Gabrielle Bouliane was a performance poet, videographer (Eleventh Hour Productions, Seattle, WA, 2000-2002; Poetry Slam, Inc., Chicago, IL, 2002-2008), a slam founder and slammaster (Nickel City Slam, Buffalo, NY, 2005-2007), web site creator and hostess (LivePoets.com), and a fervent advocate for performance poets and their art form.
She was diagnosed with terminal cancer in September, 2009, yet worked continuously promoting slam poetry and performance until shortly before her death in Austin, January, 2010.
Gabrielle sought to create a video archive for slam poetry in 2005. We at the Performance Poetry Preservation Project are inspired by Gabrielle’s work, life and love and dedicate our efforts to her and her memory.
To hear an IndieFeed podcast of Gabrielle's final slam performance and words of appreciation, click here.
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"Poets… remember. This is the story that never ends. When one of us leaves, another walks through the door. The pages turn, the sun keeps rising. All you can do in the meanwhile... is to speak for yourself. Raise your voice high, tell your story, join hands against the dark and sing our souls to the sky. Know the best in me comes from the best in you, that as you tell your story, you will be telling mine, and our lives will be linked together forever, and everyone who hears you will become a part of the change we make.
So when you hear that I have died... just... live."
--Gabrielle Bouliane, from a poem given to Adam Rubenstein to be read in her absence at the National Poetry Slam held in West Palm Beach in August, 2009