Chicago Slam Works Presents DEAD OR ALIVE Battle for Slam Poetry Tonight, 5/25

Chicago Slam Works (CSW) presents "Dead or Alive Battle Royale for Slam Poetry Supremacy for All Eternity", the second performance in its inaugural three-performance season tonight, May 25 at 8 p.m. at the Vittum Theater, 1012 N. Noble.

CSW artistic director J.W. Basilo transports the traditional slam competition to an other-worldly experience where past poets are resurrected to compete against living writers. Actors will portray writers such as Lucille Clifton, Frank O'Hara and the recently deceased Adrienne Rich. These writers will go head-to-head against living poets including Robert Brown, Mary K. Fons and MarTy McConnell. A group of judges selected from the audience will determine the ultimate winner.

"The whole stage will be transformed into a funeral parlor of sorts with me as the funeral director," said Basilo. "It will truly be a theatrical event complete with music and special effects in addition to the great writing and performing."

"Dead or Alive" is the second in a three-performance season created by Chicago Slam Works. The premiere season concludes on Saturday, July 21 with "In Any Tongue" featuring Germany's best slammers, including 2011 German National Slam Team Champion Andrea Herrmann, collaborating with Chicago's Speak Easy Ensemble. Performers will translate, interpret and choreograph each other's work, building a tableau of verse presented simultaneously in English and in German.

Attendees may purchase a "Slam Pass" which provides discount tickets to performances as well as tickets to the weekly "Uptown Poetry Slam" and the monthly "Encyclopedia Show". For over 25 years, Marc Smith has hosted the "Uptown Poetry Slam", where the international slam poetry movement began. This exciting and boisterous evening celebrates poetry and poets - both up-and-coming and established. The "Uptown Poetry Slam" runs every Sundays at 7 p.m. at the Green Mill Jazz Club, 4802 N. Broadway.

The "Encyclopedia Show" is a live variety extravaganza hosted by performance artists Robbie Q. Telfer and Shanny Jean Maney. The show brings artists and experts from many disciplines to use their individual talents to present a different verbal encyclopedia entry each month. The show cultivates accidental knowledge and irreverenT Loving kindness. The show strives to chafe against logic and proof, find meaning in obfuscation, and wrest truth from fact once and for all. The Encyclopedia Show is performed the first Wednesday of the month at 7:30 p.m. at the Vittum Theater.

Chicago Slam Works presents "Dead or Alive Battle Royale for Slam Poetry Supremacy for All Eternity" on Friday, May 25 at 8 p.m. at the Vittum Theater, 1012 N. Noble. Tickets are $14 or $10 for students. Patrons may also purchase a "Slam Pass" for the performances, the Uptown Poetry Slam and the Encyclopedia Show. Tickets are available by visiting www.chicagoslamworks.com or calling 866-811-4111.

Chicago Slam Works (CSW) is rooted in the Poetry Slam movement, which began in Chicago as a highly entertaining, interactive, innovative poetic experience and spread around the world to become a major force in stirring the minds of students, scholars, and everyday people. The founding members of CSW are pillars of the international movement and the organizational force behind dozens of major poetic events in and around Chicago-as well as the world including three National Poetry Slam Championships.

Mission: Building on Chicago's unique heritage as the birthplace of modern-day performance poetry, Chicago Slam Works brings together audiences, poets, and arts organizations to promote well-crafted performance poetry through event production.

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