Poetry Things This Week

Dear Slamily: Get your notebooks and your cough drops and prepare yourselves for the most poetry-saturated week of excellence ever.

Friday (tonight!), 11/12 & Saturday, 11/13
Diwali

For the first time WU-SLam is a part of Wash U's annual Diwali performance - so exciting! The Diwali show is organized by Ashoka (Wash U's South Asian student organization) and it combines music, dance, fashion, and theater, and now poetry. Come for a colorful multicultural experience, and see P-Crew's own Fiona O'Leary Sloan and Gabe Cralley perform a group piece on this year's theme, "Love in the Time of Partition."
Friday @ 7:00pm, Saturday @ 12:00pm & 6:30pm; Edison Theatre

Monday, 11/15
Inklings

Inklings Writing Workshop as per usual. This week's prompt will be inspired by the poetry of Sierra DeMulder, who will feature in the November Slam on Friday.
8:30-10:30pm, Ursa's Fireside

Tuesday, 11/16
Louder Than a Bomb Documentary at the Tivoli

Join the WU-SLam crew at the Tivoli Theater to see this documentary about Louder Than A Bomb (LTAB), Chicago's youth slam competition. WU-SLam president Lauren Banka says, "I've seen it and it's absolutely phenomenal. Beyond being just incredibly well-made, it's really inspiring as to the real impact of poetry and slam poetry in particular on people's lives. Kevin Coval, the co-founder of LTAB, will be in town to talk about the film." Facebook event here.
7:00pm, Tivoli Theater on the Delmar Loop
(meet us at 6:15pm in Whisper's Cafe to walk down together)

Wednesday, 11/17
Poetry Workshop with Kevin Coval

Kevin Coval, Chicago poet and co-founder of Louder Than a Bomb, will host an open writing workshop this Wednesday. Kevin says, "i like intimacy. so the wednesday reading/workshop can be about new work and producing new work. it would be great to get the slammers who are rehearsing that night to be a part of it if possible. perhaps a feedback session... i would like to share some new work and talk maybe about producing new work and as a writer staying writing. it would be cool to hear from folks and offer feedback and talk about building a collection." Facebook event here.
8:00-10:00pm, DUC Room 236

Thursday, 11/18
Persian Poetry Night

WU-SLam Performance Crew has been invited to perform a few poems at a Persian Poetry Night event. More on this as soon as I hunt down the details. It sounds like quite an interesting experience.
Time & location TBA

Friday, 11/19
November Poetry Slam ft. Sierra DeMulder

This month's big shebang and this crazy week's real poetry shindig is WU-SLam's November Poetry Slam, hosted by 2009 NPS winner, Sierra DeMulder. Sierra hails from Minneapolis, Minnesota, where she is a member of the Intangibles Spoken Word Collective. Her poetry is personal and intense and she doesn't shy away from the grotesque. In this penultimate slam of the semester, 8 poets compete for 2 slots in January's Grand Slam: you decide who moves on. Facebook event here.
7:30pm, College Hall (on the Wash U South 40 Residential Area)

Saturday, 11/20
Poetry Workshop with Sierra DeMulder

After featuring in the November Slam, the beasty poetess Sierra DeMulder will stick around to teach a writing workshop to any interested parties. Hear some wisdom from a published poet and veteran of the slam team, and get your post-slam inspiration down on paper. Facebook event here.
1:00-3:00pm, DUC Room 236

So that's our busy, busy week. There are a crap-ton of amazing opportunities crammed into just a few days - I hope there's at least one thing that fits into your schedule. If you come to nothing else, check the slam in the brand new Hogwarts-esque College Hall. There's nothing like the energy of a full house at a poetry slam.

Love, poems, squids.

> Facebook event for Louder Than a Bomb documentary
> Facebook event for Kevin Coval's workshop
> Facebook event for November Poetry Slam ft. Sierra DeMulder
> Facebook event for Sierra DeMulder's workshop

Breathe Exhibition and Vigil for Awakening

WU-SLam Performance Crew has two engagements tonight. Both will be highly worth your time, so see if you can shuffle your study schedule around and stop by for awhile.

RARA's Breathe: An Art Exhibition on Pollution

The art-school-powerhouse student group Residential Area Real Art is holding an opening for their latest show tonight from 5:00-6:30pm in the DUC Visitor's Lounge. There will be work by Wash U artists, fancypants reception food, and spoken word performances by a few of WU-SLam's own. Mayhap you'll see pollution in a new way.

Vigil for Awakening

WU-SLam poets will contribute their voices to a candlelight vigil tonight in Bowles Plaza (outside Mallinckrodt) from 7:00-8:00pm.

From the Facebook event:

"Join us in silence on Thursday as we hold a candlelight vigil for Tyler Clementi and all LGBTQIA youth who have suffered from the hatred and intolerance that exists in this country. At least five of our youth have taken their own lives in the last three weeks. We are mourning this loss and wish to contribute to a world-wide movement to acknowledge the presence of suffering LGBT youth everywhere. With strength through unity, we fight injustice."

> Breathe: An Art Exhibition on Pollution Facebook event
> Vigil for Awakening Facebook event

Haiku: WUrkshop starts tonight/creative writers unite/and edit real good

Hear ye, poets and fictioneers and playwrights and such like!
Tonight is the first ever meeting of WUrkshop, WU-SLam's brand new intensive creative writing workshop.

Come by Mudd Library on the Wash U South 40 from 8:00 to 10:00pm for some intense creative writing workshoppin' action.

If you're going to the Jonathan Safran Foer lecture, you will still be loved if you come in afterwards. So loved. You don't even know.

WUrkshop is WU-SLam's latest initiative (along with a few gestating things, like the regional slam and a spoken word pre-o. But keep that on the downlow). This is a big step for us in part because it's open to all kinds of creative writing - whomever come who may! We hope to fill a void within WU-SLam with a strictly writing-focused space, and also to get to know the rest of the diverse writers in the Wash U community.

A brief history: WUrkshop was initially the project of senior p-crew poet Eric Rosenbaum. He wanted to start a small, semi-underground group for people interested in honing their writing craft and otherwise geeking out about words together. However, Eric's life has been recently high-jacked by senior year, so the WU-SLam gang has taken over, for better or worse. WUrkshop is an organ of the WU-SLam animal, but in some ways it's a different beast altogether. Or it's WU-SLam's beret-clad rebel child. Or we're a colonial mission from Slam-land, venturing into literary and craft-focused territory -- venturing in search of apter metaphors.

In any case, I'm super excited to see writers from all kinds of different backgrounds come and comment on each other's work. I think a fiction writer could say some really novel things to a poet and vice versa, and the same goes for all other genres (see the Facebook event for an extensive list). Having so many uniquely discerning eyes will be indescribably baller.

WUrkshop will henceforth meet every other Thursday from 8:00-10:00pm in Mudd Library, until further notice.

I hope to see you all there, pens at the ready!

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Kim is WU-SLam's Vice-President of Publicity. She is studying Communication Design and sometimes she eats vegetarian meatloaf.