San Diego Slam takes holds our own at Battle for LA. Rematch is set for Thursday.

Last night was the Battle for LA poetry slam at Da Poetry Lounge in Hollywood, and I'm really upset I didn't take any pictures. I don't even have any camera phone pictures. The San Diego Slam team went head to head with some of the best poets ever! That's no exaggeration. Not only did we face a Hollywood team (made up of poets who have all featured at Elevated before), but other teams included Beau Sia, Ratpack Slim, Steve Connell, Sekou tha Misfit, Azikwe, B. Yung, and so many more. San Diego held our own taking the 3rd spot out of four teams, only 2 points behind the Steve Connell and Sekou tha Misfit's team who won competition.

San Diego will have our chance at a re-match against team Hollywood, who took full advantage of their home crowd's favorable judging. Tomorrow night, Collective Purpose will host a special Elevated: The Battle for So Cal, at Eveoke Dance Theater, 9pm. Along with Hollywood and the San Diego Slam team, a special mystery team will compete. Will they be comprised of National Poetry Slam winners like the teams from last night, will they be local poets, will they be another slam team competing at nationals next week? You'll have to come out tomorrow to find out.

All of this of course is a prelude to the National Poetry Slam in Madison, Wisconsin next week. The San Diego Slam team, is in need of your support. In addition to your encouragement, we'd love to see you at the slam tomorrow night. Just by coming, you make a huge difference in helping off-set the cost of having your city represented at Nationals. We are still accepting donations to cover basic costs such as the hotel, and we can only make it with the support of the community. Even if you feel like you don't have much to donate...just coming out to Elevated tomorrow will make a huge difference! (Although I don't want to sound like I'm begging...I am)

Summer Bonfire

Collective Purpose presents...

the 2nd annual

summer bonfire!

Thursday

July 24, 2008

8-10pm

at Crown Point Park

in Mission Bay

(Look for the tiki torches)

Admission is free... bring a friend!

for more information call (619) 209-8241 or

email info@collectivepurpose.org

place your mouse HERE for directions

This all got started last year when the Arts & Entertainment Center closed and we could not find an appropriate venue to have a poetry reading. We thought about canceling Elevated until we could find a venue, but some of us can't go that long without hearing some good spoken word. So we figured...why not just go to the beach? We gathered around a firepit, brought SMORES and just started sharing poetry. Before long, people started coming out with lawn chairs and blankets and really made a night out of it. People from the LA and the Inland Empire (not just Ant Black) traveled all the way down just to experience it. 

Even though admission is free, this is a fundraiser for the San Diego Slam team. We'd love if you can bring some food, snacks, even barbeque if you'd like. But while you're thinking about what to bring to the beach, save a little bit to help the members of the team represent San Diego to the way our city deserves to be represented.

Political Poem Night

Tonight is a truly powerful night. In honor of the 4th of July, we share our political poems exercising our right to speak in support and our concerns for the gov't, political policies, local and world issues, etc. All of the poets spoke truth tonight and the open mic was hot (as usual). Although we did not have a feature we had some incredible guest come and grace the stage.

Todd Gloria who is running for city council came in and encouraged the crowd to get involved. I enjoyed hearing him tell the crowd how much he enjoyed their poetry and would keep these words with him as he runs for office.

One of our previous featured poets, Sekou tha Misfit, dropped by with Steve Connell and Lenz. They're perforing tomorrow night at a 4th of July event on the Midway. Last year Sekou and Steve were big voices for the spoken word community in a nation wide campaign to help register voters. Sekou just released a new album and the Elevated family will be some of the first to hear it (maybe I should blog an album review of it).

Big ups to everyone who came out tonight. The energy was incredible. If you missed it...we'll see you next time. 3rd thursday- we'll be featuring the SAN DIEGO SLAM TEAM!

-Msg sent from LG Voyager