2006 - 2007 Annual Report

Our 2006/2007 Wits End Poetry Season, ran from August 2006 until July 2007 in the second year of our weekly reading series at Coffee Underground. This year our events were sponsored by the Metropolitan Arts Council, The Humanities Council of SC, and the Southern Arts Federation. In addition to holding 32 poetry readings, we also held several special events. In October we brought Buddy Wakefield for a special performance at the Liz Daly Design Studio. We also held the second annual Southern Slam Queen Championship in March and held the Carolina Slam Tour in Spartanburg at the Hub City Showroom.

2005 - 2006 Annual Report

Our 2005/2006 Wits End Poetry Season, ran from August 2005 until July 2006. This year the Metropolitan Arts Council sponsored our annual reading series each Sunday evening at Coffee Underground, which featured performances by poets such as Basik Knowledge, Tavis Brunson, Dasan Ahanu, Chris Chandler, and many more. This year we also held the first annual Southern Slam Queen Championship in March and held the Carolina Slam Tour in Spartanburg at the T.K. Gregg Recreation Center.

2004 - 2005 Annual Report

Our 2004/2005 Wits End Poetry Season, runs from September 2004 until August 2005. This year the Metropolitan Arts Council sponsored our first annual reading and workshop series, which featured 9 nationally renowned poets from across the country. Also this year, Wits End Poetry began its new weekly open mic series at Coffee Underground.

In January 2005, Coffee Underground renovated its theater space and created the dream poetry venue. Consequently, we have begun the process of building the audience at this new venue and booking features for a new weekly reading series to replace the monthly series. Coffee and Poetry is held every Sunday from 7:30 - 8:30.

This season Wits End Poetry held 71 poetry events! Over 1,500 people attended Wits End Events. Over 10,000 people visited our website!

I. Our workshop series consisted of nine free workshops with diverse professional poets, which aided us in growing the number of women who are reading at our open mic events. The workshop series also helped to create a sense of community and allowed poets to commune in small, intimate groups.

II. Our most popular event this year was Queen Sheba, who recently won the Red Bull Word Clash and the Southern Fried Poetry Slam. Close to eighty people attended this event, and 90% of the audience was composed of minorities.

III. In December, Wits End Poetry held the first annual Her Word Festival, which featured readings by Vera Gomez and Mendy Knott's "Poems against the War." The festival also included a workshop. We plan to expand the festival next year.

Our sponsors this year included Link Magazine, the Metropolitan Arts Council, Coffee Underground, Betty Pearle's, and the South East Arts Federation.

Our goal for our next year is to create more workshop opportunities, develop a more defined board of directors, create a pilot youth poetry program, and to pursue additional sponsors.

2003-2004 Annual Report

In January 2004, Wits End Poetry Received its Determination Letter from the IRS stating its 501(C)(3) non-profit status backdated to May 2003. Official tax exempt status will open many new doors for our organization and help us continue to provide educational and cultural opportunities for the Upstate of South Carolina.

The highlight of 2004 was the first annual 2004 individual World Poetry Slam held in partnership with Poetry Slam Inc. On February 6th, Buddy Wakefield, representing Seattle, took the World Poetry Slam Crown to the cheering of over 400 people packed into the Handlebar Auditorium! The event was sponsored by The Greenville News, Turner South, The Metropolitan Arts Council, The Handlebar, Blue Ridge Brewery, Betty Pearle's, Palmetto Music, and Red Bull. Wits End Poetry received over $35,000 in sponsorships, donations, and in-kind support.

The main goal of this event was to revolutionize the exposure of Greenville County and South Carolina citizens to performance poetry. Most of the shows were free to the public and all of our main events were standing room only, and were mainly populated by new initiates to the art of poetry. As part of the outreach aspect of the project, a teen poetry workshop and a teen slam were hosted by Jim Nave. A workshop for teachers, "Teaching Teens Poetry," was hosted by Allan Wolf. To briefly speak to the quality of the poets that came to Greenville for iWPS, ten have appeared on HBO's Def Poetry Jam.

The combined attendance of all the events over the four day festival was 1245. The event was covered extensively by print and online press: articles appeared on the front page of the Lifestyle section of The Greenville News on 2/4/04 and 2/6/06, as well as follow up pictures in 2/11/04 City People and the 2/17/04 Upstate Link. Full page articles appeared in the January Greenville Magazine and in the 4/3/04 Metrobeat. Belle Magazine, The Greenville Journal, Free Times Columbia, About.com, GotPoetry.com, and the Seattle Post also covered the event.

Poetry Slam Inc. will be producing a World Poetry Slam DVD from footage of the event. An iWPS Anthology of all competing poets was also released as part of the festival by Wits End Poetry and is still available for sale. Footage from the event can currently be viewed at www.livepoets.com.