Who did it better?

What’s up folks, Jason checking in. So next week we have renowned author, Adam Mansbach, on our stage for the first time. If you’ve never seen him read, trust, he’s a prose guy who rocks stages harder than a lot of spoken word poets. Also, he wrote this “children’s” book you may have heard of called “Go the Fuck to Sleep.” Now most people talk about the Samuel Jackson audio version, but for me, if you want to hear it read out loud then it gets no better than when it’s read by legendary film director, Werner Herzog.

What do you think? Let us know.

THE SOCK PUPPET SLAM at the Berkeley Slam with NY Times Bestselling Author ADAM MANSBACH!

THE LONGEST RUNNING POETRY SLAM IN NORTHERN CALIFORNIA! Bringing you some of the best poetry from across the world, every week, since 2000.

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It’s that time of year! This week, poets from around the world perform poetry with socks on their hands — it’s the SOCK PUPPET SLAM! Tonight, we’ll be joined by New York Times Bestselling author ADAM MANSBACH (Go the F*uck to Sleep, Rage is Back, Angry Black White Boy)!

Get yourselves out to the Berkeley Slam this upcoming Wednesday to catch some of the best underground art happening in your area. Maybe you can get on the mic, too and give some of these regular slammers a run for the money (and we mean that literally, because top 3 finishers in the slam win money).

Sign ups for the slam start at 7:30 p.m. sharp. Poets performing with sock puppets get preference on the sign up list, so do it up! There will be goodies for the best sock puppet!

Your host for the night will be Dre, with musical accompaniment by Three Blind Mice

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Featuring: ADAM MANSBACH

Adam Mansbach is the author of the #1 New York Times bestseller Go the Fuck to Sleep, which has been translated into 40 languages and is forthcoming as a feature film from Fox 2000. His latest novel, Rage is Back, was an Amazon.com Best Book of January and is currently being adapted for the stage; his previous novels include the California Book Award-winning The End of the Jews and the cult classic Angry Black White Boy, taught at more than eighty schools. Mansbach is the recipient of a Reed Award, a Webby Award, and a Gold Pollie from the American Association of Political Consultants for his 2012 campaign video “Wake The Fuck Up,” starring Samuel L. Jackson. He was the 2009-11 New Voices Professor of Fiction at Rutgers University, and a 2012 Sundance Screenwriting Lab Fellow, and will be the 2014 Artist in Residence at Stanford University’s Institute for Diversity in the Arts. His work has appeared in The New Yorker, New York Times Book Review, Esquire, The Believer, Salon.com, and on National Public Radio’s All Things Considered. He is currently adapting the children’s classic The Pushcart War for Park Pictures, and his debut thriller, The Dead Run, has just been published by HarperVoyager.

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Upcoming Features:

November 27 THE SOCK PUPPET SLAM featuring New York Times best selling author, Adam Mansbach! And poets. With socks. On their hands!
December 4 The spellbinding Marshall Davis Jones
December 11 Charlotte’s Carlos Robson and Write Bloody author Aaron Samuels
December 18th The Anarchy slam with the one and only Mighty Mike McGee

THE STARRY PLOUGH
3101 Shattuck Avenue, 510-841-2082
(1 block uphill from the Ashby BART).
EVERY WEDNESDAY
$7 – $10 sliding scale (most nights)
Cash Prizes!
Sign-up: 7:30 p.m. Show: 8:30 p.m.
ALL AGES before 10 p.m.

Slam Rules and Info:

The Berkeley Poetry Slam featuring GRAY BRIAN THOMAS

THE LONGEST RUNNING POETRY SLAM IN NORTHERN CALIFORNIA! 
Bringing you some of the best poetry from across the world, every week, since 2000.

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Here we go again everyone! Get yourselves out to the Berkeley Slam this upcoming Wednesday to catch some of the best underground art happening in your area. Maybe you can get on the mic, too and give some of these regular slammers a run for the money (and we mean that literally, because top 3 finishers in the slam win money). This week we are featuring Salt Lake City’s Gray Brian Thomas!

Sign ups for the slam start at 7:30. The season is in full swing so earn you way to compete for a spot to represent Berkeley at the National Poetry Slam in Oakland in 2014.

