Broadening the Reach of Spoken Word Poetry

Winthrop, MA, May 30, 2009 --(PR.com)-- A few years ago very few would have thought of poetry as an interesting market or something that young people would be captivated by. But times are changing; the world is in a recession and many young people live with more uncertainty than previous decades. It is probably because of all this that the idea of expressing yourself and telling your truth in your own words, that the idea of spoken word and slam poetry as a medium of communication is growing fast all over the world.

HBO has produced a docu-series, Brave New Voices, showcasing the passion that the young people have for slam poetry. President Obama also sees the power of this movement and hosted the first ever poetry jam session in the White House in May 2009. Speak 2B Free™ is a company dedicated to this cause.

Speak 2B Free™ has identified an online space where artists worldwide aspire to perform, but do not have access to an exclusive online global community. This year, Poetry&Words received hundreds of poetry applications from all over the world for the Glastonbury Festival 2009. In response to this Poetry&Words has partnered with Speak 2B Free to promote spoken word poetry globally, where they will run an online written poetry competition to give poets an opportunity to share their poems at the Glastonbury Festival in 2009.

The purpose of this competition is to give unknown poets an opportunity to show case their work and share their truth at the largest arts festival in the world, reaching international audiences. The idea behind the online contest is to be as fair as possible and give every poet around the world an opportunity to share their work and let the public vote for their favorite poems. The top 10 poems with the highest votes will be sent to Poetry&Words, who will choose the 2 winning poets. The winning poets will have their poems read at the Open Mic session at Glastonbury by Sophia Blackwell, well-known performance poet & multiple Slam winner who is best known for her social commentary.

All poems must be submitted to www.Speak2Bfree.com by June 13, 2009 in order to be considered for the online contest. Winners who will be featured at Glastonbury will be notified by Speak 2B Free™ in advance of the event.

###

If you would like more information about this topic, or to schedule an interview with Vangile Makwakwa, please call Vangile Makwakwa on +001 857 417 1867 or email Vangile at vangile@speak2bfree.com