The Eye On Life Boston Poetry Travel Fund

We intend to use the Eye On Life Boston Poetry Travel Fund to help bring poets from different backgrounds together.  In 2010, the mission of the Fund is to expose emerging written word poets to spoken word poetry at a major spoken word event.  To accomplish this mission we intend to send, with your support, four women to a major poetry slam this year.   The four women have been chosen.  We are raising funds now to make the trip a reality. 

By definition, a slam is an event in which poets compete and in which their work is judged by members of the audience.  Click the link below for an excellent example, 2 Minutes, performed by Slam Charlotte: 

• Watch “2 Minutes” 

Thank you, Christopher Shawn Barker, for the link.  Like us, Christopher has sensed the need to bridge the gap between spoken and written word.  

2 Minutes is truly performance poetry, at the opposite end of the spectrum from poetry that is meant to be read in silence from the page.  Both written word and spoken word poets will benefit from exposure to the other. 

Choosing the Poets

In my role as Poetry Editor for Eye on Life Online Magazine I have had the pleasure of reading and publishing poetry.  Some of the talented poets I have corresponded with have fallen into a particular demographic – female, poets who do not currently read their work in public, between 25 and 45 years old, with small children to care for.  We have chosen four of these women. 

To make donations and for more information, please check out the official “Send Momma to the Slam” donation page supported by BCCA (Brookline Community Center for the Arts). a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organization. 

Thank you.