Poets participate in Great Plains Poetry Pile-up

By Fremont Tribune Staff

Poets from across the Midwest gathered in Fremont this weekend for the Great Plains Poetry Pile-up.

Hosted by Midland Lutheran College, the two-day event featured workshops and a poetry slam tournament.

Amy Everhart, international poetry slam champion from Denver, was one of the participants in this year’s event. She was in Friday’s first preliminary round, but was not one of the three poets to make it out of that round.

In all, three preliminary rounds were held with the top three from each round advancing to Saturday’s finals at Kimmel Theatre.

Ed Mabrey, a poet from Phoenix, Ariz., repeated as the poetry slam winner, taking home $700 of the $1,950 in prize money. Dan Leamen of Omaha was second and JW Baz of Chicago was third.

While many of the performing poets were from the Midwest, some traveled as far as Washington, D.C., and Phoenix, Ariz., for the event.

“Every year we have pulled in some of the best,” said Henry Krusiewicz, English professor at Midland.

Krusiewicz gives much of the credit to the success of the event to Matt Mason. Together they organize the weekend.

“It’s not what people think of as tradition poetry,” Krusiewicz said. “It’s a diverse group of people with diverse viewpoints.”

Poets are given 3 minutes to perform and they are judged by the audience.

“This is like a full-contact sport,” he said.

In addition to the poetry slam, two workshops were held Saturday and several poets made appearances on the University of Nebraska at Omaha campus on Friday.

One workshop - Stop Flailing Awkwardly - was a series of improvisational acting techniques designed to help spoken word performers improve stage presence. It was presented by Wonder Dave, a poet from Minneapolis.

Mabrey led the second workshop - Strategies for Professional Poets. In it, he offered advice from touring as a professional poet to slam strategy.

Published in the Fremont Tribune on Oct. 26, 2009:
http://www.fremonttribune.com/articles/2009/10/26/news/local/doc4ae5b45125f3d014108949.txt