A Little About Our Workshops
Why?
At Port Veritas we are committed to one primary goal. We hope to use the spoken word as a tool to help educate, entertain and engage our youth. We strive to bring out the voice of our teens in a way that challenges them in every way. Our personal experience has shown that this type of work (while not meant for all) can have a lasting and profound effect on many lives.
Who?
Our organization is comprised of a handful of artists and poets who have come together to share their work and help grown arts and community. We volunteer our time towards these workshops and several other performances. Through these workshops and performances we build funds to help bring artists to Maine, send poets to the National Poetry Slam and publish both known and unknown writers. We work to give everyone a place to have their voices heard.What?
Our workshops generally run in one of three ways. However we are more than happy to accommodate you in whatever way best fits your schedule and curriculum. Here are our basic workshop structures.
PERFORMANCE/SLAM – As the name denotes this is more of a performance than a workshop. We begin with a brief rundown of what a slam is. Our poets then compete against each other in a “mock” slam giving the students a chance to take the roll of judge. This generally runs about 45 minutes and is a guide way to give the kids an energizing yet brief overview of what modern spoken word and slam look and feel like.
LECTURE/PERFORMANCE – This lecture gives a brief rundown of spoken word and slam. We cover the history of slam, how to run a slam, what makes good performance pieces and where to begin your writing/performance process. Throughout the lecture pieces are read and performed to give examples of the various styles and array of issues dealt with in spoken word. This format also runs about 45 minutes. It is a good way for us to interface with each of your classes separately. This can be extended to over an hour based on your needs.
LECTURE/PERFORMANCE/YOUTH SLAM – This essentially contains all of the elements of the lecture/performance with one major difference. The workshop concludes with the students having their own poetry slam against each other with us and some teachers as judges. This is typically a way for the teachers to conclude a unit on spoken word in which the kids have been working on pieces over a period of time. The lecture portion can be given during regular class with a large assembly at the end of the day. Or in one large block with multiple classes attending.
Cost?
Since our mission is more important than money we have in the past done workshops for free. However we do have fiscal goals to tend to and prefer a stipend per performer for our workshops. These stipends pay for travel expenses. Beyond that cost all funds are donated back to Port Veritas and go primarily towards funding our National Slam Team. We are the first organization to send a team of poets to the National Poetry Slam from Maine in nearly fifteen years. We would like to keep sending poets from our great state and keep us on the poetic map. That being said the “fair fee” is generally between $50-$100 per poet per day depending on distance and lodging requirements.FMI Pleace Email: