About
The Seattle Poetry Slam is run by a collective of people - the Seattle Slam Family - headed up by the Slammaster - who acts as the voice of Seattle’s Slam community in the National forum of Slams - and four wonderful hosts.
Daemond Arrindell is the Slammaster for Seattle and five-time coach for the Seattle National Slam team. The man who’s been pulling the levers behind the curtains of the great and powerful Seattle Slam for 4 years. He is a Poet, organizer, activist and all around nice guy.
Daemond is in this for the love of the word: written and spoken, and its power to alter the emotional state of being. Currently, he is heading up a Spoken-Word residency at the men’s correctional facility in Monroe, Wa, is a faculty member of Freehold Theatre/Studio lab teaching performance poetry and spoken word and is Seattle Poetry Slam’s nominee for Poet Populist.
Hosts
Karen Finneyfrock - published poet, former Slammaster of the Seattle Poetry Slam, teacher andcommunity organizer. Karen has rocked stages from both behind the scenes and in front of the mike. Karen began her love affair with spoken word as a member of the ‘99 Washington, D.C. National Slam Team. After moving to Seattle in 2001 she became a recurring feature at the Seattle Poetry Festival; toured West Coast colleges with Word Core (Buddy Wakefield, Eitan Kadosh and Gregory Hischak); wrote and performed parts in C.R. Avery’s hip hop opera to crowds in San Francisco, Seattle and Vancouver, B.C.; and has been a featured performer at poetry venues all across the country including the National Poetry Slam, Louder Arts/Bar 13 (NY), Berkeley Poetry Slam (CA), and The Naropa Institute (CO).
Amber Flame is a spoken word artist whose source for inspiration finds its roots in the blues. Whether exploring rhythmic and harmonic structures as a framework for spoken word or blending voice in song, Amber Flame is testing the boundaries between genre and medium. She is the big brain behind A Flame Production, a visionary collective project, as well as a member of Sankofa, an African-American acappella Women’s Choir. She expresses herself on stages as varied as the Seattle Slam and Bent Writing Institute to PONCHO Theater and the Langston Hughes Performing Arts Center, and spends her free time teaching music and poetry to kids.
Roberto Ascalon - a NYC born poet, writer, arts educator, and spoken-word performance artist who lives in an old school building in West Seattle. Roberto is currently a teaching artist with Arts Corps, WITS (Writers in the Schools) and a tutor mentor at Nova High School.
His writing has appeared in 2004’s Seattle Poetry on Buses and the 2003 National Poetry Slam Anthology. He has also been on two Seattle National Poetry Slam teams (2003 and 2005) and is an integral part of the Seattle spoken-word community. Roberto recently curated a spoken word series at the Seattle Art Museum called “Word at the SAM”.
Jodie Knowles - actress, make up artist, hair stylist, poet and host - Jodie can do it all. In her first year of slam competition, Jodie earned a spot on the Grand Slam stage and won over the the crowd with heart, sincerity and her own personal truths. She extends the same to all the poets who touch the stage at the Seattle Slam. Jodie has recently become a board member of the Bent Writing Institute.
SLAM History
A Slam is a competition of performance poets that is judged by randomly picked members of the audience. The focus is equally split between the content/writing of the poem AND how the poem is performed. This opens up the stage to a wide range of work and engages the audience as active participants. Because of its format of inclusiveness, Slam has been referred to as the “Democratization of Poetry”.
Marc Smith, a Chicago construction worker, started the first Slam in 1986 at the Green Mill Tavern and revolutionized the open mike poetry format. Soon, Slams began popping up in other cities, resulting in a National Poetry Slam competition in 1991. Poetry Slam Incorporated was established in l997 as the official governing body of Slam. PSI publishes the Slam rules, coordinates the qualifying rounds for a nationwide network of Slams, and oversees the national tournament which now includes 80 teams.