Do you think that you’ve got what it takes to be a Def Poet?  Well, here’s your chance to prove it.  If you’re good, you could win Def Poetry DVD’s, a high profile feature on the Def Poetry MySpace page, and the opportunity to get feedback and recognition from some of the biggest names in the poetry community!  To become an eligible contestant, submit your entry between April 15, 2007 – May 6, 2007 by posting a 1-2 minute video clip of yourself performing an original poem into the “Comments” Section of the Def Poetry MySpace Page.

The submission period for all entries is closed. Thanks to all participants, we will be announcing winners soon!

 

Contest Judges:

BEAU SIA
Beau Sia, a poet from Oklahoma City, has appeared on all seasons of HBO's Russell Simmons Presents Def Poetry and is also an original cast member of the Tony award winning Broadway version of the show. He is currently editing several collections of his own work, as well as writing a full length multi-media work. He lives in a cave, where he dreams of impact.

 

BLACK ICE
Hip-hop poet Black Ice began spreading his words of revolution back in 1993 when he was known as Lamar Manson. A captivating performer with a pro-family, anti-establishment message, Black Ice worked Philadelphia's coffeehouse and poetry slam circuit hard, earning himself a loyal local following along the way. It wouldn't be long before he was taking his performances on the road. At a gig in New York City, hip-hop mogul Russell Simmons caught his act and the poet's quest for nationwide recognition kicked into overdrive. Black Ice went on to appear on five consecutive seasons of the Simmons-produced Def Poetry Jam on the HBO cable television network, which led to a starring role in the Tony Award-winning Def Poetry on Broadway. It was 2004 when he made his breakthrough into hip-hop, appearing on both Method Man's Tical 0: The Prequel and Pete Rock's Soul Survivor II. Two years later he would team with producer Eric "Booty" Greene and release his debut album, The Death of Willie Lynch, on the Koch label.

 

JAMES KASS
Originally from New York, James Kass, is the Founder and Executive Director of Youth Speaks and Brave New Voices. Since 1996, Youth Speaks has set a national standard for creative writing, poetry, and spoken word programs for youth. James has facilitated over 2,000 workshops to over 200,000 participants in high schools, universities, community-based organizations, public library systems, juvenile detention centers, and youth service agencies throughout the United States (and abroad), and the Youth Speaks/Brave New Voices network Executive Editor of First Word Press, and creator of the annual Youth Speaks Teen Poetry Slam, Spoken City, Brave New Voices, the Bringing the Noise reading series, the Bay Area Hip Hop Theater Festival, and the Living Word Festival, among other Spoken Word events, James is also a founding member of the San Francisco Poet Laureate Executive Committee, and has been a panelist for the California Arts Council Spoken Word Fellowship, The Oakland Creative Arts Spoken Word Fellowship and the San Francisco Arts Commission Creative Space Award. James sits on the Steering Committee for the Oakland International Hip Hop Museum (On Up), Chairs the Community Engagement Advisory Board for Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, is an Advisory Board Member for SlamBush.net, 826Valencia, and the NYC Hip Hop Theater Festival, is a Board Member of CAS, a small school at Berkeley High, Speak Out, a progressive national speakers bureau, and Youth Sounds, the nation’s premiere youth media program, teaches classes at the California College of Arts, and has partnered with The New York City Hip Hop Theater Festival to develop a festival in the Bay Area.

James has spoken on numerous panels, including at the New Progressive Coalition, the Commonwealth Club of San Francisco, the Social Venture Network, Changemakers, Hip Hop Activism, the Open Society Institute, and Grantmakers in the Arts, and has published numerous articles on youth, poetry, spoken word, and education. Through his work with Youth Speaks, he ahs raised over 13 million dollars toward the development of a national movement of brave new voices bringing the noise from the margin to the core.

