Denver 40 Oz. Poetry Slam Approaching

For those who don't already know, I'm a part of Oklahoma's performance poetry scene and a member of Oklahoma City's only poetry slam venue, Red Dirt Poetry, where I currently hold the position of Slammaster.

This upcoming weekend, I'll be taking a team to Denver, CO, for the 10th annual Denver 40 oz. Poetry Slam.

The team I'm taking features not only members from previous Red Dirt Poetry Slam team members, but two high school students from the metro area, newcomers to our scene, making this both their first away-from-home poetry event and my first venture into coaching and working with youth poets.  The competition is going to include some pretty stiff competition, but I'm proud of the work we have put in as a team and that the girls have put in over the past couple weeks preparing.  

It will be interesting to see what happens, but--regardless of outcome--it should be an educational and exciting experience. 

Depending on how this goes, I'm hoping to continue working with youth poets and finding a way to get some poetry writing and performance workshops off the ground in the future.

I suppose I should also mention that my goal as a creative writing major is to eventually teach at the college level and coach my own CUPSI team someday.  It's a lot of effort (currently for no pay) and often goes overlooked, but I think that I will appreciate the work I've put in--both because of the experience and the my resumé--further down the road. 

Hopefully I can post some updates here, but I'm counting on that happening on the Facebook and text messages.  We'll see.

Back to practicing poems and trying to figure out how to contain a short narrative within 1000 or less words (CURSE YOU, DAROOOOH!).