What if, instead of starting our own organization, we built a union within PSI — a voting bloc, a pressure group, call it what you will, that could simultaneously work on improving the quality of the poetry and shifting the emphasis from NPS as an end result to NPS as a process for delivery of the poetry?
I’m not really sure what I am driving at here. I’m not good with details this late at night — or during the day, for that matter. I’m a better big picture guy.
What I am trying to suggest is that those looking for change organize as a group first, then take the necessary steps — if that’s a new organization, fine; if it’s a revamped PSI, fine too.
After all — it’s a hell of a lot more fun to take over an existing organization than build a new one.
Dark Matter 
August 9th, 2004 at 8:56 am
Well, I don’t know. It strikes me that the audience for what we do is still primarily in slam venues. I don’t want to abandon that completely…and for that, some PSI connection still seems valuable.
IT may be a multipronged approach — inside pressure/outside alternatives.
I am rejoining PSI this morning. I want back in, at least for the moment…can’t affect change from out here.
August 9th, 2004 at 8:56 am
Well, I don’t know. It strikes me that the audience for what we do is still primarily in slam venues. I don’t want to abandon that completely…and for that, some PSI connection still seems valuable.
IT may be a multipronged approach — inside pressure/outside alternatives.
I am rejoining PSI this morning. I want back in, at least for the moment…can’t affect change from out here.
August 9th, 2004 at 8:56 am
Well, I don’t know. It strikes me that the audience for what we do is still primarily in slam venues. I don’t want to abandon that completely…and for that, some PSI connection still seems valuable.
IT may be a multipronged approach — inside pressure/outside alternatives.
I am rejoining PSI this morning. I want back in, at least for the moment…can’t affect change from out here.
August 9th, 2004 at 8:56 am
Well, I don’t know. It strikes me that the audience for what we do is still primarily in slam venues. I don’t want to abandon that completely…and for that, some PSI connection still seems valuable.
IT may be a multipronged approach — inside pressure/outside alternatives.
I am rejoining PSI this morning. I want back in, at least for the moment…can’t affect change from out here.
August 9th, 2004 at 8:56 am
Well, I don’t know. It strikes me that the audience for what we do is still primarily in slam venues. I don’t want to abandon that completely…and for that, some PSI connection still seems valuable.
IT may be a multipronged approach — inside pressure/outside alternatives.
I am rejoining PSI this morning. I want back in, at least for the moment…can’t affect change from out here.
August 9th, 2004 at 8:01 am
I think slam needs to be fixed by the people still in love with it. I’m personally more interested in something without the competitive angle, so it makes more sense to me to build something from scratch than to try and force an organization with completely different objectives to do what I want.
The heart of slam right now is competition, and for better or worse, there are a lot of people who enjoy that aspect of it. When the entire festival is based on competition, it’s kind of hard to avoid. More power to them, and to PSI to fix these problems. I think that people who still are interested in slam should network, discuss what they need to change, and take action.
I don’t like the competition, so I’d rather create an event/system that focuses on developing community, risk-taking & diversity from the beginning. It’s not really PSI’s fault they do not do this, because it’s not what the organization has evolved to do, and the membership seems most interested in fine-tuning the competition to be as fair as possible and in working on media/sponsorship relations.
Again, more power to them, but it’s not what interests me as a writer/performer, and I think its time that alternative paths came into existence. Turning an entire organization around takes a lot of work, especially when the decision-making often happens on an emotional level over the whole membership, and a lot of the people there just plain don’t want what I want to do.
What I’m hoping is that slam is fixed by those with the most interest in it and that those of us who find it no longer suits us come up with another outlet for poetry that does.
August 9th, 2004 at 8:01 am
I think slam needs to be fixed by the people still in love with it. I’m personally more interested in something without the competitive angle, so it makes more sense to me to build something from scratch than to try and force an organization with completely different objectives to do what I want.
The heart of slam right now is competition, and for better or worse, there are a lot of people who enjoy that aspect of it. When the entire festival is based on competition, it’s kind of hard to avoid. More power to them, and to PSI to fix these problems. I think that people who still are interested in slam should network, discuss what they need to change, and take action.
