5/15/06
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Leading National Poet to Make Appearance
in Phoenix

5/15/06 – Anthology, Inc and Essenza Coffeehouse are proud to
announce the
scheduling of nationally renowned poet, Christa Bell, from Seattle,
Washington.
She will be appearing Thursday, May 25th, 2006 as part of the
Essenzaslam
Poetry Slam – the longest running poetry slam in the Southwest at
twelve years.
Christa will provide a featured reading during a two round poetry
slam. Directions
can be obtained at (480) 461-0445. As always, the Essenzaslam Poetry
Slam is
free to attend. The venue is located d at 1350 S Longmore Drive, Mesa.

Christa, who received her BA in Creative Writing from San Francisco
State
University, has studied in France and lived in East Africa. She is
currently the
third ranked Performance Poet in the United States, having lost the
competition
to a time penalty, after receiving the highest score in the
individual event. Christa
is Seattle’s 2005 Grand Slam Poetry Champion and the Northwest’s 2005
representative at the Individual World Poetry Slam Competition (iWPS).
As founder of the Healing Is a Political Act (HIAPA) Creative
Recovery Workshop
Series, Christa is concerned with more than the technical aspects of
writing and
performing. She believes that expressing individual creativity is a
form of power -
a way to actively engage and transform our spiritual, emotional,
social and
political realities. Her workshops hold as their emphasis the healing
of ancestral,
emotional, and spiritual scars as a path to higher creativity.
She is the author of three collections of poetry, Revival (2004),
Arise My Beautiful
One, Come With Me (2005), and YoniVerse (to be released 2006), the
producer
of a live Spoken Word EP entitled WordMedicine (2006), and is currently
recording a full length live LP of her first SpokenWord tour also
entitled
YoniVerse: Live.
In 2006 Christa will headline her first international SpokenWord
Poetry tour,
WordMedicine 2006, where she has been invited to feature at over 80
venues
internationally, including the world renowned Nuyorican Poetry Café,
Bar 13, and
the Bowery Poetry Clubs in New York City and Da Poetry Lounge and Fly
Poets
@ the Conga Room in Los Angeles.
Christa's Website online is http://www.christabellonline.com
Anthology, Inc. is Phoenix's premiere literary nonprofit, working to
promote
performance poetry and associated literary arts in the greater Phoenix
community by providing opportunities for artists to perform their
work and by
making spokenword arts accessible to a diverse audience. More
information on
Anthology and how you can become a member can be found at
http://www.anthology.org. Anthology and the Essenzaslam Poetry Slam
were
founded in 1994.
Essenza Coffeehouse is Mesa's oldest coffeehouse, founded in 1993.
With a
premiere selection of Coffees, Teas and specialty drinks, Essenza is
the perfect
meeting pace for small groups or larger gatherings. More information
on Essenza
can be found at http://www.essenzacoffeehouse.com. They are located
at 1350
S Longmore Drive, Mesa, AZ 85202. Their phone number is (480) 461-0445.

For More Information Contact:
Contact: Bernard Schober
Mesa Slammaster
c/o Anthology, Inc.
PO Box 4411
Mesa, AZ 85211-4411
mesaslam@...
480.703.0608 (not to publish)





[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]