Poetry Slam
High school students from northwest Wisconsin are invited to perform their original creative writing at a high school poetry slam, which will be sponsored by the University of Wisconsin-Barron County English department on Thursday, April 24.
The event will take place from 11:00 a.m. – 2:00 p.m. in The Commons on the Rice Lake campus. Individuals and classes are encouraged to participate or watch. Contestants must register in advance by contacting Joel Friederich, Assistant Professor of English, at the email address below. There is no charge, and the public is welcome to attend.
A poetry slam is a competition at which poets read or recite original work and are judged on their performance/interpretation. Poetry slams feature a broad range of voices, styles, cultural traditions, and approaches to writing and performance. Some use traditional theatric devices including shifting voices and tones, while others stretch the boundaries of format, tap-dancing or beatboxing or using highly-choreographed movements.
The UW-BC poetry slam will include three rounds in which each participant will be awarded 1-10 points by a panel of UW-Barron County creative writing students. The highest-scoring participants advance to the next round. Participants must prepare three pieces, each up to three minutes long.
I-Pods will be awarded to the top three contestants. All poetry slam participants will receive free enrollment in UW-Barron County three-day writing and ecology seminar that will be taught by professors Joel Friederich and Alex Bezzerides on June 9-11 along with a copy of “A Pilgrim at Tinker Creek” by Annie Dillard that will be used during the seminar.
For more information or to register in advance, e-mail Joel Friederich at joel.friederich@uwc.edu.