I don’t like the competition, so I’d rather create an event/system that focuses on developing community, risk-taking & diversity from the beginning. It’s not really PSI’s fault they do not do this, because it’s not what the organization has evolved to do, and the membership seems most interested in fine-tuning the competition to be as fair as possible and in working on media/sponsorship relations.
Again, more power to them, but it’s not what interests me as a writer/performer, and I think its time that alternative paths came into existence. Turning an entire organization around takes a lot of work, especially when the decision-making often happens on an emotional level over the whole membership, and a lot of the people there just plain don’t want what I want to do.
What I’m hoping is that slam is fixed by those with the most interest in it and that those of us who find it no longer suits us come up with another outlet for poetry that does.
August 9th, 2004 at 8:01 am
I think slam needs to be fixed by the people still in love with it. I’m personally more interested in something without the competitive angle, so it makes more sense to me to build something from scratch than to try and force an organization with completely different objectives to do what I want.
The heart of slam right now is competition, and for better or worse, there are a lot of people who enjoy that aspect of it. When the entire festival is based on competition, it’s kind of hard to avoid. More power to them, and to PSI to fix these problems. I think that people who still are interested in slam should network, discuss what they need to change, and take action.
I don’t like the competition, so I’d rather create an event/system that focuses on developing community, risk-taking & diversity from the beginning. It’s not really PSI’s fault they do not do this, because it’s not what the organization has evolved to do, and the membership seems most interested in fine-tuning the competition to be as fair as possible and in working on media/sponsorship relations.
Again, more power to them, but it’s not what interests me as a writer/performer, and I think its time that alternative paths came into existence. Turning an entire organization around takes a lot of work, especially when the decision-making often happens on an emotional level over the whole membership, and a lot of the people there just plain don’t want what I want to do.
What I’m hoping is that slam is fixed by those with the most interest in it and that those of us who find it no longer suits us come up with another outlet for poetry that does.
August 9th, 2004 at 8:01 am
I think slam needs to be fixed by the people still in love with it. I’m personally more interested in something without the competitive angle, so it makes more sense to me to build something from scratch than to try and force an organization with completely different objectives to do what I want.
The heart of slam right now is competition, and for better or worse, there are a lot of people who enjoy that aspect of it. When the entire festival is based on competition, it’s kind of hard to avoid. More power to them, and to PSI to fix these problems. I think that people who still are interested in slam should network, discuss what they need to change, and take action.
I don’t like the competition, so I’d rather create an event/system that focuses on developing community, risk-taking & diversity from the beginning. It’s not really PSI’s fault they do not do this, because it’s not what the organization has evolved to do, and the membership seems most interested in fine-tuning the competition to be as fair as possible and in working on media/sponsorship relations.
Again, more power to them, but it’s not what interests me as a writer/performer, and I think its time that alternative paths came into existence. Turning an entire organization around takes a lot of work, especially when the decision-making often happens on an emotional level over the whole membership, and a lot of the people there just plain don’t want what I want to do.
What I’m hoping is that slam is fixed by those with the most interest in it and that those of us who find it no longer suits us come up with another outlet for poetry that does.
August 9th, 2004 at 8:01 am
I think slam needs to be fixed by the people still in love with it. I’m personally more interested in something without the competitive angle, so it makes more sense to me to build something from scratch than to try and force an organization with completely different objectives to do what I want.
The heart of slam right now is competition, and for better or worse, there are a lot of people who enjoy that aspect of it. When the entire festival is based on competition, it’s kind of hard to avoid. More power to them, and to PSI to fix these problems. I think that people who still are interested in slam should network, discuss what they need to change, and take action.
I don’t like the competition, so I’d rather create an event/system that focuses on developing community, risk-taking & diversity from the beginning. It’s not really PSI’s fault they do not do this, because it’s not what the organization has evolved to do, and the membership seems most interested in fine-tuning the competition to be as fair as possible and in working on media/sponsorship relations.
Again, more power to them, but it’s not what interests me as a writer/performer, and I think its time that alternative paths came into existence. Turning an entire organization around takes a lot of work, especially when the decision-making often happens on an emotional level over the whole membership, and a lot of the people there just plain don’t want what I want to do.
What I’m hoping is that slam is fixed by those with the most interest in it and that those of us who find it no longer suits us come up with another outlet for poetry that does.