Sacred Slam Poetry

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Mental Health Sacred Slam

On January 8th, 2005 at Sufi Books twelve poets—each self-identifying as someone living with mental illness—blessed the stage with their personal truths in the form of poetry, along with a multimedia presentation, to a sold-out crowd.

Carl Blumenthal, a poet in the first Mental Health Sacred Slam wrote the following for an article in New York City Voices and the Verrazano Foundation's website:

Sacred Slam and the Verrazano Foundation, brought together the 'chronically normal' and the 'acutely crazy' for a stigma-busting evening of poetry that made everyone present walking contradictions in terms...Whether people identified with each other when they walked in the door, true communion took place by the end of the night...Ian Koebner, director of Sacred Slam was not afraid to ask a simple question: 'What is mental illness?...Whatever the historic claims, we will bear witness to personal truth.

To read Carl's full articles visit: http://www.newyorkcityvoices.org/2005spring/20050425.html

Poetry Poet Poets NYC Buddhist Buddhism Sufi Christian Jewish Islam Moslem Conflict Resolution Bowery Poetry Club New York Ian Koebner Ethan Nichtern Akim Funk Buddha Queen GodIs Sage Morley