What Is It?
The Word Around Town (WAT?!) Poetry Tour is the ONLY 7-day poetry marathon in the country. (And no that’s not Fulshear, that’s the United States of America.) It’s in its 7th year. Lucky 7s. Seeing as life is all a crap shoot, this is the year for poetry in Houston. Organized by Blanca Alanis, Joe B, Stephen Gros, and Lupe Mendez, the tour aims to introduce poets to venues and expose audiences to poets.

What is the format?
The basic format showcases a featured poet, who reads for about 20 minutes. This performance is supported by 15 other local poets, who read 2 poems each. Generally, the featured poet starts the reading followed by 6 or 7 others, a brief break and the rest of the crew.

When, Where, and Who (the featured poet)?
All shows are free, open to the public and start at 8 pm. The Sunday and Monday shows already took place and were great, featuring Marion Lizama and Kool B, but the activities run through Saturday. Here is the rest of the line-up:

Tue, 8-14 / Boomtown Heights, 242 W. 19th St., 77008 / Stephen Gros
Wed, 8-15 / Eat Gallery, 4420 Almeda St., 77004 / Joe B
Thur, 8-16 / Secret Word Café, 2016 Dowling St., 77003 / Jasiminne & Lupe Mendez
Fri, 8-17 / Baker-­‐Ripley Neighborhood Center, 6500 Rookin St., 77074 / Maria Palacios
Sat, 8-18 / Dean’s Credit Clothing, 316 Main St., 77002 / BGK

Poets Performing
In alphabetical order by first name (because that’s how we roll), the 2012 Line up is…Blanca Alanis, Boby Kalloor, Carolyn Adams, Chris Wise, David Tomas Martinez, dee!colonize, FluentOne, Gerald Cedillo, Jennifer Gabiola, Kathy Fay, Makeda, Marcell Murphy, Oscar Peña, Outspoken Bean, Rain, and Tracy Lyall.

What we’ll be doing there?
We’ll be attending as many of the events as possible and reporting our impressions. Many of the performances are being recorded by the artist and videographer Jonathan Jindra (www.binariumproductions.com). The organizers plan to post some of those videos and when they do we plan to point to them.

So far…
Here’s some of the fun that’s already done.

Stay tuned, Dean will bring us more highlights from W.A.T. later this week.

The post Houston’s Word Around Town 2012 first appeared on An Open Book - The Inprint Blog.