The UMass Boston Slam Society is hosting the first UMass Boston Intercollegiate Slam on Tuesday, March 1 starting with an open mic at 4 p.m. The Slam Society hosts slams and open mics once a month. The open mic allows for any person to perform a piece of their poetry.
Following the open mic, Michael Lee will perform as the featured artist. Michael Lee is a Norwegian-American writer and author of the chapbook, “Secondly. Finally,” which won the 2014 David Blair Memorial Prize (Organic Weapon Arts). Having received grants and scholarships from the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, the Minnesota State Arts Board, the LOFT Literary Center, and the Metropolitan Regional Arts Council, his work has appeared or is forthcoming in Ninth Letter, Hayden’s Ferry Review, Indiana Review, Copper Nickel, Poetry Northwest, and The Carolina Quarterly, among other journals.
Lee has worked as a dish washer, a farm hand, a traveling performer, a youth counselor, and an arts programming director. Currently, he is an Ed.M. candidate at Harvard University.
After the feature, there will be an intercollegiate slam in preparation for the College Union Poetry Slam Invitational (CUPSI). This is the first year that the Slam Society will be sending a team to the event, which is being held the first week of April at the University of Texas-Austin campus in Austin, Texas. The intercollegiate slam features teams from Boston University, Berklee College of Music, and the University of Connecticut.
The UMass Boston team is made up of Allister Quilon, Amber Rodriguez, Zubeda Khan, Eddy Martinez, and Christian Arthur. The team is coached by Jason Henry Simon-Bierenbaum and co-coach Arthur Williams.