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</font><p align="justify"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Greeting from the Poets' Asylum.</font></p>
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<h3><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Coming up on Sunday, August 9th</font></h3></center>
<p align="justify"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><img src="http://poetsasylum.org/images/jeffstumpo.jpg" alt="Jeff Stumpo" title="Jeff Stumpo features on August 9th!" align="right" hspace="5">
The team is heading back from Nationals and the poetry goes on... On Sunday,
August 9th, the <a href="http://poetsasylum.org/" target="_blank">Poets'
Asylum</a> holds our regular open poetry reading and a feature by <b>Jeff
Stumpo</b>. Stumpo is a Ph.D. student in English at Texas A&M University. He
is a poet who crafts work that is meant to be read, seen, and heard. An active
participant in the local arts scene, he is the founder & co-host of Javashock,
the Brazos Valley's poetry slam. Check out his work by visiting <a href="http://www.jeffstumpo.com/" target="_blank">www.jeffstumpo.com</a>.</font></p>
<p align="justify"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Please join us at Jumpin' Juice and Java (335 Chandler Street,
Worcester). The reading starts at 6:00 p.m. No cover; please throw some money
in the bucket to pay the feature.</font></p>
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<h3><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Poetry in the Local News</font></h3></center>
<p align="justify"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><img src="http://poetsasylum.org/images/paperboy.png" alt="Extra Extra" title="Poetry in the Local News - check it out!" width="140" align="right" height="120" hspace="7">
The Worcester Telegram & Gazette has an story in the paper and
online today about Massachusetts lawmakers taking up a bill to create a state
poet laureate post. A handful of Poets' Asylum associated folks are quoted in
the story plus a number of other area poets. Check it out if you have a chance
and leave a comment if you think such a position should be created (or even if
you just want to counter the "don't they have better things to do crowd").</font></p>
<p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Here's a link to the story... <a href="http://www.telegram.com/article/20090804/NEWS/908040393/1101" target="_blank">Lawmakers mull creation of poet laureate</a>.</font></p>
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<h3><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">August 2nd Revisited</font></h3></center>
<p align="justify"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Thanks to everyone who came to the Asylum this past Sunday for
the <b>Team Send-off Feature</b>. After a short open four of the five team
members shared well practice slam pieces, newer work and a handful of haiku
and other poetic tributes to their team members. We thank Danielle Carriveau,
Dave Keali'i, Danny Balel and McKendy Fils-Aime for sharing their work with us
and wish them well at the <a href="http://www.nps2009.com/" target="_blank">2009National Poetry Slam</a>. Team member Trevor Byrne-Smith was already in route
to West Palm Beach so he couldn't share in the festivities. His voice was
missed.</font></p>
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<h3><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Fundraising Wrap-up</font></h3></center>
<p align="justify"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><img src="http://poetsasylum.org/images/thermometer.png" alt="Fundraising" align="right" hspace="5">
The Worcester Slam team is now in beautiful West Palm Beach, FL for the <a href="http://nps2009.com/" target="_blank">2009 National Poetry Slam</a> and
they wouldn't be there without the generous support of the people who make up
the Poets' Asylum. Back in April slammaster Bill MacMillan put forth the
challenge of raising $1000 by the end of the month. On the last Sunday of
the month we raised enough to meet that goal and commit to sending a team to
NPS.</font></p>
<p align="justify"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">The larger goal was to raise $2500 before the team left for Florida. This was not an easy task yet it was met with the resilence we've
come to expect from the community that gathers each Sunday night to share the
poetry that moves them. With a buck here and a $20 there, through the sale
of chapbooks & t-shirts, with a special performance and a regional or two we
have come within $175 of our goal. While we didn't quite meet the final
hurdle we raised enough to cover registration, lodging and most of the travel
costs for the five member team & their coach. On their behalf we thank you
for your continued support.</font></p>
<p align="justify"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"> </font></p>
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<p align="justify"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Find us online at <a href="http://poetsasylum.org/" target="_blank">http://poetsasylum.org/</a>.</font></p>
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