Madison-area youth invited to compete in Wisconsin Teen Poetry Slam semi-finals

Top youth poets from Madison and Milwaukee are gearing up to compete for a berth on the 2012 Wisconsin Youth Poetry Slam Team, which will represent the state at the national Brave New Voices International Youth Poetry Slam Festival in California this coming summer.

The public is invited to attend the free semi-final slam competitions. The All-Alternative School open semi-final competition for high school students in the Madison area will be held Wednesday, Feb. 22, in the Lapham Elementary School Auditorium, 1045 E. Dayton St., starting at 6:30 p.m.

Open semi-finals for other Madison-affiliated high school students will be held Saturday, Feb. 25, at the Lussier Teen Center, 149 Waubesa St., starting at 7 p.m. If there is an overflow of contestants registered for the two open semi-finals, an overflow competition will be held Friday, Feb. 24, at the Goodman Community Center at 7 p.m. Contestants will be judged by artists from the hip-hop, radio and writing community in Madison.

To register and get rules for the open semi-final competition, click here, or contact Alexis Anderson at 608-890-1006 or aandersonree@wisc.edu.

The winners from each semi-final will go on to compete against other regional contest winners at the Wisconsin State Teen Poetry Slam Finals on Saturday, March 10, at 7 p.m. in the Helen Bader Concert Hall, 2419 E. Kenwood Boulevard, on the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee campus. All ages are welcome to this free competition featuring artists from the University of Wisconsin–Madison First Wave Hip-Hop Theater Ensemble.

The finale competition will decide the members of the Wisconsin Grand Slam Poetry Team, which will represent the state at the 15th Annual Brave New Voices International Youth Poetry Slam Festival in the California Bay Area. For more information, visit the Brave New Voices website.

Convening the top young poets and spoken word artists, aged 13-19, from across the United States and beyond, Brave New Voices is a one-of-a-kind arts festival presented by Youth Speaks, the leading nonprofit presenter of Spoken Word performance, education, and youth development programs in the country.

The Wisconsin State Youth Poetry Slam is a project sponsored by the University of Wisconsin–Madison Office of Multicultural Arts Initiatives with assistance from the First Wave Hip-Hop Theater Ensemble.

For more information, visit here.