For Immediate Release Contact: Eugenie Hero Jaffe 801.599.2040

Five Slam Poetry Teams Rock the Mic For the First Time at 2010 Utah Arts Festival’s Big Mouth Café Stage Saturday, June 26 at 8 p.m.

Salt Lake City, UT: Five teams will compete on the Big Mouth Café Stage during the 2010 Utah Arts Festival. This is the first time a Team Slam has ever been included at the Utah Arts Festival. The competition consists of individual pieces as well as team pieces, where the team creates a poem together.

UAF Literary Arts Coordinator Melissa Bond invited teams from around the country and two from Salt Lake City, two from Arizona and one from Colorado jumped at the chance.

“These exciting poets are on their way to the this August in St. Paul, Minnesota,” says Bond. “This competition is going to get hot. These are some of the best slammers in the country.”

The Team Slam is Saturday, June 26 from 8:30 to 10 p.m. on the Big Mouth Café Stage during the Utah Arts Festival at Library Square.

Team Poetry Slam competitors are: Salt City Slam (Salt Lake City, UT); Team Salt Poetelyptic (Salt Lake City, UT); Tiny Mesa Poetry Slam (Mesa, AZ); Black Pearl Poetry Slam (Phoenix, AZ); SlamNUBA (, CO)

The Salt Lake City team includes Jesse Parent, current SlamMaster of Salt City Slam, 2010 Individual World Poetry Slam representative for Salt Lake City, 4 time Salt City Slam team member, and member of the Executive Council for Poetry Slam, Inc, the non-profit that runs all national poetry slam events. In addition will be Josh McGillis (3 time Salt City Slam team member), DeAnn Emett (2 time Salt City Slam team member), Cody Winger (2 time Salt City Slam team member), and Karen Christensen.

Black Pearl Poetry Slam is lead by Ed Mabrey, the 2007 Individual World Poetry Slam champion and two time Haiku National Slam Champion.

SlamNUBA will include Amy Everhart, 2009 Individual World Poetry Slam champion; Megan Rickman, 2010 Women of the World Poetry Slam finalist; and Jen Rinaldi, member of the 2006 National Poetry Slam champion team from Denver, CO.

The 2010 Utah Arts Festival runs Thursday, June 24 through Sunday, June 27 from noon to 11 p.m. at Library Square, 400 South and 200 East in downtown Salt Lake City.

Adult admission is $10 at the gate. Children 12 and under are free. Seniors 65 and above are $5. Reduced adult admission is $5 and available from noon to 3 p.m. on Thursday and Friday.

For details, news and artists updates, visit www.uaf.org or call (801) 322-2428.

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