Volume 3 in 2 Weeks

Poetry drinkers, Pint readers... er, you get the idea. Here is the flyer for Volume Three of Pints and Poetry. This promises to be a sweet show, with not just one but two featured poets! Michael pulled some strings, so you best not miss this one. It may be the coolest poetry reading in Corvallis in ever! Check it out heads.

Peace, Pints, and Poetry!
Colin

Volume 2 a Success! Volume 3 to Come! (with a feature!)

Last week's slam on Wednesday was a huge success. I'm not sure how large our crowd was at its biggest, but at 11:30, with a half-hour left in the slam, there were still between 50 and 60 people in the crowd! Isn't that amazing! We had nine poets in the slam and six read during the open mic.

Top three in the slam were:

1. Hub
2. Ed!!?
3. Eric

And of course, they got fun little goodwill prizes!

Next month, the Pints and Poetry Slam becomes a little more, ahem, "professional," meaning we're going to have features! Katz, who performs as Athens Boys Choir, and Scott Turner will be featuring.

Here's some info on Katz:

“Katz has the nuance of an old soul when he does his thing. With the inclusion of class, culture, and race dynamics in transgender politics, Katz makes room for the evolution of a movement. He doesn't shy away from questioning his own community and remembers that humor broadens the most narrow minds. This self aware spoken word artist has potential to be a leader to his generation of queers and a bridge to an older generation if they are willing to listen."
-Amy Ray (Indigo Girls) July 2005

And a bio:

Katz, with his Jewish roots dressed in cowboy boots, has often hailed spokenword as “cheap therapy”. His pieces take a brave dive into a deep pool of personal, political, and sexual perspective. Katz performs under the persona of the Athens Boys Choir.

The Athens Boys Choir has toured nationally since 2003, performing with such artists as the Indigo Girls, Bitch, The Butchies, Danielle Howle, and Michelle Malone. He has also opened for poets of HBO’s Def Poetry Jam on more than one occasion. What started as a true love of writing since childhood has turned into a blissful career.

Katz uses his poetry to entertain and inform. Transgender issues are one of his hot topics and he was honored to be a part of Atlanta’s Transgender Day of Remembrance in 2004.

A Miami native, he also finds writing inspiration from a Jewish upbringing, and a love/hate relationship with politics. A line from one piece reads “ We all got these subliminal feeding tubes, ‘cause patriotic nourishment is easier when you don’t have to chew, when the heroic value of war is fed to you….”

Of course, being a southern boy, Katz isn’t afraid to let loose and have a little fun. Singing and New Kids on the Block dance moves are known to make an appearance at nearly every show.

From a sports bar in San Diego to a sold out crowd at the Bowery Ballroom in New York City, the rhymes and rhythms of the Athens Boys Choir have struck a chord in the most diverse of audiences; many whose members claimed they disliked spokenword until the Athens Boys Choir was let loose on them. With one CD already released on Daemon Records and another one in the works, Katz/The Athens boys Choir is a force to be reckoned with.

Some blurbs on Katz/The Athens Boys Choir:

“...airing our culture's dirty laundry with their infectious, stream-of-consciousness rapping.”
- Frontiers Magazine - Nov. 2004

“No one since Ani Difrance has taken the power of the English language and put it to such good use.”
Young Gay American Magazine - Feb/March 2005

“With apologies to Alix Olson, spoken word has never been quite this good.”
- Curve - Nov. 2004

“Athens Boys Choir could be called Groundbreaking”
- Labrys - Nov. 2004

The Next Slam!

That's right kids! The next volume of the Corvallis Poetry Slam, aka "Pints and Poetry, Vol. 2" is occuring this Wednesday, October 12th, at the happenin' place:
Iovino's Ristorante. It's located at 126 1st St. in downtown.

It looks like the crowd will be as lively as last time (which was huge by the way. Kudos to everyone who came out to our first slam ever!), so you may want to try to get there as close to 9 as possible to get a chance to sign up on the list. We will also be allowing open mic during the intermission, so feel free to come, even if you don't want to slam.

As always, goofy-ass prizes will be awarded to the top three poets. Hope to see you all there!