Southern Fried Poetry Slam is coming to the Bull City—Durham, North Carolina

May 27, 2009 - PRLog -- Durham, NC--- The Bull City is known for its many cultural events, but the Southern Fried Poetry Slam may be one of the most unique to come to town yet.  Founded by poet Allan Wolf in 1993, the first Southern Fried Poetry Slam was held in Asheville, North Carolina. It has grown into one of the largest poetry competitions in the United States. This event travels to a different southern city annually. Poets from around the country will descend upon Durham, North Carolina, June 4 -6, 2009, due to the efforts of the St. Joseph’s Historic Foundation - Hayti Heritage Center.

Moon Pie, RC Cola & Cash
Blame it on the eccentricity of its founder, Allan Wolf that he declared that the poets would be competing for a year’s supply of RC Cola and Moon Pie. The combination of which, used to be a typical factory workers lunch. Today the poets work is still rewarded with RC Cola and Moon Pie but cash prizes are also given. “The competition will be fierce, so even in this economy we’ve strived to make the cash prizes attractive,” states Janella Sellars, Development Director for the Foundation and chief organizer of the Southern Fried event.

Over three days teams and independent spoken word artists from mostly southern cities (and many beyond), will compete head to head on local stages. It’s not uncommon to find an individual who has lived through the struggles of the streets, and a teacher living in the suburbs swaying the same crowd, and sharing the same stage.  Spoken Word give individuals a medium to project ones’ feelings, and emotions, while creating a connection with a diverse crowd that isn’t limited by race, sex, or social class.  They prepare for months in order to be on stage for mere minutes.  To earn the coveted prizes, individuals and teams of poets compete in three preliminary bouts of competition. The top eight individual poets and four highest ranking teams after preliminaries earn a spot in the finals. In each bout the poets are scored numerically between zero and ten by a panel of five judges who have been selected randomly from the audience. At a poetry slam the audience plays another integral role in the process by attempting to sway the judging with their responses to the poems and the judge’s scores. No poet that performs is beyond constructive critique, yet all poets are dependent upon the goodwill of the audience.  

It’s a City Affair
With participants coming from around the country, Durham can expect an economic bump.  Various restaurants, coffee houses and clubs will see increased traffic due to them hosting the free- to- the- public preliminary Southern Fried competitions.  Businesses such as the Pinhook, Blue Coffee, 108 Morris Street, Rigsbee Hall and the Hayti Heritage Center, will all serve as sites for the preliminaries.  In a move that will enhance town-grown relations, Duke University’s Reynolds Theater will be the venue for the Southern Fried Poetry Slam Finals. Guest performances by recording artists, Camp Lo and 9th Wonder are highly anticipated. The Slam Finals will be hosted by national touring spoken word artists, Poem-Cees.

To learn more about the 17th Annual Southern Fried Poetry Slam, or to purchase tickets for Slam Finals, visit: http:// www.southernfried2009.org

Editor’s Note: The complete schedule for the preliminary events, and the hi-res photos of the celebrity guests will be available upon request.

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