Students and special guests slam for Community Service
Poetry fundraiser to be held on Wednesday, November 9
At this month’s Community Service Center fundraiser, students will get more than an easy way to support the CSC — they’ll get an education in an exciting art form.
The CSC Slam for Service, to be held on Wednesday, November 9, will bring Boston University students and professional slam poets from around the city on stage to perform their work and raise money to support the center. Performers include the former Slam Master of Cambridge’s Cantab Lounge and a spoken-word and hip-hop artist from Worcester, Mass.
This is the CSC’s first poetry slam, says Graham Veth (COM’06), the center’s development manager, who planned the event after seeing the student response to slam poet Taylor Mali during this year’s First-Year Student Outreach Project. The Slam for Service is intended to build on the BU community’s awareness of performance poetry and to show students an alternative form of social activism. “Through this, students can learn that there are other methods to get their political voice out in a thought-provoking way,” he says. “The goal is to entertain, but also to open someone’s eyes.”
Former Slam Master Michael Brown, called “the Jerry Garcia of performance poetry” by WBUR, will headline the event, and poets Sofia Snow and Worcester’s AfroDZak will also appear. BU students Skaya Bilman (CAS’06), Jonathan Chin (CAS’07), Lauren DeGeorge (COM’06), Justin Lamb (COM’06), and Bruce Reese (GRS’08) will perform as well.
Tickets go on sale at the CSC office and at the GSU Link on Monday, November 7, and Tuesday, November 8; the cost is $3 in advance and $5 at the door. The slam will be held in the Conference Auditorium at the GSU at 8 p.m.
“These artists are really critically aware of what’s going on in the world,” Veth says. “A lot of people have been receptive to this idea, and we’re really excited.”