Open Mic, Featured Poet Chesko and The SLAM
This slam is an open slam - just throw your name into the hat by 8:30pm.
Slammers will be competing for points towards our next semifinal (April 10th) which brings them one step closer to qualifying for the Seattle National Slam Team.
Email slam@poetryfestival.org for more details.

“When not fighting pirates or performing poetry, Chesko is probably drawing pictures of ninjas and unicorns or writing about himself in the third person. The current Mesa indie slam chamption and former member of the 2005 San Jose NPS slam team, Chesko doesn’t consider himself much of a poet yet, but really likes telling stories and finds the idea of microphones fascinating. So, until he become a “better writer” or stops being fascinated with the mundane, he amuses himself by infusing numerous references in his poems to kittens, candy, shooting stars, fireworks, the word awesome, pirates, bears, choo-choo trains, butterflies, crayons, and ponies, especially ponies. In response to this bio, Chesko says, “I hope I never become a better writer because its a lot more fun to write about those things.”

More Factual:
A member of the 2005 San Jose national poetry slam team, Chesko was also a first team all-american in collegiate speech and debate, once won 14 straight poetry slams (spanning 2 states and seven different venues), was voted the 2006 top collegiate performer in Northern California, graduated at the top of his class from San Francisco State University, receiving his bachelor of arts (summa cum laude) in Speech and Communication Studies with an emphasis in performance studies and feminist rhetoric, and is currently continuing his studies in these areas by pursuing his master’s degree in Communication Studies at Arizona State University.