AMP: Artists' Meeting Place and Resource Collective

The Ahimsa Collective presents "This is Your Brain on Poetry", an event where performers from all mediums and people from all walks of life are invited to revitalize classic and contemporary poetry with their own super-brilliant touch.

Here's how it breaks down. Anyone and everyone is/are invited to submit to be a participant. A participant will need to pick a classic or contemporary poem to present off of the Poetry Out Loud website (www.poetryoutloud.org). Then he or she will need to e-mail event administrator Kit Steinkellner at ahimsa.onedayevents@gmail.com with contact info and choice of poem. Entries MUST BE RECEIVED by 11:59 PM on MONDAY MARCH 15TH to participate (Yeah, okay, if you get your e-mail in at 12:02 AM, we'll let it slide…)

As far as how to present the poem- participants are invited to get creative. Have your band perform a folksy ballad written to Emily Dickinson. Choreograph a ballet to a recitation of Langston Hughes. Put on a puppet show using the words of e.e. cummings. Rock a Shakespeare sonnet soliloquy-style. Short, simple, straightforward presentations of poetry works beautifully too. The only rules are the poem in question has to be presented out loud and in full.

"This is Your Brain on Poetry" will be held on SATURDAY MARCH 20TH from 8 to 10 PM at the lovely HAYWORTH THEATRE (2511 Wilshire Blvd, 90057.) Admission will be FREE for performers, $5 for audience members

The audience members will have ballots with all the participants and their poems listed. After all the participants have performed, the audience will have the chance to anonymously mark their favorite performance. The votes will be tallied up and there will be a winner and a first and second runner up. The winner will receive a $100 CASH PRIZE. First and second runner ups will receive a $25 and $15 GIFT CERTIFICATES TO BORDERS respectively.

So whether you're raring to be a participant and revolutionize a poem or are just excited to come let centuries of rhyme, meter, metaphor, free verse and more wash over you, come out and get poetry-fied with the Ahimsa Collective. After all, your brain has enough peptides and proteins. It's time to get that three pounds of grey matter on some poetry…