Due to concerns about COVID-19, this event has been postponed.
Join us for the premiere of a new program series, ICP Photo Slam! During this fast-paced, open-mic event, community members are invited to compete in a live storytelling competition, driven by photographs.
Come to tell a story, aided by your chosen photographs, or to listen and participate as part of the audience judging panel. The winning storyteller will receive ICP swag and be invited back to participate in the ICP Photo Grand Slam next fall.
The inaugural ICP Photo Slam will be hosted by Nayland Blake, chair of the ICP-Bard Program in Advanced Photographic Studies (MFA).
This is a free event, but seating is limited. Arrive early to ensure a spot in the audience. ICP members have access to preferred seating in our reserved members section.
Read our public program attendance policies.
Theme
Beginnings
Schedule
6:30–6:45 PM
If you want to tell your story based on the evening’s theme, Beginnings, arrive during the submission time to enter your name for a chance to perform that evening. Come prepared to digitally share the images you will use in your story, if selected.
6:45 PM
Six names are randomly selected. If selected, each photographer must have their images ready to share via a digital link or jump drive immediately. Failure to produce your images will result in loss of your timeslot.
7–8:30 PM
The competition begins! Each selected storyteller will have the stage for a maximum of five minutes. After each performance, the audience will vote in teams. At the end of the evening, a winner will be crowned!
Community Guidelines
ICP does not control the content or know what stories will be shared on stage ahead of the event.
All participants will be asked to sign a community agreement prior to taking the stage. If in violation of our community guidelines, performers will be stopped and disqualified.
Viewer discretion is advised.
Tips for Photo-Storytellers
There will be a short amount of time to digitally transfer images to a laptop. For upload time purposes, we suggest preparing 1 to 8 images to use with your story.
Please have a link you can share via email or bring your images on a jump drive or an external hard drive.
The photographs will be projected during the stories and a clicker will be given to the storyteller to advance each image. We cannot guarantee the ability to set images to change automatically.
About the Series
ICP Photo Slam invites the ICP community and audience members to compete in a live storytelling competition, driven by photographs. Each event asks photographers to share stories based on the evening’s theme while competing against others in a fast-paced, open-mic setting. The audience chooses the winner and the winning photography story receives an ICP prize and is invited to participate in the ICP Photo Grand Slam next fall. Competitions are held every other month and a Grand Slam will be held during the fall 2020 and winter/spring 2021 season.
About the Host
Nayland Blake is an internationally acclaimed interdisciplinary artist and educator whose work is included in the collections of the Brooklyn Museum of Art, the Des Moines Art Center, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art, and the University Art Museum, Berkeley. His writing has been published in Artforum, Interview, Out, Outlook, and numerous exhibition catalogues. He has been on the faculty of the Milton Avery Graduate School of the Arts and has taught at the San Francisco Art Institute, the California Institute of the Arts, the University of California, Berkeley, Parsons School for Design, New York University, the School of Visual Arts, and Harvard University Department of Visual and Environmental Studies. He is represented by Matthew Marks Gallery in New York.