Parkdale Idol

Okay all you local peeps… more specifically, you local peeps with talent. Parkdale High School (Riverdale, MD) is hosting the 4th Annual Parkdale Idol Talent Showcase and Competition.

Can you sing? Dance? Perform spoken word? Rock out on the guitar? If you can, than I suggest you sign up. If not, than you should definitely check it out. There is a fee, but a percentage goes to a good cause. Here’s the info:

The Phoenix Medina Writer’s Project and Lyrikal Storm Youth Fine Arts Group present the 4th annual “Parkdale Idol” Talent Showcase and Competition. The competition consists of area singers, dance crews, spoken word artists, and musicians with special guest Artists Patrick Matam “Pages” (Brave New Voices Maryland Slam Team Lead 2006-2008), Latina songstress “Jeni Huezo” among other surprise guests. A percentage of the proceeds will go to the Aliya B Carter Lyrikal Storm scholarship fund to celebrate scholastic and creative artistic achievement.

It’s on Friday, April 24 at 5:00 pm. Tickets are $10 in advance and $15 at the door.

Poetry

April is National Poetry Month and the Academy of American Poets suggests 30 different ways to celebrate.  Here are some examples:

• Read a book of poetry
• Memorize a poem
• Attend a poetry reading
• Put a poem on the pavement (and no, I don’t think they mean graffiti-style!)
• Google a poem
• Sign up for a poetry class or workshop

To see the complete list, check out their website.  I’ll leave you with a piece of poetry from the late Tupac Shakur…

Did you hear about the rose that grew
from a crack in the concrete?
Proving nature’s law is wrong it
learned to walk with out having feet.
Funny it seems, but by keeping it’s dreams,
it learned to breathe fresh air.
Long live the rose that grew from concrete
when no one else ever cared.

Hip-Hop Spoken Word Video Contest

In celebration of the Hip-Hop Theater Festival, Washington City Paper has launched a Hip-Hop Spoken Word Video Contest

Submit your own spoken word video!

One winner is selected for a grand prize that includes 2 tickets to Janet Jackson’s ROCK WITCHU concert in Washington DC, a one year subscription to Fader Magazine, an original painting from Trust Your Struggle Collective, and a handmade bag from Mad Imports.

Contest details can be found online at:
http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/display.php?id=35850

Our youtube.com group is located at: http://www.youtube.com/group/wcpspokenword

To enter the contest simply join our group and upload your video. 10 finalists will be selected and featured on washingtoncitypaper.com from August 4- August 12th and readers will have an opportunity to vote for a winner. The winner will be announced on August 13th.

Spoken Word Workshops with Lyrikal Storm

Find your voice and share your creativity! Learn to perform your lyrics, poetry or stories with the help of Lyrikal Storm. This is your chance, people — trust me, you don’t want to miss this!

A series of FREE workshops is being offered at the Hillcrest Heights Library in July. The finale will be presented open mic-style as part of Cafe Groove.

For more details and to register, call the Library at 301-630-4900 or stop in. Ages 15-18.

The group originated at Parkdale High School. Check them out here…

Slam Poetry

I hope everyone had a nice holiday, time off from school, or whatever. I know I’ve been a little slack with the blog, but I was at a conference in NYC where I got to hear a lot of teen authors speak. While I was there, I also saw a group of students from an organization called Urban Word who performed slam poetry – which was way cool. Here is a performance from one of the annual Urban Word NYC Teen Poetry Slams:

Jaylene

I know we have a lot of teens in the county who are talented and interested in expressing themselves in a similar way. I am going to work on putting together some poetry programs and hope to see many of you come out and show your stuff!