The Nebraska Writers Collective and the Seven Doctors Project team up for a night of poetry!

May 17, 5-8pm

Come hear UNMC’s Seven Doctors Project and enjoy appetizers and entertainment  at the  Side Door Lounge (3530 Leavenworth Street).

We’re raising money to help with NWC programs.  Poets on Loan and the Louder Than a Bomb: Omaha Youth Poetry Festival help get students, teachers, and poets excited for poetry.  Your donations at the door or online (That PayPal button over to the right of your screen) help keep it all going.  $20 per person Suggested.

There will be readings by members of the Seven Doctors Project throughout the evening!

With the 3 nights of preliminary bouts in the Louder Than a Bomb: Omaha Youth Poetry Festival done, local students aided by NWC teaching artists have made some real magic!  Putting up amazing poems to crowds more reminiscent of the State Basketball tournament than to your stereotypical literature reading, the students have shown talent, bravery, and enthusiasm in front of packed rooms at the PS Collective and the OM Center.

Friday night’s 7pm finals will feature Lincoln High School, Duchesne Academy, Omaha Creighton Prep, and Bellevue West at Creighton’s Harper Center Auditorium with special appearances by members of the

other 8 teams from the tournament, 2012 Omaha Poetry Slam Team Finals champ Zedeka Poindexter, and member of the 2011 National Poetry Slam champion Denver Slam Nuba slam team Jovan Mays!

Andrew Ek, Gina Kepplinger, Matt Mason, Sarah McKinstry-Brown, Greg Smith, and Gage Wallace all went to Fremont Middle School on 3/19 to work with 7th graders on poetry writing.  And the reviews are in:

“Dear Poetry Winners,
I enjoyed having you guys and girls here.  You got the whole day and we didn’t have to do anything boring.  It was quite delightful.  You should come again.  I’m sure the new seventh graders would really enjoy having you people come back and do another session with them.  I’m ninety five percent sure most of them would want to write poetry instead of school work.”

“Dear Poetry Guys,
Thank you for a really fun day about something I wasn’t excited about…I never thought I’d say this but I hope you come back next year so we can learn more.”

“Dear Nebraska Writers Collective,
…I never liked poems that much until you guys and girls came.  I had a lot of fun.  I thought you were like teachers to me.  You taught me a lot and I want to write more.”

“Dear Slam Poets,
Thanks for coming to our school.  I thought the poems you read were all good.  If you come again you should bring a lot more people.  I don’t like poetry but you guys made it fun.”

“Dear Poet Group,
I really enjoyed you guys coming.  I have never told anybody this but I wrote poems on my own time.  I started to write poems like 2 months ago.  So I really like the poems you guys read to us.  You guys also gave me a lot of ideas to write my own poems.  So again thanks

“Dear Slam Poetry Group,
Thanks for coming to our school and reading us poems.  For once I actually like listening to poems, I hope you guys come back next year.”

I love my job.

So do you need a better reason than Otis XII as the morning DJ to listen to KVNO radio?  Then try a whole series on Louder Than a Bomb: Omaha for the next few Wednesdays.

Listen to NWC executive director Matt Mason’s poor mastery of the English language:
http://www.kvnonews.com/2012/03/gearing-up-for-louder-than-a-bomb/

Then listen to the eloquent student (and winner of the February OM Center poetry slam) who brought LTaB: Omaha to her high school:
http://www.kvnonews.com/2012/03/louder-than-a-bomb-duchesnes-gina-keplinger/

And keep listening either every week or online for the next 3 weeks where KVNO will feature students from South, Prep, and Lincoln High as we get closer to LTaB: Omaha’s first bouts on April 15!

Schedule of LTaB: Omaha 2012:
April 15, 1st round bouts at the PS Collective (6056 Maple Street) at 2, 4, and 6:30pm
April 17, 2nd round bouts at the OM Center (1216 Howard Street) at 6 and 7:30pm
April 18, more 2nd round bouts at the OM Center (1216 Howard Street) at 6 and 7:30pm
April 20, the Finals (top 4 score-receiving teams) at Creighton’s Harper Auditorium (20th street between Webster and California Streets), 7pm.
More at LTaBOmaha.org and, of course, PoetryMenu.com

-Matt

With individual World Poetry Slam champ and DC-area poet Chris August visiting schools to help their Louder Than a Bomb teams as well as providing a workshop over the weekend, we’ve heard nothing but praise from teachers!

