My friend and co-author for The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Slam Poetry, Mark Kelly Smith, is currently heading back to one of his favorite destinations—France—where Slam Poetry is fast becoming about as popular as French Fries in America.
While in France, Marc plans to continue his collaborative work on a documentary about Slam Poetry while participating in the Festival Mythos in Rennes, France.
Here’s the itinerary straight from the Slampapi himself (with a few details intentionally omitted to keep his swarming fans at bay):
- April 8th (Tuesday) arrive in France and proceed to Pilote’s cabaret Culture Rapide. (If you’ve never seen Pilote perform, he’s worth a trip to France.) Meet with Pilote in the afternoon and stay the evening to slam.
- April 9th (Wednesday) … Where’s Marc? … personal journies…
- April 10th (Thursday) back to Rennes for the Festival Mythos. Marc delivers his show Thursday evening.
- April 11th (Friday) hang out in Rennes, walk around town, check out some other shows, and attend Youn’s Slam & Jam.
- April 12th (Saturday) head to Locquémeau, on the seaside of Brittany, to meet Tô and Patrick Beurard Valdoye, the two other characters of the documentary. In the evening, Marc serves as slam master of a slam in a bar at Locquémeau, where Youn had led slam workshops the previous Saturdays.
- April 13th (Sunday) back to Paris for flight home.
If you’re ever in the Chicago area on a Sunday night looking for something to jazz up your life, head out to the Green Mill Cocktail Lounge and check out Marc’s Uptown Poetry Slam. Better yet, step onstage and slam!
