We’re excited to announce a new effort for SPARKcon 2009 – a Yearbook! Beth and Britt are looking for your best 10-20 photos from each SPARK. Based on the quality and quantity of images, we can figure out the layout and amount of pages. Our intention is to give everyone a chance to relive their best experiences at SPARKcon, and in many cases, see some of the things they missed. We hope to use this book as a fundraiser for next year’s events.

The simplest way to get us images is to mail a CD to:
SPARKcon
323 W Martin St
Raleigh NC 27601

If you email us at contact@sparkcon.com we’ll know to look for it.

Please put each photographer’s name in the actual file name, so that we are sure to credit everyone properly.

Please note: in order to clear us with copyright laws, these images must be owned by a photographer who has signed a Photographer’s Release. Any performers depicted must also have a signed Talent Release.

Look for a “yearbook signing party” coming down the road… SPARK on!

Speaking for the rest of the Bobbleheads, we were amazed by how consistently everyone “got it” this year. All of you seemed to be right on the same page with the same vision, which just gave all of us even more energy. This unified voice seemed to even carry over to every tweet, article and interview that we saw. We’re truly lucky to be living in an environment filled with such positive, creative and community-minded people like all of you. And it’s operating at a level I haven’t seen anywhere else.

There is a symphony of chatter going on about what to do next year. We ask that you write these ideas down as soon as you can – before we forget. As organizers, it might be best if you can write suggestions as comments to this post. However we can read posts on the public site (“feedback” page), or on the facebook group.

If you have any interesting stories or favorite vignettes of the event, please share those as well. Otherwise tag your photos with SPARKcon in flickr or tell us where else you put them.

We will be scheduling a meeting in the next few weeks to try to visit with all of you again and capture all of your thoughts. Be on the lookout and come prepared to celebrate!

Thank you again and Spark on!

Aly

Please note: we hope to have all of you at the kickoff meeting at 6 on Thursday to pick up badges, have a drink, and support the keynote speaker and Pecha Kucha event.

For tonight we just want to go through final logistics:

1. overall plan of the event, with rain plans
2. confirmation of every act in your SPARK as per the published schedule, and turning in all talent release forms
3. your final volunteer needs
4. any outstanding facilities needs
5. your official photographer and videographer names, and turning in all photo/video release forms
6. scheduling a recap meeting *with a SPARKcon yearbook event*

Spark on!

Aly

RALEIGH, NC (September 5, 2009) — Want to roll around in words?  How about a roll in the hay?  You’re in luck!  Slammin’ poetry and sweet seduction get top billing at this year’s storySPARK, part of the annual SPARKcon festival in downtown Raleigh.
It’s a potent one-two combination that starts at 9pm on Saturday, Sept. 19 with Poetry Slam on the main stage.  Poets and audiences will then make their way to Humble Pie Restaurant on Harrington Street 10:30pm for readings and music celebrating love and lust.

Literary impresario Dasan Ahanu hosts both events, with a potentially irksome assist from Raleigh Quarterly publishers Greg Behr and Billy Warden.
Other literary events are programmed by the complementary PoetrySPARK team, which is organizing poetry readings by more than 60 local poets. Events are planned for that Friday and Saturday at the Morning Times.
“I’m not sure all of this smart, sexy fun is at all appropriate for North Carolina’s capital city,” said a flustered official who asked not to be identified.  Featured performers include:

PoetrySLAM, Main Stage Sep 19 9:00 pm

Joseph Churchwell
Walden Raines
Jru Salam
Andrew Tyree
Ron Hargrove
Shye
Ang
Trina Thoughtz
Tavis Brunson
Paula Latham
Tia Miles
Anika Alexander
George Yamazawa

StorySPARK After Dark Erotic Poetry, Humble Pie, 10:30 pm

Corey T. Parker
Rahkie Mateen
Kelly Borberg
Michael Mayo
Cami Brown Shuga
Lakeya Gardner
Shye
Nikki
Ang
Lizh
Trina Thoughtz
Geneva Bowden
Tavis Brunson
Tia Miles
Anika Alexander
Jamela Lrato
Erin Byrd
Andrew Tyree
Ron Hargrove (KrossWordz)
Teniel Bishop
Greg Behr
Billy Warden
Sadia Latifi

About SPARKcon:
SPARKcon showcases local creative talent in the NC Triangle. For four days, Raleigh’s Fayetteville St, public spaces, clubs and stages will be filled with art, music, dance, film, fashion, design, proposals, and more.
Celebrating local cultural richness and empowering action through an open-source approach to collaboration and cross-pollination, SPARKcon is not a funded city program or an economic development stunt. It’s completely grassroots and by the people for the people! Join us as we explore the creative spirit of the Triangle!

Contact information:

Greg Behr
gebehr@gmail.com

Given the growing nature of SPARKcon,  photography of the event will be organized differently this year.  Cheryl Gottschall and Bryan Regan will be our Overall Photographers. Their purpose will be to capture a few great shots of the whole event. As a result,  they will not be documenting each and every work,  artist or event in SPARKcon. We are asking each SPARK to reach out to their local community and recruit their own SPARK photographers. These photographers need to fill out the Photographer’s Release Form and submit their raw photos to each SPARK team. Each SPARK team is in turn, responsible for getting these photos to the Bobbleheads so we can create a central bank of them.