Winner of a 1997 Bay Guardian Fiction Award and a 1999 Poetry Award, among many other awards for his writing, James was a 1996 San Francisco Poetry Slam Champion, has had his own work, both fiction and poetry, published in numerous journals and publications and performed nationwide from the Nuyorican to San Francisco’s Fillmore. As part of his work, James also created and still chairs Brave New Voices, the International Youth Poetry Slam Festival, which is hosted in a different American city each year, and has overseen the development of Youth Speaks chapters and affiliate programs nationwide, including in NY, Seattle, Los Angeles, Ann Arbor, Minneapolis/St. Paul, Honolulu, and Madison, WI. He served as the Poetry Advisor and an Executive Producer for the award-winning documentary film Poetic License, which aired nationwide on PBS stations, was the Casting Director for a national anti-substance abuse Spoken Word PSA Program, curated a video series on Spoken Word for Robert Redford's Sundance Instititue, is an Executive Producer of a forthcoming Documentary series on youth and spoken word, serves as Youth Casting Consultant for HBO’s Def Poetry, and is a recipient of the prestigious Northern California Creative Work Fund Arts Grant, with which he wrote and starred in No Man’s Land with Paul Flores, Marc Bamuthi Joseph and Beau Sia. James has also received awards and fellowships from the San Francisco Arts Commission, the California Arts Council, the Gerbode Foundation, the James Irvine Foundation, and the Ford Foundation, amongst others, and has been recognized by San Francisco State University on three occasions for his work serving the arts. James was also recognized by the Ford Foundation as a Future Aesthetic artist and presenter as part of a national hip-hop generation movement. He has been featured in media across the nation, including Poets & Writers, the New York Times, Seventeen Magazine, the San Francisco Chronicle, CNN, ABC, Nightline, Source, Vibe and National Public Radio. James founded Youth Speaks while a graduate student in the MFA program at San Francisco State University. He is currently working on a memoir about the last 11 years.

 

KAMILAH FORBES
Kamilah Forbes is an award winning actress, director, playwright and producer. Voted one of VIBE Magazine’s Top 100 Juiciest People, Kamilah is known for her captivating work and dedication to each of her passions. As a burgeoning actress, director, playwright and producer, her talent casts a vivid and evocative spell on both the national and international stage. In her diverse body of work she is noted for having a strong commitment to the development of creative works by, for and about the Hip-Hop generation. As the Artistic Director of the Hip-Hop Theatre Festival (HHTF), an annual 3-week festival taking place nationwide in New York, San Francisco, Washington D.C. and Chicago, she has seen it grow from a fledgling project into an independent non-profit organization with a truly national scope. The festival has featured the works of nearly 100 artists from not just within the U.S. but around the world as well, including England, Brazil and Canada. Many new and well-known artistic forces have had their work leveraged under Kamilah’s artistic direction including OBIE Awards winner Will Power, TONY Award winner Sarah Jones, Rennie Harris, Nilaja Sun, Marc Bamuthi Joseph and Indio Melendez, to name a few.
In addition, Kamilah is currently involved as the Co-Producer for the Peabody award-winning show “Russell Simmons’ HBO Def Poetry Jam” and assistant director to the Tony award-winning Broadway tour “Russell Simmons’ Def Poetry Jam.”

Kamilah first came to prominence as the writer/director of Hip-Hop Theatre Junction’s premier work “Rhyme Deferred.” “Rhyme Deferred” has since toured through a wide range of venues throughout New York, Washington DC, Texas and North Carolina. She has been featured in such diverse publications as American Theater Magazine, Vibe, The Source, and Honey. “Rhyme Deferred” was published in TCG's anthology The Fire this Time.
Kamilah received a B.F.A. in Theatre from Howard University as well as studied at the British-American Drama Academy at Oxford University in Oxford, England.

 


URSULA RUCKER
Ursula Rucker isn't a funky diva -- she's her own diva. Having collaborated with some of music's most sophisticated -- the Silent Poets, King Britt, Josh Wink, the Roots -- Rucker has honed her seductive spoken wordplay inside Philly soul, hip-hop, and new jazz. She combines social awareness with womanhood, black culture, and love for something musically alluring. A graduate of Temple's journalism school, Rucker made her poetic debut in 1994 at Philly's celebrated Zanzibar Blue. From there, she proved her smart and sultry bravado without frills. The late '90s illustrated her abrasive poetic nature inside cuts like Josh Wink's "Sixth Sense" and 4hero's "Loveless." Supa Sista, Rucker's debut album showcasing a street-fighting spirit, was issued in September 2001 on !K7. Silver or Lead (2003) and Ma'at Mama (2006) followed.  In addition, Ursula has appeared on several seasons of Def Poetry on HBO.

 

All Finalists (Top 5 contestants) will all receive a full set of Def Poetry DVD’s (including Def Poetry Seasons 1-5).

