s House of Coffee and Tea on the 2^nd and 4^th Saturday of the month but I don’t know the summer schedule so better check before you go.  For info on how to compete go to Ocotillo’s page at Poetry Slam.com

For more information and to get on the email list contact Lindsay at linzm@email.arizona.edu.

In determining what is Spoken Word and who is a Spoken Word artist, we decided to spread the definition net wider rather than narrower.  Slam poets memorize their words.  Monologists read them.  Storytellers tell them.  Authors read from their books.  Comediennes do what they do.  Bookstores, cafes and libraries host spoken word events.

So in this blog I’ll be referring to Spoken Word as any performance where the word is spoken ~ poetry slam, storytelling, author reading, stand-up, performance art and things we haven’t even thought of yet.  And that’s the exciting thing about this ancient and brand new art form.

Implied in all this, of course, is that there are listeners.  The audience completes the experience.

Events can be multigenerational or devoted to a particular age group; they can invite the wider community or be geared to a specific population; they can be open to the public or presented to a select audience.

Our goals for Words On Fire were to create an audience by educating people as to the diversity, interest and fun of Spoken Word events, create a central coordinated resource and calendar,  coordinate dates so that we don’t compete and collaborate on Spoken Word “festivals”, however they might evolve.

Very ambitious, which might be why the energy ebbed for WoF.  Now it’s flowing again.  Let me know about your events and I’ll do my best to include them in this blog.