A MESSAGE FROM POETRY LEGEND STEPHEN JAMES SMITH!

Hello,

I must confess this is an email to all the poets I know in the Leinster area.

Reason being there is a chance for you to have some fun and make some money for your words!

This bank holiday Monday 25th of October I will be running the Leinster heat for the All Ireland Slam Final 2010.

It will take place upstairs in The International Bar, 23 Wicklow Street, Dublin 2.

I need to have an idea of the amount poets wishing to recite, hence the email.... so if you are interested please reply to this email.

The plan is I need all poets there for 4pm that wish to 'compete' and the show will start at 5pm sharp! it will be over at around 8pm.

There is an entry fee of €5, now to make it clear this is purely for costs and to pay the winner of the slam.

€70 for 1st place and €30 for 2nd, then in the All Ireland Final a potential €200 for 1st place! (dependent on what we collect, but I expect this to be realistic)

I stand to make nothing.

After that any monies left will go to the Jack and Jill foundation: http://www.jackandjill.ie/ I would hope to have a few bob to give them after all this.

So you can support 'the arts' and a charity all while having a good time, with fellow poets.

Ok so what else do you need to know....

The Slam Rules...

Here are 2 links to give you a bit more insight:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poetry_slam

http://www.poetryslam.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=10&Itemid=25

THE MAIN RULES OUR JUDGES WILL BE LOOKING AT ARE:

Basically the poem has to be no more than 3 mins.
It must be of the poets own constructions.
No props, or music is aloud, singing a song does not count either.
Using a 'cheat sheet' is ok but not advised, you will tend to be deducted marks if you need to read it, so memorising it is best practice.
There will be 3 rounds to the final, the first round will eliminate x amount of poets leaving us with 8 poets in the semi final and 4 in the final. (this is open to change depending on the amount of contestants on the day)
The judges will be coming from different backgrounds, be it poetry, dance, journalism and comedy. They will be scoring on performance of the piece, its content and the audience reaction. (laughter tends to be an easy way of judging audience reaction but stilling an audience is too a worthy reaction and it will be up to the judges to realise this too) They will be awarded 10 points for each of these areas, so obviously a judge can score a maximum of 30, they can use decimal points too to the nearest tenth.

FACEBOOK:

Here are links to the facebook events, please post them to you profile, and tell your friends invite as many as you can please it is in your own interest.

Leinster heat: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=158764797488867

All Ireland Slam Final: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=154485831253577

Here are the poets representing the other provinces that already qualified for the final:

MUNSTER:
Noel King and Fergus Costelloe
ULSTER:
Abby Oliveira and Colin Dardis
CONNAGHT:
Sarah Maria Griff and Dave Rock

If you know of any other poets wishing to recite please pass this email on to them, and encourage all you can to head along on these days! it will be a wonderful celebration of the art of orating a poem!

Also if you write a blog, or have any media connections you might pass the word on to them too please!

Any questions just ask....

Be good now!

SJS

--
Slán Mo Cara

Stephen James Smith
Stiofán Séamus Mac Gabhann
http://www.StephenJamesSmith.com
Poet & MC @ The Glór Sessions (Music & Poetry)

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