AYO Technology

Open Mic Skype with the University of Minnesota

Verbal Blend, a spoken-word poetry program out of the Office of Multicultural Affairs at Syracuse University, will host its annual Ayo Technology Skype Open —in collaboration with Voices Merging at the University of Minnesota and Imagining America at Syracuse University on Thursday, September 22 at 8:30 p.m. in the Stolkin Auditorium, Physics Building. The event will be hosted by Janel Sullivan.
 
Two spoken word poetry student groups, Verbal Blend (Syracuse University) and Voices Merging (University of Minnesota) will perform for live audiences at their respective campuses while also using mobile devices, laptops, and Skype technology to broadcast their performances to remote audiences in Syracuse and Minneapolis. The poets will address the Imagining America conference’s central question:  “What Sustains Us?”
Cedric T. Bolton (Coordinator of Student Engagement, Office of Multicultural Affairs, Syracuse University) co-founded Voices Merging in 2002 at the University of Minnesota; Verbal Blend in 2007 at Syracuse University; and the Syracuse University Poet’s Learning Community in 2010. Bolton and IA Associate Director Kevin Bott will moderate the event and engage one another, the poets, and the audience on various topics including the potential uses of technology in civic engagement initiatives, the impact of sharing through art with students in distant locations, and the ways students might see their work as contributing to larger conversations about civic identity and democratic life.
 
Verbal Blend is a spoken-word poetry program designed to enhance students’ confidence in writing and performing original poems. The program comprises of a six-week workshop series on poetry forms, formats, journal entries and peer-reviews.
 
Participants have showcased their work at public venues such as themed open mic nights, Light Works’ 2009 night artist reading/reception with Admas Habteslasie, day workshop with poet Quraysh Ali Lansana, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. celebration at Carrier Dome, Get on the bus for Poetry, TAKE THE MIC POETRY SLAM, and special reading with Tracy Sugarman author of “We had sneaker, they had guns.”

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