artschoolreject asked: Dear Carlos, I am a freshman at Fairleigh Dickinson University and me and friend are looking to create a spoken poetry team at our university. I fell in love with spoken word poetry 3-4 years ago. I even saw your Vitruvius release show @ Bowery with my good friend Lila. I was wondering if you could offer me some advice because I really don’t know where to start. Thank you. -Riaasa
Dear Riaasa,
Here’s a great place to start:
ACUI produces the annual collegiate national poetry slam. I started a spoken word collective/poetry slam team at my university (UPENN) back in 2001 called the Excelano Project.
They now attend college nationals each year – known as CUPSI. Such an incredible festival to attend.
It’s an amazing, ever-expanding movement of passionate, creative people like yourself. I’ve noticed that more and more of the colleges I visit these days are places where they have poetry slam teams (often times they’re the group that brings me in).
So I’d say check out the website and get in touch with them. They’ll be able to give you all the information you need to get something going at Fairleigh Dickinson.
Best of luck!
all my best,
Carlos
