Well - I had high hopes and aspirations, however in the last couple of years, it's been like running through treacle....

I'm quite heavily involved with SlamIdol, who do a podcast service (www.slamidol.com) and we pitched an idea to one company, however everything went quiet. Simon & I are still plugging away...

We are now working closely with Hammer & Tongue here in Oxford (Steve Larkin) and we have a gig on this weekend - the Transatlantic Slam - the first ever poetry slam held in two places at the same time, simultaneously narrowcast between Oxford & Manhatten - we are still deciding whether to stream it live on the web as well. It is going to be a MONSTER of an event, so if you are in the area, Oxford is £10 and Manhatten is FREE. We have some of the world's best performers, including the likes of Taylor Mali & Jamie Kilstien. Wow!

The whole thing is being managed on a shoestring - we did open conversations with a couple of corporate sponsors, however they all went quiet. I suppose it's all about persuading them that performance poetry isn't about beret-wearing beard strokers. Cue Taylor Mali - "I think I could be a poet, because I like to wear a lot of black...."

The TransSlam is the first step. We have a few other new formats that we would like to use, however the constraining factors are time, money and finding a decent sponsor and/ or content distributor.

If anyone reading this has contacts in the wacky world of broadcast, be it mainstream or alternative, please let us/me know. We want to create an industry for poets to be able to earn a decent amount of money from their trade. Some people might think that we are commercialising poetry, which for many is a big no-no, however we certainly don't want to "bastardise" the artform. We just don't want rap music to be the only realistic future outlet. People are always free to hang out with the beret wearers in bookshop back rooms.

Anyway - hopefully it won't be another two years before I write again....Please - if someone out there can help, I would love to hear from you.

Big Hugz

AYM