Advanced Team Fundraiser
Hosted by Thomas Fucaloro
Plus open mic (all styles welcome)
21+
$3 suggested donation. Two drink min, alcoholic or non
Staten Island is preparing to send its second slam team to the National Poetry Slam this August - and they can't do it without you. This year's Fantastic Four includes Julie Bentsen (member of the 2016 team) and newcomers Craig Kite, Brian Sheffield, and John W. Snyder.
About our poets:
Julie Bentsen is a poet and surrealist illustrator from Staten Island NY, which she represented at the National Poetry Slam competition in 2016. Her poems have been published in NYSAI magazine and POST(blank). She recently illustrated a series of poems by Thomas Fucaloro in a collection titled There's Always Tomorrow published by Mad Gleam Press. She also enjoys creating live visual art to live poetry. She hopes to someday stream images directly from the occipital lobe of her brain onto a screen, but in the meantime makes use of poetry, small-scale sculpture, and pen & ink.
Craig Kite is a poet published by various presses internationally, nominated for Pushcart Prize by Great Weather For Media in 2016. He is CEO of Mad Gleam Press LLC, co-editor/contributor for poetrybay.com, and grand slam champion of Advanced Slam (Staten Island Poetry Slam) 2017. He has a background in journalism/human rights activism and has reported from locations such as Iraq, Turkey, Chiapas, Guatemala, New Orleans, and Algonquin territory, Ontario. He is also a singer-song writer and visual artist.
Brian Sheffield is a poet and educator from California, living in Brooklyn, NY. Brian studied poetry, literature, and radical philosophy in California while teaching Creative Writing, Critical Thinking, and marginal writing in various public and private schools and universities. He is currently a Teaching Fellow with Citizen Schools New York. He is the author of several self-produced chapbooks, including [UNTITLED] and S I N (G). He is Co-Founder and Editor of Mad Gleam Press, and co-edits POST(blank). He has been published or featured in several independent magazines and journals.
John W. Snyder is what you can’t see when you stare at a tinted bus window. He is the imaginary creature you could only ever see when reality is obscured. He is your nervous laugh in the funeral home. He is your fearless laugh over the blood slowly pooling at your feet.