Static Storms and Smoky Fire
What do you get when you mix creativity with passion, a group of diverse socially conscious poets, various messages from various walks of life and a new book on “Lungless Things?” None other than The Intangible Collective.
Originally created in 2004, the Intangibles were founded by TJ Natole, Bamoboo MC and other slam poets attending SUNY Oneonta. As time pressed on, the Oneonta and New Paltz slams team became best friends and bitter effin’ rivals, according to Intangible Collective Slam Director Brian ‘Omni’ Dillon.
“Our little slam fam grew and grew until there were about 30 of us and we made the decision to reorganize our entire poetry unit into a new version of the Intangibles, now the Intangible Collective.” The Collective has been operating at the professional level for over a year. Though the majority of the members hail from New York City and attended SUNY schools, there are others from other cities across the country singing, dancing, singing and slamming somewhere.
As the slam director, Omni is in charge of the SLAM committee and running their registered NYC Slam Venue in Hell’s Kitchen. As everybody is a poet first, many of them have projects in the works, are in school and are sometimes competing in collegiate poetry slams. Beyond their poetry, the Intangibles are also playwrights, published writers and authors, college students, producers, dancers, singers, educators, slam poets and mostly, human beings sharing their insights of the world, with the world. The Intangible Collective has undergone a series of fortunate events.
“After we reorganized last fall, we had our annual tour in April (“Where There’s Smoke There’s Fire”),” Omni said. “We just completed our “Static After The Storm Tour,“ I host the Intangible Slams in Hell’s Kitchen every first and third Thursday. We do shows to promote the sale of our anthology.” “Static: and Other Lungless Things” is the first of three poetic anthologies and went on sale in November. The book was published by Penmanship Books and they plan on completing volumes II and III in February and November 2010, respectively. The group has been touring and doing shows to promote the sale of their book.
“It’s definitely not easy selling poetry books but, when you back it up with the performers we’ve got in the Intangible stable it becomes a lot easier,” Omni said. “We put on crazy gigs.” From the Nuyorican Poet’s Café and the Soundbites Poetry Festival in New York to Albany and Binghamton, with work, workshops and school in between, spoken word poets are familiar with the works and words of an Intangible all around. Here is a clip of Intangible poets performing at a national collegiate poetry slam at SUNY Oneonta.
While many of the slam poets, including Omni are active in the NYC area, some can be found hosting events and performing in various colleges. Check out a show sometime and stop by their websitewebsite for the latest news, events, and Intangible goods.
(Photos and video credit: Intangible Collective & Youtube)
