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