Spoken word judged by a live audience with the winners to be printed in an annual journal.

I sat down with co-creator Tatyana Brown to talk about how it works. “Poetry slams, which have been a great way to get audiences involved and interested in spoken word, tend to be shaped both by who the hosts are but also by what the prize is…” She points to the weekly Berkeley Poetry Slam, which awards $100 to each week’s winner, as an example. “Very often, what getting $100 produces is… $100 makes a difference to a working artist in a lot of situations, so you end up doing this thing in your head that’s like ‘do I do this thing that’s a sure bet, or do I do this thing that’s more creatively fulfilling for me to do on stage—that might serve the audience or serve the show better.’” Tatyana, who has toured the country as a performer and as a judge and seen slams where the winner takes a sandwich, or $10 and a twinkie, started to think about how she might change this. Read the rest of this entry »