Well, the gods and circumstances were not with us this year, and the 2006 Eugene Slam Team decided not to attend the West Coast Regionals this year.
Definitely a bummer, as it would've been fun, but it was ultimately too much money and too much travel and much too soon after the Oregon Country Fair.
However, the Bend Poetry Slam did attend, which is pretty awesome, particularly since their slam is new.
The 9th Annual West Coast Championship Poetry Slam happens this Saturday & Sunday, July 15th & 16th, 2006 at the Henry Miller Library, Hwy 1 South, a mile past Nepenthe Restaurant in Big Sur, California. Tickets are $15.00 each day online, by phone at 877-548-3237, and $18.00 at the door. Two-day ticket passes are also available. Gates open at 12 pm both days. For more information go to www.westcoastslam.com.
10 cities are represented: Bend, Oregon, Palo Alto, Oakland/Team HYPHY, Los Angeles/Elements, Los Angeles/Green, Modesto, Hollywood, San Jose, Berkeley and Ventura. They will compete for the title taken in 2005 by Albuquerque, NM, with some of the hottest performance poets on the West Coast. As well as $2,000 in cash prizes. Saturday will see all teams perform in two separate bouts, and Sunday's show will have the top 4 teams going head to head.
Our Master of Ceremonies, Jerry Quickley, is a poet, journalist and radio host based in Los Angeles. Jerry is a three-time Los Angeles Poetry Grand Slam winner, and a multiple National Poetry Slam finalist. He's been featured in anthologies, magazines, and newspapers including Time Magazine and the Los Angeles Times, and has performed his poems on Lifetime and CNN. He recently was commissioned by The Mark Taper Forum, and The Royal National Theatre of Great Britain, to write and perform "Live From the Front", a play about his experiences as a journalist and filmmaker in Iraq before, and during the war. A native New Yorker, Quickley is host of the popular Pacifica Radio Network show "Beneath the Surface" on KPFK 90.7 FM in Los Angeles.
Music for the show comes from a DJ Jedi, a 12-year veteran of countless parties and local clubs. JEDI quietly gained notoriety in the Los Angeles hip-hop and spoken word community by being the resident deejay at the weekly open mic Green (home of the 2003 National Champion L.A. Slam Team).
For the past four years, along with partner in crime Pocho Joe, he's served as resident selector for the teen-only high-school open mic Downbeat 720 (and more recently, its television spin-off, Downbeat Showdown, nominated for a 2006
Emmy) in Santa Monica, California. In 2004, he traveled as the in-house DJ for Russell Simmons Tony Award-winning Def Poetry Jam on Tour, which allowed him to perform in noteworthy venues from the World Famous Apollo Theatre in New York to the Sydney Festival in Australia. And in 2005 he worked with Hip Hop favorites Digable Planets, on their reunion tour.
The Henry Miller Library will once again host this event. Just a mile past Nepenthe Restaurant on Highway 1, surrounded by Redwoods, and home to a collection of Henry Miller's works, it is an exciting venue for this spoken word festival. Magnus Toren, the library's Curator says, "We are so excited, once again, to be the venue for this event. We've had an extremely busy year hosting many new events but the slam is always a highlight."
Carpooling is strongly recommended. Tickets are general admission. It is an outdoor event with lawn seating. Chairs are available. Audience members may bring lawn chairs and weather appropriate clothing is recommended. Food and beverages, provided by The Redwood Grille. On-site massage therapy services, brought to you by CorAlchemy, will be available for purchase.
©2005-2008 Barbara L.M. Handley
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