Your host for the night will be Dre, with musical accompaniment by DJ Freeze

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Bio:

Gray is a Salt Lake City native. He is a 3-time member of Salt City Slam, co-founder of the Wasatch Wordsmiths, co-founder/coach/teammate of the University of Utah Poetry Slam team, and 2012 iWPS representative for SLC. He has been published in various journals, most recently by Tired Hearts Press. He has a degree in English from the University of Utah, though he considers it more of an expensive book club. Most recently, he quit smoking cigarettes in favor of classier pipes. His drinking habits have remained consistent for the past few years. He is best known for crumpling up paper into a ball and throwing it behind him. Sometimes this paper contains words, like a love note, or an apology (or both), the syntax of which he could never be quite satisfied. As he has grown older, he has fallen in love and apologized so many times that the living room and then the dining room of his apartment became completely covered with these balls of imperfection. He refused to carry them to the garbage, because he like to be reminded of failure, but at one point, when the ample amounts of paperballs were enough to not only completely cover the entire floor of his 500 sq. foot apartment, but reached a level of 5 feet or so throughout, he grew a fondness for jumping off of furniture and into the balls, swimming through them from one room to another. This activity reminds him of leaves in the autumn, which are, in a way, a tree’s attempt at apologizing, yet failing. Sometimes he writes love letters to the apology letters, and sometimes he must write an apology to the love letters. Once the collection of paperballs reached the ceiling, Gray was forced to rent another apartment, which he keeps clean, yet still he maintains the original apartment, which he still returns to, and will keep returning to until he can discover the perfect way of saying “I love you, I’m sorry.”
He is currently 28 years old.

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Upcoming Features:

November 27 THE SOCK PUPPET SLAM! Poets. With socks. On their hands!
December 4 The spellbinding Marshall Davis Jones
December 11 Charlotte’s Carlos Robson

THE STARRY PLOUGH
3101 Shattuck Avenue, 510-841-2082
(1 block uphill from the Ashby BART).
EVERY WEDNESDAY
$7 – $10 sliding scale (most nights)
Cash Prizes!
Sign-up: 7:30 p.m. Show: 8:30 p.m.
ALL AGES before 10 p.m.

Slam Rules and Info: https://berkeleypoetryslam.wordpress.com/about/
Berkeley Slam History: https://berkeleypoetryslam.wordpress.com/history-2/

The Berkeley Poetry Slam featuring ASHLEY CATHARINE

THE LONGEST RUNNING POETRY SLAM IN NORTHERN CALIFORNIA!
Bringing you some of the best poetry from across the world, every week, since 2000.

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We got another great show for you this week as the Berkeley Slam will be featuring LA’s Ashley Catharine! See you there!

Sign ups for the slam start at 7:30. The season is in full swing, so start earning points to compete for a spot to represent Berkeley at the National Poetry Slam in Oakland in 2014.

Your host for the night will be Toaster, with musical accompaniment by Three Blind Mice.

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Bio:

ASHLEY CATHARINE

Ashley Catharine writes poems, obviously. She was a member of the 2011 LA slam team, has a degree in fashion design, works on keeping her room clean and is addicted to diet coke. She’s performed at Inkslam (2011, 2012, 2013), the National Poetry Slam (2011, 2013), The Women of the World Poetry Slam (2013) and the Costco employee break room. Catharine has been featured on TVOne’s “Verses and Flow” and in the documentary “Damn Wonderful”. She just released her first book of poetry, “The Year of the Mermaid.”

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Upcoming Features:

November 13 LA’s Ashley Catharine
November 20 SLC’s Gray Brian Thomas
November 27 THE SOCK PUPPET SLAM! Poets. With socks. On their hands!
December 4 The spellbinding Marshall Davis Jones
December 11 Charlotte’s Carlos Robson and Providence’s Aaron Samuels
December 18: The Anarchy Slam with Might Mike McGee!

THE STARRY PLOUGH
3101 Shattuck Avenue, 510-841-2082
(1 block uphill from the Ashby BART).
EVERY WEDNESDAY
$7 – $10 sliding scale (most nights)
Cash Prizes!
Sign-up: 7:30 p.m. Show: 8:30 p.m.
ALL AGES before 10 p.m.

https://www.facebook.com/events/1429600363922737/

We put up this website over a year ago

Forgive us for the lack of updates over the past year but we intend to make this a nice little hub for not only Bay Area slam poetry, but what’s going on in the world of poetry. As you know the Berkeley Slam is one of the longest running poetry slams in the country and we have hosted some phenomenal artists over the years and not only do we want to honor the poetry what is happening now but the poetry and performance that artists that have come through the Berkeley Slam have done in the past and continue to engage in today.

We are all over the internet right now so add or follow us on our different social media sites.

berkeleypoetryslam.tumblr.com/

twitter.com/berkeleyslam