Sunday Nights

Hosted by Dave Keali'i, Liz Heath and occasional others.

The Poets' Asylum now meets at The Q, a cafe located at 362 Chandler Street in Worcester.

The Poets' Asylum reading is the weekly Sunday night open poetry reading, feature and slam event run by the Worcester Po8ry Project, a group of poets and lovers of poetry dedicated to advancing poetry in performance in Worcester. The reading is open to all poets and writers, all ability levels, all styles, all ages with no constraints on content or language.

The average Sunday night at the Asylum consists of an open reading, followed by a 30-40 minute reading by a spotlighted (also known as a featured) poet. About once a month there's an open slam - a friendly competition judged by randomly chosen audience members. More info on the Slam can be found by clicking the Slam button on the left.

The Asylum runs on a no cover, donation-bucket philosophy. The money collected in the bucket goes to pay the feature and support the reading. Please give generously when the bucket comes your way!

While it has had many homes over the years the Poets' Asylum current resides at the The Q Cafe, 362 Chandler Street in Worcester. We appreciate the space & opportunity Emilie has given us for the reading. We ask that you help support her business by enjoying the great coffee, fine sandwiches, and rich desserts they offer. Please tip the servers as well, they work hard keeping us caffeinated and deserve to receive the rewards of their labor.

Click here for directions to the The Q Cafe.

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The Schedule - Sunday night features include internationally known poets, local talent and the ever popular slam. Here's what's happening over the next month.

May 18	Logan Phillips writes from the most intricate and deeply set valve of his heart. His words are bilingual, binational and accessible to all. He breaks borders with his breath and rips down walls with words. His poetry melts cultures into people, languages into pure communication and races into humanity. He is the young voice of the southwest. His work is like no other in the poetry scene from style to subject matter he is perfectly unique. His performance is passionate as his words simply take him over. You will not be the same person after hearing him speak. Visit dirtyverbs.com for a sample of his work.
May 25	It's time for the 2008 Worcester Slam Finals. The top finishers this week will represent Worcester at the 2008 Nationals being held in Madison, WI in August. Join us as Adam Stone, Ryk McIntyre, Bobby Gibbs, Trevor Byrne-Smith and the winners of the May 4th Spring Semi-final Slam compete in three rounds of poetic mayhem. It's bound to be a hot night with great poetry and top rate performances from everyone. Please join us and help decide who will represent Worcester at the 2008 National Poetry Slam.
June 1	This week we welcome Cantab Slammaster and members of the 2008 Cantab Slam team, Simone Beaubien. Simone beaubien, eight-year-veteran of the New England poetry scene, makes her home in suburban Massachusetts, working as an EMT and hosting the Boston Poetry Slam at the Cantab Lounge. She has competed at five National Poetry Slams since 2001 and has performed her work in colleges, bookstores, theaters and bars up and down the east coast. A lifetime nerd and part-time athlete, Simone is a natural product of the sound of Boston performance poetry, bringing slam, sonnets and storytelling to the poetry stage.
06/08	Tonight we welcome the dynamic duo of Shanny Jean and Jane Cassady. Jane Cassady's new chapbook (Turtle Ink Press) is called A Light Wallflower Panic. She's working on a collaboration with indie-pop musician Gregg Yeti under the band name "The Suddenly Nervous". She has appeared in The November 3rd Club, The Comstock Review, Valley of the Contemporary Poets, and others. She's featured at such venues as Valley Contemporary Poets in Los Angeles, GotPoetry in Providence, RI, Two Idiots Peddling Poetry in Orange, CA, and Poets Versus Comics at The Bowery Poetry Club in NYC. She has a degree in Art History from Syracuse University. Shanny Jean is a pocket of nervous who's new chapbook (Turtle Ink Press) is called Homebody Is Where the Heart Is. She is a baker, wife, legal assistant and dog owner who has featured at the likes of Urbana Poetry Slam in Manhattan, Mental Graffiti in Chicago and her mother's living room where she performed for all of her mom's friends. She was a co-host of the Ear Candy Poetry Slam in the puntastically named Normal, IL where she bachelors degreed it up at Illinois State University.

Looking further out here are some of the great features and events coming up...   Annual Asylum Auction (06/15), iWPS qualifier (06/22) and Ryk McIntyre (06/29).

Sou MacMillan handles the booking and schedule for the Poets' Asylum. If you're a touring poet who will be in the area please drop a note to booking@poetsasylum.org to see if we can work something out.

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Open Reading Guidelines

• Sign-up for the open reading starts around 7:00 p.m. The list can fill up quickly so get there early if you want to be assured a spot.

• The reading usually starts between 7 and 7:30 p.m. Remember though, the reading is run by poets and sometimes we have a very relaxed relationship with time.

• You can read 1-2 poems. Spots in the book are designated as either 1 or 2 poem slots. Please pay attention to which slot you sign-up in; don't put the host in a bad position by reading more than you sign-up for.

• There's a three minute limit per poem, or a five minute limit if you're doing two pieces.

• There's a microphone, although whether or not you use it is up to you. The space we're in eats sound so it's suggested that most folks make use of the mic.

• No musical instruments, please... although on RARE occasions the host might allow it for a change of pace. Best to ask ahead of time.

• Have fun!!! We do what we do because we love it... we hope you love it too... so don't be afraid to show that.

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Features and Slams

Features are 30 to 40 minute performances by (usually) a single poet. This is a chance to hear a voice in depth. The Asylum regularly hosts features by the best of the local, regional, national and even international performance poetry scene. This is a chance to see and hear some of this genre's finest artists up close.

Slams are the poetic equivalent of jousting. About once a month up to eight poets face off in a two round competition. Five randomly selected judges from the audience use Olympic style scoring to render their opinions on original work performed by the poets. The top two winners of each slam face off in a semi-final competition held twice a year. At the end of the season of slams, usually in May, a final slam is held pitting the top finishers from each of the semi-finals. The top scorers in the finals represent Worcester at the National Poetry Slam Championship held each year somewhere in the USA in August.

If you've never seen a slam c'mon down and check it out. They're a lot of fun. We don't take it too seriously, you'll be treated to poets giving you their all and YOU can be the judge of how well they gave what they had to give! More info on can be found on our Slam page.

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Miscellaneous

If you're a touring poet who'll be in the area drop a note to host@poetsasylum.org and let's see if we can work something out.

Got a question about the Poets' Asylum? Drop us a line at webmaster@poetsasylum.org.

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