NATIONAL POETRY SLAM 2011 VENUES ANNOUNCED
Central Square Businesses to Provide Lodging and Competition Locations as
Boston and Cambridge Hosts National Team Poetry Competition
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
*CAMBRIDGE*, Mass., June 23, 2011 — The Boston Poetry Slam and Poetry Slam,
Inc. today announced the official bout venues for the 2011 National Poetry
Slam. The 2011 National Poetry Slam (NPS 2011) will be held in Central
Square, Harvard Square and the Back Bay, the week of August 9-13, 2011. This
volunteer-run event brings together 72 competing teams of poets from around
the country for an epic tournament to be held in nine venues across the
area.
“We are very grateful for the support of these wonderful performance spaces,
and can hardly wait to share them with the poets traveling from all over the
country to compete in NPS,” said Host City Director Simone Beaubien. “We’re
also looking forward to sharing the great audience that our poetry slams
generate with these generous local businesses.”
The official NPS 2011 host hotel, where competing poets can find lodging the
week of the event, is Le Meridien-MIT, located at 20 Sidney Street in
Central Square (www.lemeridien.com/cambridge)
selected as bout venues, where team competitions will be held, include:
-
All Asia Cuisine & Cocktail Bar, 332 Mass. Ave., Cambridge (
www.allasiabar.com)
-
The Brattle Theater, 40 Brattle St., Cambridge (http://brattlefilm.org)
-
Café 939, 939 Boylston St., Boston (www.cafe939.com)
-
Cambridge Family YMCA Theatre, 820 Mass. Ave., Cambridge (
www.cambridgeymca.org)
-
Cantab Lounge, 738 Mass. Ave., Cambridge (www.cantab-lounge.com)
-
The Democracy Center, 45 Mt. Auburn St., Cambridge (
www.democracycenter.org)
-
Lizard Lounge, 1667 Mass. Ave., Cambridge (www.lizardloungeclub.com)
-
Middle East Restaurant and Nightclub, 480 Mass. Ave., Cambridge (
www.mideastclub.com)
In addition, several other businesses in Central Square will be hosting
workshops and non-competitive readings.
“Twenty years ago, I wasn’t too sure about running a poetry event, but these
guys have been packing people into my basement since they started back in
1991,” said Cantab Lounge owner Richard “Fitzie” Fitzgerald. “I’m giving
them the run of the whole bar for the week, and I’ll bet we see sellout
crowds.”
The finals of NPS 2011 will be held Saturday, August 13 at the Berklee
Performance Center at the Berklee College of Music, 136 Mass. Ave., Boston (
www.berkleepc.com). This electrifying finale to a week-long competition will
pit the top four teams in a winner-take-all battle for the title of NPS 2011
team champion.
“Berklee College of Music is honored to host the final competition of the
National Poetry Slam,” said Berklee Liberal Arts Chair Camille
Colatosti.“As the premiere college of contemporary music, Berklee
supports all artists
and is proud to provide space for performance poets to express their own
voices. Our own Berklee Poetry Slam Team students have much to learn from
the finalists who will grace the Berklee Performance Center Stage.”
Passes <http://nps2011.com/> for National Poetry Slam 2011 are now on sale
to the general public. For more on the NPS2011 venues, including location
and contact information, go to http://nps2011.com/getting-around/venue-map/.
———–
About the National Poetry Slam
The National Poetry Slam is America’s biggest team poetry slam. Held every
year since 1990, it is the definitive showcase for competitive performance
poetry. Billed as “the competitive art of performance poetry,” Slam was
invented in Chicago in July 1986 by construction worker-turned-poet Marc
Smith. It is a fast-paced competition where poets have a limited amount of
time to impress randomly selected judges from the audience. Storytelling,
lyricism, and stand-up comedy all come together in what’s evolved to a
modern oral tradition. This year, the 22nd annual National Poetry Slam will
be held in Boston, Massachusetts, and expects to draw a record number of
teams. For more information, visit http://nps2011.com. Follow NPS2011 on
Twitter @nationalslam, or on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/NPS2011.
