We are Proletariat Bronze
 
I have to admit, I'm totally slipping on updating this thing. We've been pretty busy with life. We're still around. Still writing. Still going strong. Life though, has a way of trying to take all your damn attention. Anyway Jaylee will be coming back to the Bay first week of April and will be featuring at Tourettes Without Regrets and at the Vagabond Ballroom the next day. Details will be forthcoming.
 
Time
Wednesday, December 1 · 8:30pm - 11:30pmLocationThe Starry Plough Pub
3101 Shattuck Avenue
Berkeley, CACreated ByBerkeley Poetry SlamMore InfoThe Individual World Poetry Slam is coming up Dec 8-11 in Charlotte, NC so in anticipation of that, we have invited all the local poets who are representing the Bay Area in this competition and some representatives from each of the local venues to come together on Dec. 1st at the Berkeley Poetry Slam and give you one hell of a show! 

Poets who will be competing this night are:

Sevan
Jason Bayani
Queen D
Kim Johnson
Dre
The Saint
Patrick
Kevin Holmes


Your host will be National Spoken Word hero the Mighty Mike McGee! 

And we have an awesome feature for you: National Poetry Slam finalist, New York's own Jive Poetic! 

About JIVE POETIC:
Jive Poetic received his BA in Media Studies from the State University of New York at Buffalo. After graduation he was one of two poets selected by the US Embassy to represent American slam poetry as a part of an international cultural exchange program in Warsaw, Poland. Jive Poetic has preformed and collected slam titles in various other countries including Amsterdam, Canada, Germany and The United Kingdom.

In 2003, Jive Poetic was a member of the Nuyorican Poet’s Café’s National Slam team ranking second in the nation as a team and 10th individually. He was also the Grand Slam Champion of Pensacola, Florida in 2004; as well as a member of the 2004 Providence Rhode Island Slam Team, the 2005 Louder Arts Slam team and the 2006 Brooklyn Slam team.

He is the co-founder of The SOUNDBITES POETRY FESTIVAL, the only performance poetry festival in New York City and currently hosts the open slam at Nuyorican Poets Café.

When he is not on tour or hosting Jive Poetic teaches performance poetry and hip hop workshops. Recently Jive has released his latest album, PERPENDICTIVE and lives in Brooklyn, New York.


THE STARRY PLOUGH
3101 Shattuck Avenue, 510-841-2082
(1 block uphill from the Ashby BART).
EVERY WEDNESDAY
$150 Cash Prizes.
Sign-up: 7:30 p.m. Show: 8:30 p.m.
ALL AGES before 10 p.m.
Hosts: Betsy Gomez, Jamie DeWolf, Lucky 7, and Dre.
FUNDRAISER: $10 Door
http://www.myspace.com/berkeleypoetryslam
 
What up y'all, Jason here. I thought I'd link you to a pretty bad ass poem by one of my fellow Kundiman fellows. Her name is Willie Lin, and she's bad with it. Plus I taught her all my best dance moves. So not only is she a dope poet, but she can add Jason Bayani school of dance to her many lists of accomplishments.

http://linebreak.org/poems/aboriginal/

Read the poem damnit, you won't regret it.
 
By Small And Small: Midnight To 4 a.m.
by Jack Gilbert


For eleven years I have regretted it, 
regretted that I did not do what 
I wanted to do as I sat there those 
four hours watching her die. I wanted 
to crawl in among the machinery 
and hold her in my arms, knowing 
the elementary, leftover bit of her 
mind would dimly recognize it was me 
carrying her to where she was going.

 
http://dmlcentral.net/blog/danah-boyd/bullying-has-little-resonance-teenagers



Read this article. No doubt the issue of bullying in schools has become a huge problem. The thing is, in the rush to name what this is, have we completely looked over the people who this impacts the most? Have we named this incorrectly or simply not taken into account that there is more to this than we are acknowledging right now. Have we modeled behavior that encourages conflict and "drama"? Have we rewarded this behavior. And in this need to understand what is happening to our young people, are we putting the focus on ourselves more than we are them?
 
We finally got this website mostly up and running. We got some new videos, new pictures, and all that. Also, our store is open for business so if you haven't copped our new CD, then what you waiting for!?

So keep your eye on this space, because we'll be quite active over here, blogging, putting up writing prompts and exercises, maybe some reviews, or links to things we find around the Interwebs.

And last but not least, this April we did a show in Minneapolis at the Loft Literary Center. And now, you can see the entire show on youtube. Here's a sample. And in honor of the massive whoopin' Manny Pacquiao put on Antonio Margarito here's a duet by Jason and Mesej.


http://www.youtube.com/user/LoftLiteraryCenter#p/c/D5FF8448A86CC5B5