Wednesday, February 17, 2016

The Village of Minooka Joins the Outsider Poetry Slam League of America

From the office of the Village Manager, Minooka, Illinois, February 17, 2016: 

I am proud to announce the august village of Minooka now has an official team in the Outsider Poetry Slam League of America. Our application was approved by Commissioner Dr. Henry Wolfsburg in the wee hours of the evening after a lengthy but invigorating week of negotiations, and our team will henceforth be known as The Minooka Meter Maids. Minooka will be the sixth team inaugurated into the league, along with Rancho Cucamonga, California, Podunk, Vermont, Kokomo, Indiana, Sheboygan, Wisconsin, Chemung, New York, and Paducah, Kentucky. 

Having a slam poetry franchise in the new league is a great honor for our fair village, and I pledge as your Village Manager to do my utmost to prove worthy of the responsibility of living up to this charge and doing the Outsider Poetry League of America and the citizens of Minooka proud.

Yours in civic pride,
Esther Rimsikoff, Village Manager, Minooka, Illinois




Meet the Meter Maids

And now... the starting roster for your Minooka Meter Maids

At 3'11, she's about 17 yards of badass. Our team captain, and editor of The Minooka Semi-Free Press, Erica Lowe. You start the limerick, she finishes it. That's not a threat, it's a promise. She'll be tossing out the first poem all season long as captain of both the traveling and home teams.
Isaac Asimohoff will be making human history as the first robot poet to compete in a Slam Poetry event. Engineered and built right here in Minooka, it was at Isaac's insistence that he be included on the roster of the Meter Maids after his poem 01110111 01101000 01111001 00100000 01100100 01101111 00100000 01110111 01100101 00100000 01100010 01100101 01101100 01101001 01100101 01110110 01100101 00100000 01110011 01101111 00100000 01100101 01100001 01110011 01101001 01101100 01111001 00100000 01101001 01101110 00100000 01100010 01101001 01101110 01100001 01110010 01101001 01100101 01110011 00111111 00100000 00001101 00001010 00001101 00001010 01100110 01101001 01100111 01101000 01110100 00101111 01100110 01101100 01101001 01100111 01101000 01110100 00001101 00001010 01101100 01101111 01110110 01100101 00101111 01101000 01100001 01110100 01100101 00001101 00001010 01111001 01101111 01110101 00101111 01101101 01100101 00001101 00001010 01101110 01101111 01110111 00101111 01110111 01100001 01101001 01110100 00001101 00001010 01101000 01100101 01110010 01100101 00101111 01110100 01101000 01100101 01110010 01100101 00001101 00001010 01100101 01101110 01100101 01101101 01111001 00101111 01100110 01110010 01101001 01100101 01101110 01100100 00001101 00001010 01110100 01110010 01110101 01100101 00101111 01100110 01100001 01101100 01110011 01100101 00001101 00001010 01100010 01100101 01100111 01101001 01101110 01101110 01101001 01101110 01100111 01110011 00101111 01100101 01101110 01100100 01110011 00001101 00001010 00001101 00001010 01100001 01101110 01100100 00100000 01110011 01101111 00100000 01110111 01100101 00100000 01100001 01110010 01100101 00100000 01100001 01101110 01101001 01101101 01100001 01101100 01110011 00100000 00001101 00001010 01101111 01100110 00100000 01100110 01100001 01101110 01100011 01111001 00101100 00100000 01101011 01101110 01100101 01100101 00101101 01101010 01100101 01110010 01101011 01101001 01101110 01100111 00001101 00001010 01110100 01101111 00100000 01110011 01110101 01110010 01110110 01101001 01110110 01100101 00101110 00100000 00001101 00001010 00001101 00001010 01100010 01110101 01110100 00100000 01101111 01110101 01110100 00100000 01100010 01100101 01111001 01101111 01101110 01100100 00100000 01101001 01100100 01100101 01100001 01110011 00100000 01101111 01100110 00100000 01110111 01110010 01101111 01101110 01100111 01100100 01101111 01101001 01101110 01100111 00100000 01100001 01101110 01100100 00100000 01110010 01101001 01100111 01101000 01110100 01100100 01101111 01101001 01101110 01100111 00101100 00001101 00001010 01110100 01101000 01100101 01110010 01100101 00100000 01101001 01110011 00100000 01100001 00100000 01100110 01101001 01100101 01101100 01100100 00101110 00100000 01101101 01100101 01100101 01110100 00100000 01101101 01100101 00100000 01110100 01101000 01100101 01110010 01100101 00001101 00001010 01101111 01110101 01110100 01110011 01101001 01100100 01100101 00101100 00100000 01101111 01101110 00100000 01110100 01101000 01100101 00100000 01101000 01101001 01100111 01101000 01100101 01110010 00100000 01100111 01110010 01101111 01110101 01101110 01100100 00101110 was published in Ploughshares last October.

And the man in the middle...

,
670 The Score host Larry Horse of the Horse and Bernstein Show, sports radios longest running show. His latest book of poetry, By Cracky, has been short listed for the prestigious Zombie Logic Award. 


Come meet the entire 2016 Minooka Meter Maids Roster, get autographs, and maybe a little something extra this Thursday at T.B. Diddlers.




The Minooka Meter Maids will be there May 11th in Rockford to do battle with the other seven teams in the Outsider Poetry Slam League of America in the first bout in OPSLA history. Get your tickets at EventBrite and at the OPSLA league website. 


We're certainly pleased and pleasantly to surprised to announce The Iron Sheik has joined The Minooka meter maids. He'll be joining us in Rockford for the battle royale.