2010 NATIONAL SLAM TEAM

The 2009 Soap Boxing Slam team brought their best to the National Poetry Slam in West Palm Beach, FL. They emerged victoriously to bring the trophy to MN for the first time in the National Poetry Slam's 20 year history.

This is the 2010 Soap Boxing Slam team. We intend to hold on to our trophy by winning this year's NPS, in St. Paul - August 3rd - 7th.

Shane Hawley is a spoken word artist who dabbles in hip-hop and stand-up comedy.  He is a four time member of the Minneapolis National Poetry Slam team, and a former Minneapolis Grand Slam champion.  He has opened for national acts such as P.O.S, Dessa Darling, and Jeremy Messersmith.  As a St. Paul native, he is eager to represent his city in his city at the 2010 National Poetry Slam.

Sierra DeMulder In addition to winning the 2009 National Poetry Slam with Saint Paul, Sierra DeMulder ranked 9th at the IWPS, 11th at WoWPS and coached Macalester College to Final Stage at CUPSI 2010. She was awarded Best Female Poet at CUPSI 2009 and in January 2010, her first full-length manuscript was published by Write Bloody Publishing. 

Khary J. (aka 6 is 9) is a playwright, teaching artist and poet who is glad to represent St Paul for the fourth time. He's proud of the poetry the Twin Cities is consistently producing, and hopes to remain a part of the scene in various ways in the future.

Kyle “Guante” Myhre has been Grand Slam champ of Saint Paul, Minneapolis and Madison, and was part of the 2009 National Poetry Slam champion Saint Paul team.  As a rapper, he's a member of the Tru Ruts crew and has shared the stage with Talib Kweli, Sage Francis, Brother Ali, Zion I and many others.  Guante is currently serving as arts coordinator of the Canvas, a Saint Paul teen arts center, and continues to lead workshops through the MN Spoken-Word Association.  For more info, see www.guante.info.

Sam Cook was born in Moscow to communists, and was raised in Boulder, Colorado among the white and privileged. Sam has yet to decide where he will die, but hopes to do it among poets. Since leaving home he has spent his alloted years of 'youth' practicing Buddhism, sitting in Sweat Lodges, making wine, riding bikes through the mountains, pwning the interwebs, playing folk guitar with an ear for mediocrity, serving strangers food, writing and reading poems, moving and repairing mobile homes, camping, overcoming insomnia, fighting the man and perhaps importantly, enjoying the sunshine.