Press Release
First Chicago, then Los Angeles, last year San Francisco, now . . . Gotham!
Well gang, the second season of the Austin City Wide Under 21 Poetry Slam has come to a close. Now, prepare for this city’s Super Bowl of youth poetry, The Slam Off, where 12 youth poets will compete for 4 spots on a team that will represent Austin at the 2006 Brave New Voices International Youth Poetry Slam Festival, this year in New York City.
The 12 teenage poets qualifing for this esteemed event are:
City Wide I: Jonathon ‘Korim’ Sterling (Stony Point H.S.)
Jay Casiano (Reagan H.S.)
Shannon Leigh
City Wide II: Gator
Lyricist
Elisa Chavez (St. Stephens)
City Wide III: Brent Caballero (Stony Point H.S.)
Kelsey Ervin (Midway)
Georgia
City Wide IV: Ghenghis Khan (McNeil H.S.)
Black Prophet
Ruby Wilmann (LBJ H.S.)
The Austin City Wide Under 21 is sure to be the ultimate youth poetry event in Texas. Passion and politics, compassion and comedy, intellect and insight, tragedy and triumph; all will be on display through performances from teenagers that will make you laugh, cry, think, and, if you are not careful, act. These young people will inspire you, move you, and leave you knowing that the future, with our help, will be in very good hands. Proceeds from the Slam Off will help get the top four poets to New York to compete, commune, and network with 300 other teenage writers and thinkers from across the country and around the world.
The Slam Off will also include music from the City Wide’s resident spinner, DJ F. Scott (think about it) and a half-time performance by R&B vocalist extra-ordinaire Thurston Bilal (www.teach1.org). There will also be an Austin City Wide After Party featuring Austin’s #1 rapper (according to the Austin Chronicle’s Best of survey) Bavu Blakes (www.bavublakes.com), bringing energy and consciousness to the mix, and D-Madness (www.d-madness.w4music.com) , the absolutely phenomenal one man rhythm section, playing drums, electric bass and keyboards, not to mention vocals and beat boxing, all at the same time. Like the youth poetry slam, one must see D-Madness to believe it. Both Bavu and D-Madness are features this year in SXSW.
So, this is a show that you DO NOT want to miss. Come see the brilliance of Austin’s youth and a great evening of musical performances at the 2006 Austin City Wide Under 21 Slam Off. This event is sponsored by the Texas Youth Word Collective, a non-profit youth literacy program (www.txywc.org).
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