What”s going on this weekend? Chances are that somewhere near you, there”s poetry happening. As the weather warms, poets take to the outdoors and celebrate nature with words. From Boston to Seattle, from Sacramento to Fort Lauderdale, poetry is still enjoying a popular resurgence. Grab a piece of grass at a local festival, and enjoy the weather and the words at one of the poetry festivals or events happening across the country this weekend.

Jazz Under the Stars (Washington D.C.) featuring The 2nd annual Capital Jazz Poetry Slam will take place on Sunday, June 4, 2006 on the Symphony Woods Stage at the Capital Jazz Fest from 11:30am-1:30pm.

Contestants will compete for the following prizes:

1st Prize: $500
2nd Prize: $100
3rd Prize: Capital Jazz Fest Gift Certificate (value $50)

This Year”s Poetry Slammers:
Patrick Washington
Kim Zisa
Naima Jamal
Lamont Carey
Archie “The Messenger” Barlow (returning champion)
Messiah Ramikksoon
Kiniki Jakarta Towner
Joanna Hoffman
Anthony Walker (Benny Blaq)
Eric “E-Baby” Smith
Ryan Mergen
Whitney Chase

Also Performing
Olu Butterfly
Ebony Golden

This Year”s Slam Hosted
by Toni Blackman

Listen to Rachelle Ferrell, Incognito, Will Downing, the Rippingtons, Fourplay and other stars at the 14th annual Capital Jazz Fest Friday through Sunday at Merriweather Post Pavilion. There will also be a jazz challenge competition, a poetry slam and an arts and crafts fair. Lawn seats cost $29.50; pavilion seats (if available) cost $41.50 to $74.50.

CAPITAL JAZZ FEST Friday at 7:30, Saturday and Sunday from 11 to 10 at Merriweather Post Pavilion, on Broken Land Parkway, Columbia. For tickets, 202-397-7328; for information, 301-218-0404 or http://www.capitaljazz.com.

Worcester Poetry Slam Finals (Worcester, MA)
Coming up on Sunday, June 4th

Speak That Word It”s time for the 2006 Worcester Slam Finals at the Poets” Asylum. Join us as Bobby Gibbs, Gary Hoare, Urban, Ryk McIntyre, Erin Jackson, Sean Conlon, Nick Davis and Joe (the artist formerly known as Gigglez) compete in three rounds of poetic mayhem. The top finishers tonight will represent Worcester at the 2006 Nationals being held in Austin, TX in August. It”s bound to be a hot night with great poetry and top rate performances from everyone.

Join us at the Java Hut, 1073A Main Street in Worcester. The sign-up list goes up around 7:00 p.m. and the open mic will start sometime after that. The slam follows the open mic. Please bring a few bucks for the bucket, it”s one of the few ways we collect money to fund the slam team. No cover; please support the venue.

Washington Poets Association Reading (Tacoma, Washington)
Washington Poets Association Announces
2006 Award Winners and Judges to Read at Awards Presentation

Saturday, June 3, 2006 – 2:00 PM
KING”S BOOKS
218 St. Helen”s Avenue
Tacoma, WA
Directions: Phone: 253.272.8801
www.kingsbookstore.com

Admission is Free.

Winners of the WPA 2006 Adult Contests were announced at the annual BURNING WORD festival at Greenbank Farm on Whidbey Island on Saturday, April 29.

A performance of the winning poems and a reading by each of the participating judges will take place in Tacoma at King”s Books on June 3 at 2 p.m. The four contests included the William Stafford Award (any form), the Carlin Aden Award (form), the Charlie Proctor Award (humor) and the Francine Porad (haiku) Award.

The WPA is also proud to present on this occasion the 2006 Faith Beamer Cooke Award to JUDITH ROCHE. This annual award is given in recognition of outstanding service to the poetry community of Washington.

A short WPA membership meeting will proceed the reading at 1:30 PM. New board members and officers will be elected. The public is welcome.

Over $1,000 will be awarded to the winning poets.

Admission is free and everyone is invited!

Go Metro First Lummis Day Arts Festival (Los Angeles, CA))
Lummis Day

Poetry readings will be led by Lummis’ granddaughter, poet Suzanne Lummis, recognized by the “Greenwood Encyclopedia of American Poets and Poetry” as “one of the most distinctive and influential poets in Los Angeles.” Suzanne Lummis will be joined by National Book Critics Circle award-winner, B.H. Fairchild, whose books, “The Art of the Lathe” and “Early Occult Memory Systems of the Lower Midwest,” have also won widespread acclaim.

Dance troupes performing at the event will include the Tongva-Gabrielino Native American Dancers, the St. Ignatius Filipino Folk Dance Troupe and the Aztec dancers from the Semilla School. Six northeast Los Angeles art galleries will exhibit work by their artists, and an installation by digital artist and UCLA professor Fabian Wagmister will be on display.

Lummis Day is sponsored by Metro, the Arroyo Seco Neighborhood Council, the Historic Highland Park Neighborhood Council and the Glassell Park Neighborhood Council, public radio station KPFK 90.7 FM and Los Angeles Alternative newspaper, with the support of the North Figueroa Association, Los Angeles City Council Districts 1, 13 and 14, Occidental College, the Department of Recreation and Parks, the Historical Society of Southern California, the Autry National Center, the Heritage Square Museum, the Highland Park Heritage Trust, the Mount Washington Association, the Mount Washington Homeowners Alliance, the Arroyo Seco Foundation, the Arroyo Arts Collective, the Northeast Democratic Club of Los Angeles, the L.A. Poetry Festival and other community organizations.

Poetry readings, poetry and pizza and more in NorCal(Northern California)

If you”re anywhere in and around San Francisco, there”s a ton of poetry happening here there and everywhere. You can mix your poetry with all-you-can-eat pizza at the poetry-and-pizza event, participate in a memorial reading for SF poet Bart Alberti, or drop in to a walk-in poetry workshop with Pleasanton”s Poet Laureate, Cynthia Bryant. See the NorCal calendar for details and more events