In our agreement,  SPARKcon is trading special access to these events in exchange for rights to their images for SPARKcon purposes only. Of course the photographers retain ownership of their work and can do what they like with the images as well. SPARKcon will also request that each SPARK post at leat a few images to the SPARKcon flickr group.

We do ask all SPARKcon photos are tagged with sparkcon and ____SPARK whenever uploaded to sites like flickr. This will make for some fun web-fed interactive visualizations during the event.

Please let me know if you have any questions.

Organized by Cal Nordt and the poetrySPARK Team of: Glenn Cassidy, Jenn Mercer, Cal Nordt, Jo Taylor, and Chris Tonelli, the event promises to be diverse and intense.

Friday night will bring the following:
Alice Osborn’s monthly event transforms into poetrySPARK for a night. Raleigh poet, editor, and freelance writer Alice Osborn will lead her popular Open Mic at the Morning Times with about 20 poets participating. Friday night’s large Open Mic reading might still have openings – contact Alice Osborn if interested: avosborn@earthlink.net.

The Saturday lineup at the Morning Times:
6 pm with Formal/Metrical poetry headlined by Carolyn Beard Whitlow & David Bradsher, and readings by Lee Anne McClymont, Celisa Steele, John V. Wood, & Jo Taylor.

At 7:30 headliners Joanna Catherine Scott & David T. Manning read with Nellie Bellows, Sara Claytor, Scott Douglass, Bruce Lader, Jenn Mercer, Elio Soldi, & Corrie White.

“Humor Me” begins at 9 featuring headliners Alex Grant & Richard Krawiec, with readings by Glenn Cassidy, Edmund Conti, Jim Koger & Chris Tonelli.

At 10 “Experimental” is headlined by Joe Donahue, Tom Lisk, and Jon Thompson (appearing at a different time), with readers Jenny Eggleston, Joe Fletcher, Ana Lena, David Need, & Cal Nordt.

Other literary events are programmed by the complimentary StorySPARK team, which is organizing a PoetrySlam on the Main Stage and Erotic Poetry at Humble Pie. Both events are planned for Saturday Sep 19.

About SPARKcon:
SPARKcon showcases local creative talent in the NC Triangle. For four days, Raleigh’s Fayetteville St, public spaces, clubs and stages will be filled with art, music, dance, film, fashion, design, proposals, and more.

Celebrating local cultural richness and empowering action through an open-source approach to collaboration and cross-pollination, SPARKcon is not a funded city program or an economic development stunt. It’s completely grassroots and by the people for the people! Join us as we explore the creative spirit of the Triangle!

Contact information:
Cal Nordt
919-900-8712
cal@sparkcon.com

Members:

• Matt Tendam (mtendam77@gmail.com)
• Todd Delk (Todd.Delk@kimley-horn.com)
• Ryan Cummings (rcdec@earthlink.net)
• Michael Gilchrist (mrg123@earthlink.net)

The greenSPARK team has been working since our kick-off meeting on 7/2/09 to put the following ideas into motion, with the appropriate event tie-in and contact person in parentheses:

·Recycling stations (eventwide – Matt Tendam)

We are acquiring bins/cans/etc. to provide 4-6 recycling stations around the Fayetteville Street event venue, including a composting bin for food waste near the tastySPARK and bazaarSPARK locations. VOLUNTEERS WILL BE NEEDED DURING THE EVENT. volunteers will be needed to ensure that waste is properly separated and non compostable items are not collected in the compost bins. A brief training session prior to the event will be necessary as well. City of Raleigh will provide recycling bins and collection services. McGill Environmental Services will collect and process compostable materials. McGill has offered to waive their processing fee of $20/ton given some advertisement will be available. We are still working on procuring a large roll off container for mass collection of compostable materials.

·Printing and brochures (eventwide – Matt Tendam)

We hope to help Bobbleheads with using post-consumer/sustainable forests paper and eco-friendly inks for any event media. We are looking for in-kind donations of these products. I need a deadline as to when these materials will be needed.

·Reusable water bottles (eventwide, tastySPARK – Todd Delk)

We want to have reusable water bottles for sale (price or suggested donation) and 4-6 water-filling stations at event in lieu of sale of bottled water. We are searching for sponsor that can contribute/donate/front ordering 300-500 water bottles with SPARKcon and sponsor logo. This feature needs to be advertised as available at event and for participants can buy bottle or bring your favorite from home

·Water filling stations (eventwide, tastySPARK – Todd Delk)

We organizing to have 4-6 water stations around event using 2 large water coolers per station with ice and tap water. We are investigating a water cooler sponsor like LeBleu as option as well. VOLUNTEERS WILL BE NEEDED TO HELP KEEP STATIONS FILLED and we are looking for in-kind ice sponsor.