The Winner will receive:

 



These are the rules (the “Rules”) of the Contest.  By entering a video (the “Video”) into the Contest, you agree to be bound by these Rules.  If you do not agree to these Rules, then you may not enter the Contest.  This Contest is run by Simmons Lathan Entertainment/Media Group.

  1. Each person is limited to only one poetry submission.  Spam postings or multiple postings of the same entry will result in disqualification from the contest.  Entries become the property of MySpace and Simmons Lathan Media Group and will not be returned.
  2. Submissions should be between 1-2 minutes and in no event should exceed 3 minutes long. 
  3. Any poetry performed on submitted materials should be an original work of the contestant.
  4. The Video must be in compliance with the MySpace terms of use at: http://www.myspace.com/Modules/Common/Pages/TermsConditions.aspx 
  5. All entries must be received by May 6, 2007. No entries will be accepted after that date.
  6. MySpace may remove any Video at any time at its absolute discretion.
  7. NO PURCHASE NECESSARY TO ENTER THE COMPETITION.  Open only to legal residents of the 50 United States and District of Columbia who are at least 18 years of age as of March 25, 2007.  Employees of Simmons Lathan Media Group, and its parents, subsidiaries, affiliates, licensees, assignees, and successors and the immediate families (spouses and parents, children and siblings, and their spouses) and individuals living in the same households of each of the above are ineligible.  Void where prohibited by law.  The Contest is subject to all eligible federal, state, and local laws and regulations.  By participating, entrants agree to these official rules and accept the decisions of MySpace and Simmons Lathan Media Group as final. Void where prohibited.
  8. There is no cash alternative to the prizes and no prize may be exchanged or redeemed.
  9. Neither the Video nor any information or material which you provide MySpace or to Simmons Lathan Media Group through the MySpace.com site may contain vulgar, obscene, threatening or otherwise unlawful language or material.  By submitting any Video, you grant to MySpace and Simmons Lathan Media Group an unrestricted, irrevocable license to use, reproduce, display, perform, modify, transmit and distribute your Video and/or information relating to you and/or your Video, and you represent and warrant that you own or otherwise control all of the rights to your video and that MySpace and Simmons Lathan Media Group are free to use your Video for any purpose.  However, we will not release your name or otherwise publicize the fact that you submitted your Video or other information to us unless we obtain your permission to use your name or we are required to do so by law.  Please review the MySpace Privacy Policy for a complete description of how we handle personal information submitted in the process of providing videos to the MySpace site. 
  10. MySpace, Simmons Lathan Media Group, and their parents, subsidiaries, affiliates, licensees, successors, and assignees are not responsible for printing or typographical errors in any Contest-related materials; stolen, lost, late, misdirected, damaged, incomplete, or illegible entries or Videos; entries or Videos that are processed late or incorrectly or are lost; or any callback telephone calls made in error or containing incorrect information.  Winners are responsible for payment of all applicable taxes on prizes and any other expenses relating to the use of the prizes.  MySpace and Simmons Lathan Media Group reserve the right to cancel or modify the Contest if fraud or technical failures compromise the integrity of the Contest, as determined by Simmons Lathan Media Group in its sole discretion.  By participating in the Contest, winners agree (a) to release, discharge, and hold harmless MySpace, Simmons Lathan Media Group, and their parents, subsidiaries, affiliates, successors, assignees, and officers, directors, employees, and agents, from all claims or damages arising out of participation in the Contest and acceptance, use, misuse, or possession of any prizes received in the Contest, and (b) where legal, to the use of their names and/or likenesses for advertising purposes without compensation.
  11. By entering this Contest you grant a worldwide, perpetual, royalty-free, non-exclusive unrestricted, irrevocable license to use, reproduce, display, perform, modify, transmit and distribute the Video and for all of the intellectual property rights in and embodied in the Video to MySpace and to Simmons Lathan Media Group and their respective parents, subsidiaries, affiliates, successors, assignees and licensees for the full term of copyright including all extensions and renewals, to communicate to the public, distribute, display, exhibit, transmit, digitize, otherwise use, and permit others to use and perform throughout the world the Video in any manner, form, or format now or hereinafter created, including on the internet and otherwise use it in the course of this Contest.
  12. Winning the Contest does not guarantee a place in the Russell Simmons presents: Def Poetry television show.



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