Four Continents Slam in Bolton: Tuesday 28th November

Worldwide poetry slam – in Bolton!

Event: The Four Continents Slam - UK Tour
Date: Tuesday 28th November, 2006
Venue: Phoenix Youth Theatre, Bark Street, Bolton

Poetry promoters Write Out Loud, and Oxford’s Hammer and Tongue - one of the most important international slam promoters - bring some of the world’s best spoken word artists – from Africa, North America, Europe and Australasia - for “The Four Continents Poetry Slam Tour” - high-octane, highly entertaining performance poetry competitions where audiences judge with an Olympic-style scoring system.

Performance poetry has launched the careers of artists such as Ani De Franco, Saul Williams, Phil Jupitus and Craig Charles. Since the first, in Chicago in 1984, they have spread worldwide. Every major US city has them, and thousands flock to the annual National Poetry Slam. They are growing in Australia, New Zealand and Africa, and some of the biggest are in central Europe and the UK, whose Elvis McGonagall took the current World Slam Champion title at the World Slampionships in Rotterdam this spring. Each country represented: USA, Canada, UK, Sweden, South Africa, Botswana, Australia and New Zealand, will bring a different culture; each performer a distinctive style.

Write Out Loud’s Julian Jordon explains: “This will be a night to remember, with a fascinating variety of styles from Canada’s John Akpata’s political hip hop with fast-paced intelligent lyrical sophistication, through Botswana’s Andreattah Chuma’s softer, more soulful vibe, to Elvis McGonagall’s hilarious, hard-hitting political satire and impressions.

Also performing will be talented regulars at Write Out Loud’s Bolton poetry events.

Checkout http://www.writeoutloud.net//public/index.php

The Artists:
Europe:
Elvis McGonagall (Scotland) - The current world slam champion
Henry Bowers (Sweden) - World slampionships runner-up 2005
Africa:
Kojo Baffoe (South Africa) - Monstafunk productions supreme
Andreattah Chuma (Botswana) - Star of Exodus Live Poetry
North America:
John Akpata (Canada) - Capital Slam Champion 2005
Sonya Renee - 2004 US National Slam Champion
Australasia
Penny Ashton (New Zealand) - Critically acclaimed comedy poet
Thom the World Poet (Aus) – Legendary traveling street poet

Hosted by:
Julian Jordon - co-founder, Write Out Loud
Steve Larkin - Spoken Word Olympic International Champion