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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

(Phoenix, Arizona, January 21, 2010) – A poetry slam is a performance poetry contest with attention to both writing and performance. Poetry Slam began in 1984, when construction worker and poet Marc Smith started a poetry reading at a Chicago jazz club, looking for a way to breathe life into the open mic format. In order to check the quality of poets, he introduced a way for the audience to decide the best performer. Five people are picked at random from the crowd to be judges. After each poem, the judges will each assign a score to the poem on a scale of 0.0 to 10.0. It's kind of like Olympic figure-skating judging, without the drug testing and international conspiracies.

Beginning on February 3rd, Aaron Johnson and Black Pearl Poetry will put on a festival unlike any other Phoenix has seen: The 4th Annual Treetop Poetry Slam Festival.  This festival developed for three years in Flagstaff by poetry performers and community arts organizers until it grew so big, they relocated to Phoenix.  Six teams of the best writers/performers of the Southwest will converge at Conspire Coffee, MadCap Theaters, and Fair Trade Cafe to see which teams should compete at the National Poetry Slam.

February 3rd: Open Mic @ Conspire Coffee (901 N 5th St). This event begins at 8pm and is free and open to the public. It will be hosted by Phoenix's favorite red-headed cutie, Anna Shuer-Moncada.

February 4th: Regional Poetry Slam Bout 1 @ MadCap Theater (730 S Mill Ave). Event begins at 7:30pm and is $5 general admission. Three teams of poets from southwest cities converge to showcase their ability to create eargasms using their repertoire of poetry performances. To make matters even more cut-throat, slam poetry veteran Aaron Johnson hosts the carnage.

February 5th: Regional Poetry Slam Bout 2 @ Fair Trade Cafe (1020 North 1st Avenue). Event begins at 7:30pm and is $5 general admission. Three different teams of poets from southwest cities will conduct verbal battle with Aaron Johnson hosting again.

Merchandise from all of the poets will be available during and after all of the shows.

Locally owned businesses have taken the opportunity to help make this year’s Treetop Poetry Festival one to remember. Conspire Coffee, MadCap Theaters, and Fair Trade Cafe have gone above and beyond to make Phoenix the new epicenter for regional poetry festivals. The San Carlos hotel has offered discounted rooms to the +200 people coming from out-of-state to see what Phoenix's expanding Downtown Arts' District has to offer.

The organizers of Treetop Poetry have the mission to promote performance poetry and associated literary arts in Arizona by making spoken word arts accessible to a diverse audience. This year Aaron Johnson and Black Pearl Poetry have coordinated and promoted spoken word events and programs designed to enrich the lives of our community, and our now sharing the Downtown Phoenix Arts' District with the rest of the southwest.

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