Melanie Farber at Lincoln North Star sent in: I just wanted to say thank you for sending Chris August to us yesterday. If there’s some way you can let him know that the kids thought he was AMAZING, that would be great. He has so much energy and was so upbeat, the kids really enjoyed having 40 minutes to hear him perform and to do a little writing with/for him.

Jeff Grinvalds at Omaha Westside put in: Please pass on a hearty thank you to Chris for coming out. He is amazing. And others sent in similar statements.

Chris is one of the best out there and we are very proud to have had him here.

The Kickoff weekend went fantastic! With Louder Than a Bomb co-founder Kevin Coval, star of the Louder Than a Bomb documentary Lamar Jordan, and 2 more Chicago LTaB veterans, we went to Omaha South, Bellevue West, Duchesne, and Ralston High Schools to raise awareness and help students get ready!

Coval and Jordan then introduced a showing of the LTaB documentary at the OM Center in downtown Omaha and answered questions afterward to a packed audience.

Despite a snowstorm Friday night, the Chicago poets made it back downtown the next morning, as did a dozen high school students from around the Metro area and several of the team’s coaches and teachers for 4 hours of poetry writing workshops and an open mic.  It was great to have the poets in from Chicago and we look forward to more in our partnership with the folks who started Louder Than a Bomb and have been running with it for 12 years now!

On Friday, February 3rd and Saturday the 4th, Louder Than a Bomb co-founder, poet Kevin Coval, and one of the students starring in the Louder Than a Bomb documentary, Lamar Jorden are coming to town to visit schools, host a showing of the documentary, run workshops and host an open mic night. See all the details at the new Louder Than a Bomb: Omaha website: LTaBOmaha.com!

South High students did a tremendous job yesterday with their first ever poetry slam.  While hundreds of students watched, 11 competed in a poetry slam judged by members of the audience (including touring poets Joshua J. Ballard and Chris Rockwell from New Jersey’s poetry slam scene).  Principal Cara Riggs got the show rolling with a poem she wrote saluting her students, and, after a clearing poem by nationally-known poet Sean Patrick Mulroy, the poets let roll impressive works ranging from funny to heartbreaking to bizarre to beautiful.  South High students did a great job with their first ever poetry slam. While hundreds of students watched, 11 competed in a poetry slam judged by members of the audience (including touring poets Joshua J. Ballard and Chris Rockwell from New Jersey’s poetry slam scene). Principal Cara Riggs got the show rolling with a poem she wrote saluting her students and after a clearing poem by nationally-known poet Sean Patrick Mulroy, the poets let roll impressive works ranging from funny to heartbreaking to bizarre to beautiful. See this article from KVNO radio and this one in the 12/10/11 Omaha World-Herald.

The Nebraska Writers Collective helped all semester long, running workshops in Carol McClellan and other teacher’s classes with Gage Wallace and Matt Mason as well as local poet Ben Wenzl, Minneapolis poet Sam Cook, and touring poets Mindy Nettifee and Women of the World Poetry Slam champion Rachel McKibbens.

The Nebraska Writers Collective is bringing Louder Than a Bomb to Omaha!  After the great response to the documentary which showed at Film Streams in Omaha, we started work putting together a poetry slam which will pit local high schools against one another in a great festival of local teens showing their stuff in performance of their own original poems!  It’ll all happen in spring , 2012, and we are currently answering questions from interested schools in the Omaha/Lincoln/Council Bluffs/wherever-else-wants-to-come area!  Last year, Tulsa became the first non-Chicago city to put on a LTaB, Omaha will be the 2nd.

The NWC was proud to help out with last month’s Nebraska Book Festival, helping facilitate some additional sessions in the morning at NuVibe Coffee through volunteers and financial support.

We were also happy to help Campfire USA with their annual Pinot, Pigs & Poets fundraiser at the Happy Hollow Country Club last Friday night.  We provided poets to go with some great wines and pig cooked by the best in local chefs.  All for an intoxicating, delicious, lyrical kinda night.