St Paul is home to some of the finest Soap Boxers (the competitive art of performance poetry) in the nation as the St Paul team was recently crowned the 2009 Soap Box National Champions!  Every 1st Monday, you can catch soap boxers compete – or even compete yourself! – at the monthly “Soap Boxing Poetry Slam.”  At the next slam, Laura Yes Yes will be making an appearance who is said to be “a litre of amazing and a kilowatt of wonderful.”

Entry is $5 and free if you compete, at the Artists Quarter in Downtown St Paul
Doors at 7pm, Slam at 8pm

Berkeley, CA just recently hosted the Individual World Poetry Slam Championships October 8 – 10th.  Local slammer Khary (6 is 9) Jackson represented the St Paul Slam, while Sierra DeMulder represented the Minneapolis SlamMN Slam.  At Soap Boxing’s toughest arena, “they both battled their way through 2 nights of preliminary bouts, and earned their way to the finals night stage, reserved for the 12 highest scoring poets – out of 96 competitors.”  Sierra eventually finishing 9th overall, and Khary finishing in 4th overall  – both with very impressive showings.

And on an even more exciting note, St Paul is going to be home to Soap Boxing’s biggest event this coming summer, August 3rd – 7th.  The National Poetry Slam is the art’s most presitgious event, “where up to 80 Slam teams from around the world all converge on one city for an entire week of awesome competitive performance poetry.”  The event will be held in several spaces surrounding the Artists Quarter (the host’s venue), with the final night potentially being in the Ordway.  The St Paul Soap Boxing community couldn’t be more excited about this opportunity to host an event of such national regard; more details will be released at they come available.