Slam chance

Photo from Asheville Youth Poetry's Facebook page.

Sixteen Youth poets compete for slots on this year’s Grand Slam Championship team.

Slam Asheville Youth gears up for Grand Slam, the team selection which will send six poets to the Youth Grand Slam Championship. The selection event takes place on Tuesday, April 22, at 7 p.m, at NC Stage (15 Stage Ln., Asheville). Tickets are $10 for adults and $7 for students.

According to Slam Asheville Youth representatives, the group has already taken two teams of young poets to the National Championships. That event will be held this July, in Philadelphia. “Slam Asheville Youth has been running two monthly youth poetry slams for over two years now and audiences frequently top 100,” Heidi Freeman, Mel Kelley and Steve Shell said in a letter to Xpress. “Our Soulspeak series at New York Studios often features a theme and poets have used their words to raise awareness and money for several local organizations, most recently raising over $1000 for Manna Food Bank at our Food for Thought, Slam Against Hunger.”

SHARE

Thanks for reading through to the end…

We share your inclination to get the whole story. For the past 25 years, Xpress has been committed to in-depth, balanced reporting about the greater Asheville area. We want everyone to have access to our stories. That’s a big part of why we've never charged for the paper or put up a paywall.

We’re pretty sure that you know journalism faces big challenges these days. Advertising no longer pays the whole cost. Media outlets around the country are asking their readers to chip in. Xpress needs help, too. We hope you’ll consider signing up to be a member of Xpress. For as little as $5 a month — the cost of a craft beer or kombucha — you can help keep local journalism strong. It only takes a moment.

About Alli Marshall
Alli Marshall has lived in Asheville for more than 20 years and loves live music, visual art, fiction and friendly dogs. She is the winner of the 2016 Thomas Wolfe Fiction Prize and the author of the novel "How to Talk to Rockstars," published by Logosophia Books. Follow me @alli_marshall

Before you comment

The comments section is here to provide a platform for civil dialogue on the issues we face together as a local community. Xpress is committed to offering this platform for all voices, but when the tone of the discussion gets nasty or strays off topic, we believe many people choose not to participate. Xpress editors are determined to moderate comments to ensure a constructive interchange is maintained. All comments judged not to be in keeping with the spirit of civil discourse will be removed and repeat violators will be banned. See here for our terms of service. Thank you for being part of this effort to promote respectful discussion.

One thought on “Slam chance

  1. SteveShell

    Actually, the EVENT is The Grand Slam. The top six poets from this event will go on to participate in Brave New Voices, the largest youth poetry slam in the world. The slam at Brave New Voices is the International Youth Poetry Slam. Over 50 teams from around the world come to the festival every year since 2006. Asheville is currently ranked in the top six youth slam teams in the world. We lost to New York City by a single point in Semi-finals last year in Chicago. The two slam series that operated under the SAY banner in 2014 were: AVL/BNV at NC Stage Company and Asheville Soulspeak which operated out of NYS3 studios. We have run an entire competitive season starting in October and ending on April 22.

Leave a Reply

To leave a reply you may Login with your Mountain Xpress account, connect socially or enter your name and e-mail. Your e-mail address will not be published. All fields are required.