Greetings and Happy New Year from the Board of Directors of Southern Fried Poetry, Inc.:

We are less than five months away from the 28th Annual Southern Fried Poetry Slam taking place this June in Tampa, Florida. We want to take this opportunity to provide you some pertinent information:

• The official dates of the tournament portion of our festival are June 10, 2020 – June 13, 2020. As usual, we will also host activities for “early bird” arrivals on Tuesday, the 9th, and our farewell brunch will be Sunday, the 14th. We hope you are able to arrive early and stay until then!
  Bookmark this page to keep up with updates.
  

• The official hotel is the:
  Hampton Inn & Suites
  Tampa/Ybor City/Downtown
  1301 East 7th Avenue,Tampa, FL 33605
  Here is the reservation link.
  

We also must inform poets and slammasters that due to unforeseen circumstances, the city of Richmond, Virginia, has decided to rescind their bid to host Southern Fried in 2021. Tournament host Roscoe Burnems has provided this official statement to slammasters and competitors:

“It is with much dismay that Richmond has to officially withdraw as a host city for Southern Fried Poetry Festival 2021. The last few months have been a lot emotionally for both Megan Rickman Blackwood and I for a number of independent reasons, and we are not in a position to take on the responsibility that the festival deserves. 

We deeply apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused, but trust that Louisville will do another amazing job. Richmond’s poets will definitely be in attendance and in full support. Thank you for the opportunity and please share this with the other slammasters.”

We extend our support to the Richmond community and applaud them on the work they have done thus far for the tournament. As Roscoe implied in his message, the board of Southern Fried Poetry, Inc., has decided to move the 2021 festival to Louisville, Kentucky–the site of our 25th anniversary in 2017. We are excited to return to Louisville because the hospitality of Lance Newman and his team far exceeded the expectations for our silver anniversary. Lance will be returning as the tournament host, and this year, Adam Henze will be joining him as co-host. Lance and Adam are thrilled to bring Southern Fried back to the land of bourbon and bluegrass.

Finally, it would be unbecoming to send you correspondence without mentioning the passing of our dear friend, Tessica Williams. Though our community has grown in size and longevity to the point that we mourn the passing of peers every year, the loss of Rage Almighty and Lady Tess in the span of a few months seems particularly devastating to many members of our slamily. As a board, we want to iterate that we share this commitment and will be focusing on making the upcoming festival the best Southern Fried yet. This, in our opinion, would be a great way to honor their legacies. We will be working on a couple things across the scene for the upcoming tournament, so please rest assured that we plan on giving our family the proper send-off they deserve in 2020.

If you have any questions, please email info@southernfriedpoetryslam.com.

Cheers,

The Southern Fried Poetry Board

Southern Fried Poetry, Inc.

www.southernfriedpoetryslam.com