The fourth in the “best damn poetry” series features two of the members of Boston's world famous Cantab Lounge Slam Team: Sean Conlon and Brian S. Ellis. The series will be held on August 22nd in the bottom floor of Thornes Marketplace in downtown Northampton from 6:30pm-9pm, and will begin with an open mic for local poets to share their work. The Best Damn Poetry series is organized by The Commonwealth Center for Change in conjunction with Portal Arts Group to expose western Massachussetts to spoken word poets from outside the valley.

About the performers:
Sean Conlon is a dedicated student of the page and a firm believer in the power of spoken word. As a SlamMaster of the Hampshire College Slam collective, Sean founded the first Nationally Certified spoken word venue based on a college campus, and has coached two teams in two national competitions. Cantab Rookie of the Year for 2005, this is Sean's first year on the Cantab team.

Brian S. Ellis has been performing poetry in the New England Area for four years and has been traveling nationally for two. He's been a member of the Cantab Lounge Slam team since two thousand and six and has represented the vnue at the Individual World Poetry Slam. His first full book of poems was published in two thousand eight with Write Bloody Books. He has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize twice.

Come out and see these two young performers at the beginnings of their fantastic careers, take a look into the spoken word revolution that has received both acclaim and disdain from the torn literary world. Now, the revolution is coming to Northampton and you can judge for yourself. The poetry slam was invented in 1986 by Chicago construction worker Marc Smith. After migrating to New York City in 1991, it caught the attention of the mainstream media when Russell Simmons’ Def Poetry Jam aired on HBO in 2002. Since then every major city in America began sprouting slam teams and spoken word venues. This proliferation of poetic venues has given rise to what some are calling the “third wave” of the spoken word movement.

Portal Arts Group is an unincorporated organizational arts team centered around bringing the best of emerging visual and performance based arts into an engaging personal setting and social atmosphere.