SWANK: The Verbal Think Tank

Benefits Cambridge Poetry Awards Tonight at Passim

By Susie Davidson

CORRESPONDENT

When the podium was pulled from the Cambridge Poetry Awards Committee in August due to budget cuts at the sponsoring Cambridge Center for Adult Education, members Jeff Robinson, Valerie Lawson, Melissa Goodrum, Ren Jender, Mick Cusimano, Richard Cambridge and Marc Goldfinger decided to tough it out and go DIY.

“We’ll do it together,” said Robinson. “We can decide independently what will happen.”

“It will be more community-oriented,” concurred Goodum.

But before the March 9, 2003 ceremony (last year’s March 10 event was M.C.’d by Jimmy Tingle at Lesley University), numbered ballots had to be distributed, collected, tabulated and judged, categories organized and myriad logistics of the preliminary showcase and awards ceremony planned. The effort and the man-hours appeared formidable. But not for this crew, who plunged down the road others just might not have taken.

Tonight at 8 p.m. at Passim, they will hold SWANK: The Verbal Think Tank, a benefit featuring Out of the Blue Gallery owner Deb Priestly, slam champ Regie Gibson, Spare Change News editor Marc Goldfinger, performance poet J*mie and the Zone Poets, who are lyrical poet Robin Linn, Boston Poet Magazine publisher Diana Saenz, American Studies Ph.D. candidate Albert Turner and Cusimano, who hosts Squawk Coffeehouse at the Harvard-Epworth Church at 1555 Mass. Ave. on Thursday nights.

Numbered ballots, due back by Dec. 20, are available at Out of the Blue Gallery at 106 Prospect St., Squawk Coffeehouse, and the Lizard Lounge at 1667 Mass. Ave. The committee will vote on the written submissions as well as the nominees for various awards. “There are two kinds of memberships,” explained Robinson, who plays in his jazz ensemble and hosts the Lizard Lounge’s Sunday night Poetry Jam. “Voting Members are Mass. residents, but to be on the Committee you must also host a poetry venue or be a publisher, run a webzine, etc.”

This year, the awards, for Performance Poetry, are: Spoken Word – Female and Male, Humorous Poet – Female and Male, Erotic Poet – Female and Male, Hip-Hop Poet – Female and Male, Slam Poet – Female and Male, Performance Poet of the Year, Mixed Media, Poetry Troupe, Street Poet and Storyteller. For Mass Communication, the categories are Poetry Venue, Poetry Event, CD, and Poetry Website. The Written Poetry awards are for: Erotic Poet Female and Male, Love Poem Female and Male, Narrative, Post Modern, Political Poem, Short Poem, Traditional Poem and Individual Chap Publication.

“I live, dance and breathe for poetry,” said Priestly. “Any program that promotes every type of artistic expression is worthy of support and should be the utmost community priority. It’s a shame that arts funding has been so drastically reduced in Cambridge that annual programs like the Poetry Awards are endangered. The fact that these poets are making sure that this event happens is highly commendable.”

Priestly has authored four volumes of poetry and is working on a 300-page anthology “Out of the Blue Writers Unite” of novel excerpts and poetry by Gallery event attendees. For the past month, she has been reading poetry in prisons as part of the Bay State Poetry Society.

J*me, who shared the Male Performance Poet award for 2002 with Michael Culp, has been published in various magazines including Quarry and Londons Xist. A double major in social work and creative writing at Indiana University, he wrote the and was the artistic sound director for the play Naked Truths: Voices of Shame, Sexuality, and Eating Disorders in Women, which was performed at New York’s HERE Multimedia Center. His book, "Catching Fire," will be joined by an upcoming CD tentatively titled "Blues and Bone.”

The Cambridge Poetry Awards Benefit will be held Nov. 6 at 8 p.m. at Club Passim, 47 Palmer St. in Harvard Square. Admission is $8. Online voting is available this year at

http://www.cambridgepoetryawards.org/home.cfm.