Calgary Poetry Slam Finals!

The Calgary International Spoken Word Festival presents:

Calgary Poetry Slam – FINALS!
& Fund-Raiser with BookTV

Wednesday, July 26, 2006 – 8:00 pm
Beat Niq Jazz & Social Club, 811 1st St SW (downstairs)
Hosts: Sheri-D Wilson & Mark Hopkins
$5

Since February, Calgary poets have been competing on the last Thursday of every month to qualify for a place in the Slam Finals. Now, the finalists from the monthly Slams will go head-to-head for the chance to join the 4-member Calgary Slam Team and represent our city at the Canadian Festival of Spoken Word (October 11-14) in Toronto!

By the end of the night, the team will be formed. Don't miss the electric tension and some of Calgary 's best Slam Poetry!

PLUS:
Special Performances by KIRK MILES and SHERI-D WILSON !

Miles and wilson will be filmed by Toronto's BookTV, representing Alberta in Heart of a Poet, a documentary series that profiles the life, inspiration and performances of working Canadian poets.

This is our chance to show Calgary's diverse, passionate and energetic poetry scene to the rest of Canada, so come out and make some noise for local poets!

All proceeds from the evening will go toward travel costs. You can help our poets fly!

For more info about the Calgary Poetry Slam, visit www.calgaryspokenwordfestival.com

Contact:

sheri-d wilson – 403.686.4292 – sheridwilson@shaw.ca


Artist Bios

Kirk Miles is a Calgary based writer, clown, and arts administrator. His poems have been produced on CBC's Alberta Anthology, and his poetry and short stories have been published by several journals in western Canada. Kirk has participated in numerous festivals including the Expo 86, Calgary Olympic Festival, the Edmonton Street Performers' Festival, the Calgary and Edmonton First Night Festivals and the Calgary Winter Festival.

Kirk also teaches playwriting to Alberta junior high school students and poetry to grades four to six under the Artists in Schools Residency Program funded by the Alberta Foundation for the Arts. Kirk is currently president of the Single Onion Poetry Society, and returned to One Yellow Rabbit Performance Theatre as the Associate Producer for the High Performance Rodeo.

His first book of poetry, The Last Six Minutes of Elvis, was published by Touchwood Press in 2002. He is currently working on a book of poetry about his grandfather and a show for the 2006 High Performance Rodeo called me & Bob & Bob & me.



The Mama of Dada – sheri-d wilson: In 2005, sheri-d wilson was invited to present her work in Ottawa as part of the Alberta Scene celebration to commemorate Alberta 's 100 year centennial, and in 2006 she was honoured with Global TV's Woman of Vision award, and the Stephan G. Stephansson Award for Poetry. She has six collections poetry: Bulls Whip & Lambs Wool , Swerve, Girl's Guide to Giving Head, The Sweet Taste of Lightning, Between Lovers, and Re:Zoom (2005,Frontenac House).

Her CD sweet taste of lightning (arranged by Russell Broom),was accompanied by three VideoPoems produced for BRAVO! TV. Spinsters Hanging in Trees (Gold at Houston Film Festival, three ACE awards, and won 2003 AMPIA for best short or vignette).

Of the beat tradition, in 1989 sheri-d studied at Naropa (The Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics ). sheri-d wilson's work was recently featured on CBC's Word Beat, Sounds like Canada, Canada Reads and ZED TV. In 2003 she won the title Heavyweight of Poetry for the USA in a Bumbershoot Bout against Andrei Codrescu .

She is the founder and Artistic Director of the Calgary International Spoken Word Festival, and a founding member of SWAN (Spoken Word Arts Network) .

www.calgaryspokenwordfestival.com

The Calgary Blow-Out

Eleventh Transmission Call for Submissions
www.eleventhtransmission.org.

Always accepting poetry, fiction, article, photo, and art submission.
more info at www.eleventhtransmission.org/submissions.html

Technology
Deadline July 31, 2006 - coming up!

Daft PunkBy changing the world and changing our relation to it, technology alters not only what we create but our very selves. Whereas once epic poems were remembered and spoken aloud, now a seven digit phone number is too lengthy to recall – not when we have a cell phone to do it for us. Does technology bring us together? When you consider two strangers passing in the night, each talking on their cell phones (or new weapons technology), a case can be made for how technology is, literally, tearing us apart.