·Alternative transportation (eventwide – Todd Delk)

• Bike Valet – Efforts to secure bike racks has transitioned to approaching parking deck to provide space for a “bike valet” area (VOLUNTEERS TO STAFF WILL BE NEEDED)
• spokeSPARK (online submission) – Commenter suggested we create display space and have camera set-up to display photo collage of area’s fashionable bicycle and cyclists.
• Transit – We are looking for promotions with and highlighting getting to/from SPARKcon via CAT, TTA and R-Line
• Some kind of tie-in with Raleigh Rickshaw, Segway Store

·Reusable shopping bags (bazaarSPARK – Michael Gilchrist) – We are looking for in-kind donation of reusable shopping bags to support vendors at event.

·Relay for Light/Stationary Bike Power Generator(s) (healthSPARK?, groundSPARK?, artSPARK?, main stage? – Todd Delk)

We hope to SOMEHOW acquire/build stationary bike generator(s) to provide power as carbon offset for event. Discussion of single bike possibilities include powering the message board, tent lights, lights for artSPARK pod; multiple bike possibilities (maybe for next year) include night lighting for groundSPARK artists based on people signing up for shifts.

* NC Green Power Raffle (Ryan Cummings)

A raffle will be held with proceeds from the ticket sales being given to NC Green Power to fund their alternative energy projects. We are still trying to procure prizes but initial efforts have been made to find a bike made of recycled parts as the main prize. We are looking for other in-kind donations of eco-friendly products and services to raffle off.

·Other ideas tossed around: eco-friendly make-up for fashionSPARK, bio-diesel generators for main stage, cooperative farming highlighted at bazaarSPARK

Please post the information here at plan.sparkcon.com and email it to dave@visualartexchange.org

For organizational reasons please title your posts
xxxSPARK EVENT INFO: then event title here

*NOTE If you are doing multiple events, please give separate info for each event.

TITLE OF EVENT
not the spark name…should be the actual event name (like “Street Painting Festival”)

DATE(s) OF EVENT

STARTING AND END TIMES OF EVENT

LOCATION OF EVENT

EVENT DESCRIPTION
Paragraph or two about what will happen for the event.
Each event will have it’s own page, so you can explain the whole event as you wish.

SPONSORS

MANAGEMENT/PRODUCTION CREDITS

TALENT CREDITS
• individual/group/brand names of the talent showcasing their work
• how they are participating if appropriate (example, in fashionSPARK, there will be designers, hair and makeup stylists – let us know who is doing what)
• short bio of talent or production if appropriate

PLEASE SUBMIT YOUR EVENT INFO—as complete as possible— by FRIDAY AUG 14th

If you prefer to download a word doc with the above info to fill in… DOWNLOAD HERE

We were joined by George Birrell, who challenged us with some penetrating questions about our plans and after the meeting presented a proposal for activities he is available to present and lead regarding Robert Burns and his poetry to Gab and myself. His proposal might fit with some other activities already in the works for SparkCon or in a future year.

We discussed sharing the submissions between Chris, David, Jim, Alice, and myself as organizers for the Friday night reading and the four Saturday readings. Please let me know if you would like to be involved in reviewing the submissions. NEXT MEETING 8/5 7 pm; same location.

Our facebook group is up to 85 members so far – we’ve posted a lot of information including links to some of our poets. That’s a pretty good start in member numbers, but let’s ask all the poets we know to join that, too!

THANK YOU, Caren Stuart, for the very nice notice in the NC Poetry Society’s eMuse electronic newsletter, which came out today!

Thank you also to Jenn Mercer for setting up the poetrySPARK twitter account – more about that in a later message, as we’re really going to promote messaging on that, including haiku contests during SparkCon, once some of the other parts of the planning are further along.

I HOPE all poets are planning to submit their poetry to read at poetrySPARK! Since the submission deadline is 8/1, I also hope everyone will continue to pass the word to every poet they know who could be available in Raleigh 9/17-20 (especially on 9/18-19 when readings are currently scheduled) that we would like as many submissions as possible by 8/1!  We’re still waiting to firm up 2-3 more headlining poets, but the main publicity thrust now is getting submissions in.

If you come to the Kakalak anthology reading at McIntyre’s THIS Saturday 8/1 at 11 am you can hear some of our email list members read their contributions AND those attending can hand me submissions – more on this in the next message!

Thank you everyone – this continues to be evolving into a major poetry event for our area and is going to be a lot of fun besides!

Cal

PS – people are welcome to call me too for information>>> 919-900-8712.

Chris Tonelli has added Jon Thompson to our headliners. Dave Manning is sending me his poems as a reader. Carole has been in touch with a major poet, and Alex Grant has been talking to me and Beth and David in conjunction with another. Chris and I will be talking with Stacey Cochran about panel discussions and stuff soon as he’s back from vacation. Welcome to Jane Penland Hoover just joining our email group now!

I’ve been busy with publicity! Please invite all your friends to our facebook group, poetrySPARK. It’s growing even as I write. You can all post to it – messages, links, video anyone? I’ve posted links there so far to two of the headliners, Alex Grant and Joanna Catherine Scott.

Here are the details – the Picnic will be fun and a good way to learn more about SparkCon itself and meet other Spark people, guests anyone may bring, etc.. Please think about whether you can make it to our meeting Wednesday and ideas for discussion – and let me know!

Thanks, Cal