New England’s Top Spoken Word Artists Gather in Manchester, NH for Two Nights of Poetry Workshops and Competition, Sept. 26 and 27 at Milly’s Tavern
Slam Free or Die, in association with the Poetry Society of New Hampshire, will host the second annual NorthBeast Underground Team Slam (N.U.T.S.), Friday, Sept. 26 and Saturday, Sept. 27, 2014 at Milly’s Tavern in Manchester. The two-day event offers poetry writing and performance workshops and will culminate in a battle of words that will make the winning team $1,000 richer. Area poets are invited to compete, and the poetry battles, or bouts, are open to the public.
On Friday, Sept. 26 at Milly’s Tavern, eight ‘pick-up’ teams can enter to compete in two, 4-team bouts, with the top two teams moving on to an exciting, final “Deathmatch” to decide which one will walk away with a top prize of $1,000 cash. This is especially exciting because this event is the only pick-up team poetry slam event in all of the northeastern U.S. and the largest poetry slam tournament ever held in New Hampshire. ‘Pick-up’ teams allow poets to choose their own teammates (normally, teams are decided through competition) and therefore put together their ‘dream team’ resulting in combinations of poets (and poems) that may seldom or never been seen again outside of this event. Doors open at 7 p.m. and there is a $5 cover for this all-ages show.
On Saturday, Sept. 27, Slam Free or Die and the Poetry Society of New Hampshire will offer writing and performance workshops hosted by local and national guest poets. There will be four 90-minute workshops with the first one starting at 11am. Each one will be unique and hosted by a different special guest poet, some of whom have never hosted workshops in the northeast before. Cost of workshops will range from $5 to $10 (depending on which workshop) and seating is limited so it recommended that people looking to take part arrive early. That same night, Milly’s will be the place for an individual poetry slam in which 10 randomly-selected poets drawn from a pool of interested competitors will face off across three rounds. One winner will walk away with $350. Doors open at 6 p.m. with a $5 cover.
Judges will be needed for both nights of competition. In poetry slam, judges are chosen from the audience and the only qualification needed is that they do not know anyone who is competing. So people who have never been to an event like this before are strongly encouraged to attend and people who have are encouraged to bring their uninitiated friends. People who are eligible to judge will be let in free of charge until enough judges are located for the competition to begin.
“The N.U.T.S. poetry festival and tournament is a mix of National Poetry Slam rules and some unique twists to keep both the poets and the audience on their toes,” explains Mark Palos, SlamMaster of Slam Free or Die. “The teams competing on Friday will be much more diversified and random than national competing teams, and the $1,000 cash prize just adds more incentive for them to bring their best work. The individual poets competing on Saturday can’t just sign-up — they have to be randomly picked, so anyone could end up in the mix.”
Entry fee for each team will be $100. To register a team, go to tinyurl.com/
Entry fee for poets in the individual competition will be $25. Poets interested in competing in the individual slam to win the $350 cash prize, go to tinyurl.com/
