Slam poets from North America and Europe will converge upon Austin this week in preparation for the 2006 National Poetry Slam, which takes place Aug. 9-12. Countdown week, beginning Wednesday, kicks off seven days of preparation for the largest performance poetry competition in history. Seventy-five teams will compete in the poetry slam, including two teams from Austin.
The longest running Austin Poetry Slam team, Austin Ego's, has been around since 1994 and performs weekly at Ego's on South Congress. The other local team, Austin South Flavas, is a branch from the Neo-Soul team and performs out of Antonio's.
In the lead-up week, members of the slam community will come together with the Blanton Museum, Alamo Drafthouse and the Texas Rollergirls to showcase some of the best performance art in the world.
"This is something we wanted to do to show people in Austin what's coming," said Phil West, president of Luminaria Media and Public Relations.
More than 300 poets will compete in this year's national competition, and more than 2,200 people are expected to attend the finals, which will be held at the Palmer Events Center. If the audience does exceed the previous record of 2,200 set at the 2005 National Poetry Slam in Albuquerque, N.M., Austin will break the record for largest audience to attend a National Poetry Slam.
Many of the week's events are free and open to the public, as are the first two night bouts of competition week.
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