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If your inner-Shakespeare’s dying to get out, clad in a leather corset, dust-stained goggles, and rustic thigh-high boots, you might want to mark down Gotham City Comics & Coffee’s Steampunk Sonnet Slam.
This Saturday, June 11, from 6 to 8 p.m., local poet Aaron Johnson will be hosting the fiction-driven poetry slam at the Mesa comic book store, located near the intersection of Main and MacDonald streets.
Johnson’s no stranger to poetry or poetry slams. He’s been a poet for much of his life, and throughout the last four years, he’s taken his work on the road. Johnson also hosts Pinkslip Haiku Deathmatch, a Monday staple at Jobot Coffee in Phoenix.
He says the inspiration for creating the Steampunk Sonnet Slam comes from his desire to see more creativity at his poetry slams.
“Steampunk is all about recreating an alternate history,” Johnson says. “So much of poetry slam is ‘me me me,’ ‘my story,’ ‘rape is bad,’ ‘genocide is bad,’ ‘crying is sad.’ That’s not very creative and it’s not really making an original argument.”
Johnson put out a challenge to the poets, asking them to be creative within the parameters of the Steampunk science-fiction sub-genre. During the event, poets will read three sonnets dealing with Steampunk topics.
Expect to see sonnets dealing with themes of an alternate history viewed through the eyes of a steam-operated robot, a lot of leather and copper, with the Steampunks and poets surrounded by comics and coffee, Johnson says.
Gotham City Comics & Coffee is located at 46 West Main Street in Mesa. The Steampunk Sonnet Slam is this Saturday, June 11, from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. The event is free. Check out Gotham City Comics & Coffee’s Facebook page for more information.
