THE ANTI-CAPITALIST ANTI-COMPETITION POETRY SLAM
WE HATE CAPITALIST COMPETITION!
EXPERIENCE THE SCINTILLATING EXCITEMENT OF NON-COMPETITION...
YOU'LL NEVER LOOK BACK!
FUNDRAISER FOR MARXISM 2012
"Rise like lions after slumber
In unvanquishable number
Shake your chains to earth like dew
Which in sleep has fallen on you
Ye are many – they are few,"
- Percy Bysshe Shelley
Inspired by radical socialist poet, Percy Bysshe Shelley, the inaugural Percy Shelley poetry slam will take place on March 13 at Dexters in Clifton Hill. 'Competitors' will get a chance to rouse, inspire or entertain the audience. The poetry slam tradition began among Chicago construction workers in the 1980s and was popularised by socialist Marc Smith, who intended slam to be a mock competition as a means for poetry to reach a wider audience.
Don't let the word 'competition' throw you off if you're a newer poet or never read before. The rules are simple: three minutes to perform or read a poem (original poetry written by yourself) with no props. And the point is the poetry, not who wins.
There will be prizes, audience involvement and far from your traditional poetry reading.
Performances by Santo Cazzati and Benjamin Solah.
$10 entry ($5 high school students). Sign up on the night if you want to 'compete.' And bring a second poem......you never know, you might be catapulted to fame in the GRAND FINAL and be in the running for a truly stupendous FIRST PRIZE (hint : this is a MOCK competition).
The slam is a fundraiser for the Marxism 2012 conference this Easter, featuring the poetry of Pablo Neruda as performed by Santo Cazzati, alongside John Pilger, Malalai Joya, Gary Foley, Mamdouh Habib, Occupy Wall Street activist Leia Pettey and Occupy Tokyo and anti-nuclear activist, Chie Matsumoto - www.marxismconference.org