SLAMbassadors UK

The Poetry Society is proud to announce that Adisa the Verbalizer will be judging this year’s SLAMbassadors Championship alongside Artistic Director Joelle Taylor. Adisa exploded onto the London performance poetry scene in 1993 and was championed as the ‘future of poetry’ by Benjamin Zephaniah.  Adisa is a keen supporter of SLAMbassadors UK and is looking forward to seeing your entries!

First Slam videos up online now – click here to view!

Previous Slam winner Chris Preddie, aka Cashman performs live at the Word Cup.

Cashman is now a SLAMbassadors Mentor and performs live at venues across the country. What could SLAMbassadors do for you? What are you waiting for? Enter here!

Chris Preddie and Sin1 with Leeds Young Authors

I have just returned from the phenomenal Word Cup organised by Apples & Snakes. Nine regions brought together slam teams culled from schools in their local areas, and slammed it out live on the evening of Saturday 10th July to a packed theatre at the Contact in Manchester. What. A. Gig. The SLAMbassadors performed as a featured (non competing) act, with a blistering set from Sin1, Sarah Olowofoyeku, and Chris Preddie – and I joined the judges Riz Emcee and Charlie Dark to select the winning team which was: Yorkshire! Big up Leeds Young Authors. The best performance award went to the South West, and the team with most spectacular lines was the North West. And all the way through, Leeds Young Authors led the chant ‘It’s not about the competition, it’s about the poetry!!!’. Couldn’t have put it better myself.

What a lot of people don’t understand about slam is that it is not about the the 2-3 minutes on stage. It isn’t even about the weeks of writing and rehearsal that goes in to creating a team piece – it’s about the bits you don’t see, the underbelly of creative energy, the artistic community, the intellectual acrobatics and the life-long friendships that are founded through these events.

Most of all, it’s about a little white van that waits outside the gig gates…(when you’re old enough, you will be invited in to freestyle and cypher til your lips drape down to your knees).

Thank you Chris, Sin1 and Sarah for making me the proudest coach in show business.

Joelle Taylor

SLAMbassadors Artistic Director Joelle Taylor and some of our previous winners will be running workshops and performing live at the FUSE Festival in Kensington Gardens on Sunday 25th July. FUSE is London’s most ambitious one-day free arts festival designed with and for young people. Organised by the Royal Parks to enable you to share your creativity, explore new ways of expressing yourself, see what others are doing and share in the excitement.

So come along and have a go at writing and performing – and we will film you for entry into SLAMbassadors UK! No booking necessary – just come along on the day. See the website for more details of the Poetry Society’s SLAMbassadors workshops.

SLAMbassadors2010eflyer

If you would like some SLAMbassadors posters to display in your school or youth or community group, please get in touch – email Bea here