Then again, much new media, such as Eleventh Transmission (and this blog) exists only in digital form. New technology and new methods of communication create the possibility of new strategies of struggle and resistance, and of new forms of art. Eleventh Transmission is seeking words and art related to the topic of Technology for the August 7 issue.Original poems, fiction, essays, visual, and audio art are welcome. Please include a short biography with your contribution. The deadline for submission is July 31, 2006. Send your submissions to submissions@eleventhtransmission.org.

Calgary
Deadline August 28, 2006 - You know what they say about the weather.

Halfway between big city and small town. Filthy rich yet without an adequate recycling program (and 3400 homeless!). Hailstorms in July. That’s Cowtown for ya. On Nose Hill Park you are 10 minutes from downtown and you can easily forget you're inside a city, or even that there's anyone else on earth at all. There's something magical about that experience, and there are a few other uniquely Calgary activities that make this city the diverse, vibrant place it is. If you live in Calgary, you certainly have your own ideas about what makes this place what it is.

Share words, poems, and experiences that make this city a unique and vibrant place to live. Tell us about places and people, or that time you took a wrong turn and ended up at Fish Creek Park. Tell us about the pros and cons of our current boom. Tell us even about the weather, because even when you live here it's hard to believe it. Share some cool photos! Deadline for Submission August 28, 2006. Send submissions to submissions@eleventhtransmission.org.

Vancouver Poetry Invasion!

Three Spoken Word Poets Bring the West Coast Noise to Calgary

Thursday, July 20
8:00 pm @ The Soda
211 12th Ave SW
$5 @ the door

Three of Vancouver’s hottest spoken word artists bring their electric wordplay to Calgary on their way to the South Country Fair! Don’t miss these out-of-town poets in an unique and intimate show.

CONTACT: 403.710.0093


Brendan McLeod has been Vancouver's SLAM poetry champion, the Canadian SLAM champ, and finished second in the world at the 2005 World SLAM championships, held in Holland. In the past two years he has toured cross-Canada three times, and four times through Europe as both a solo performer and member of the spoken word/music troupe The Fugitives. His past readings include: the Rotterdam International Poetry Festival, the German National SLAM championships, the Dylan Thomas Festival, and the Canadian Festival of Spoken Word. Excerpts from his first novel were published in the academic journal /Sophia/. He has a MA in Philosophy from the University of Waterloo.

Magpie Ulysses is: freshie faced and full of fertile lap dog take no prisoners lay down in the sunbeam and cry poetics. She has been a member of 3 Vancouver Poetry Slam teams & has performed solo in cities and at festivals small and large across Canada and in the United States. "Her crossover potential appears without limits. Indeed, she is probably nothing less than a pathfinder for a new generation of performance poets whose work on the page will consistently capture and illuminate much of the dynamic vitality and clarity of the live presentation." R.D.Shadowbyrd

RC Weslowski has toured Europe with his poetry, performing on the Eiffel Tower in France and along the Rhine in Germany. He has traveled across Canada and the U.S. individually as well as a 4 time member of the Vancouver Poetry Slam Team (1999-2001 and 2003). His work is bawdy, provocative, iconoclastic, silly and surreal. It is somehow designed to shake and settle a soul all at the same time. RC has also written a children's poetry book called monkey pudding.

July flywheel!

filling Station magazine presents:

The July flywheel!

readings by:

Mathew Ariss
ryan fitzpatrick
Kirk Ramdath

... and hosted by Mark Hopkins!

Thursday, July 13 – 7:00 pm
McNally Robinson – 120 8th Ave SW

This July, where can you find daredevil cowfolk, stomach-churning spins, mini-donuts and super canines? At the Stampede. But if you’re sick of all that cowboy crap, come experience true Calgary culture at the monthly flywheel reading, featuring some of the hottest writers to emerge from the prairies!

CONTACT: Mark Hopkins
710.0093 – mark.c.hopkins@gmail.com

filling Station magazine's flywheel reading series takes place on the 2nd Thursday of every month at McNally Robinson Booksellers.

Mohammad on Robertson on Community

I came across this and thought it might be interesting. Kasey Mohammad comments on notions of community raised by Lisa Robertson. Lisa is here (scroll down, it's the third post), Kasey is here. Discuss.

eleventh.transmission issue 4 online!

Spotlight on Comic Books, and a lot of other great stuff as well.
This issue is STACKED.

www.eleventhtransmission.org

Check it out!