PULLMAN, Wash. –Palouse residents will exchange blows using performance and poetry as their weaponry when Palouse Punch 2 comes to Washington State University.
Preliminary bouts will be Oct. 7, 14 and 21 in Avery Hall’s Bundy Reading Room. The two finalists will face off in a championship bout at 7 p.m., Oct. 30, in Daggy Hall’s Wadleigh Theatre.
Palouse Punch is much like a traditional boxing match, but instead of fighters exchanging punches, bout poets match wits by dramatically reading their own work and firing off-the-cuff verse at one another.
The champion takes home a trophy and $500, while the runner-up receives $250.
WSU faculty to participate in the event includes English staff member Victor Villanueva as ringmaster, and, as timekeeper, Barbara Couture from the College of Liberal Arts. Judges include LeRoy Ashby, history, and Alex Kuo, comparative American culture and English. Judith Roche of Seattle’s Bumbershoot will also judge.
The cost to enter is $5. Entries can be mailed to the Dept. of Comparative American Cultures, Wilson Hall, Room 111, P.O. Box 644010, Pullman, WA 99164-4010. All entries must be received by 4 p.m., Sept. 27. Participants must be Palouse residents.
For more information, contact John Streamas at (509) 335-2605 or pick up contest rules at Wilson Hall, Room 111.
