American Celebrity Poetry-Slam
You Decide the Winner!
Awarding White Station High School Educator Theresa Fairchild
as our Teacher of the Year
sponsored by Gossett Motor Cars
Benefiting our innovative Education and Outreach Programs
Saturday, May 3 at 6:00 pm on our new Tabor Stage
We will host our 16th annual Children’s Literacy Gala on Saturday, May 3 at 6:00 pm: “American Celebrity Poetry-Slam” where the audience will decide the winners from our participating poets on the competitive runway.
Famous contestants likely will include Edgar Allan Poe, Walt Whitman, Sylvia Plath, Emily Dickinson, ee cummings, Zora Neale Hurston, Robert Frost, Jack Kerouac, Mary Oliver, Maya Angelou, Edna St. Vincent Millay, Elizabeth Bishop, Frederick Douglass, and more.
We will also honor longtime White Station High School English teacher Theresa Fairchild with our third annual “Teacher of the Year” Award, sponsored by Gossett Motor Cars.
All proceeds from the Gala will go toward our Jack Jones Children’s Literacy Fund and the Barbara B. Apperson Angel Fund: supporting a variety of Education and Outreach Programs for the coming year and making possible as many as 30,000 points of contact with children and participants of all ages in over 50 area schools, detention centers, and the Memphis V.A. Hospital.
Our Gala will feature the award presentation to Ms. Fairchild, her remarks, a festive buffet feast, open bars, fun live and silent auctions, and a chance to enter and win the drawing for a Broadway Trip for Two to NYC sponsored by Thane Smith.
The live auction will feature framed throwback jerseys autographed by Memphis Grizzlies basketball stars Ja Morant and Jaren Jackson, Jr., as well as the FedEx Flight Simulator experience, and a year’s worth of homemade ice cream.
The on-stage centerpiece of the evening will feature our first “American Celebrity Poetry-Slam” gameshow, which will feature 12 of the country’s foremost poets costumed for the new Tabor Stage runway competing against one another to be crowned TSC’s American Poet Laureate.
In single-elimination sectionals starting with quarterfinals, two poets will go head-to-head reading their famous works (or the ones they believe will topple their specific opponent). Then, our Gala audience will vote on the winners who will advance to the next round until the champion Laureate is crowned.
TSC’s Associate Artistic Producer Stephanie Shine will emcee the fun evening. Actors on stage as our poets will include Dan McCleary, Lauren Gunn, Cheleen Sugar, Marquis Dijon Archuleta, Kierra Turner, Chris Cotton, Michael Khanlarian, Stuart Heyman, and Lorraine Cotten.
Attire is festive. Seating will be limited to 220 guests.
We annually work with children ages 5-18, primarily in Title 1 schools, as well as incarcerated youths and military Veterans in near-daily programming that develops students’ literacy, desire to read, and compassion. Those acclaimed programs include the Romeo and Juliet Project, the Macbeth Initiative, Feast of Crispian-South, Poetic Justice, and Juvenile Justice.
“Right now, few other professional, regional theatres in the country are continuing to expand education and outreach programming as successfully as TSC,” says founder and Producing Artistic Director Dan McCleary. “That is due to two things: our staff of teachers and artists and administrators are committed to being of service to everyone everywhere, particularly in challenging environments; and because this Gala annually provides the funding necessary for each year’s expansion. That equates to hundreds and hundreds of community friends being uniquely generous. Our children, families, and I thank you.”
Platinum, Gold, and Silver tables (ranging from four to eight seats each) are available for purchase now by calling our Gala Coordinator Stephanie Shine at (901) 759-0620. Additional information about the sponsorships and evening is available here.
Guests may choose from three Sponsorship levels to secure a dining table and theatre seats:
PLATINUM 8-TICKET PACKAGE ($5,000)
- Eight of the best reserved seats in the theatre for the performance and Teacher of the Year Award ceremony;
- Reserved dining table with open bars;
- Recognition in our event program, posters, social media, and from the stage that night;
- Festive dinner buffet and dessert;
- Partial tax-deductible gift to TSC.
GOLD 6-TICKET PACKAGE ($2,500)
- Six of the “Second Best” seats in the theatre for the performance and Teacher of the Year Award ceremony, after above Sponsors;
- Reserved table for Sponsor and guests;
- Recognition in our event program, posters, social media, and from the stage that night;
- Festive dinner buffet, dessert, and multiple open bars;
- Partial tax-deductible gift to TSC.
SILVER 4-TICKET PACKAGE ($1,500)
- Four seats in the theatre for the performance and Teacher of the Year Award ceremony, after above Sponsors;
- Festive dinner buffet, dessert, and multiple open bars;
- Reserved table for Sponsor and guests;
- Partial tax-deductible gift to TSC.
Guests also may purchase Early Bird single Bronze Tickets for $125 each now through April 1. After that, Bronze Tickets are $150. Bronze Tickets provide the buffet, open bars, and TSC-designated seats in the theatre. Reserve one or more Bronze Tickets online here or by calling TSC at (901) 759-0604.
A portion of purchased sponsorships and tickets is a tax-deductible gift to TSC, which is located at 7950 Trinity Road, Memphis, TN 38018-6297.
Season 17 Sponsors
Our generous sponsors of our season, productions, and Education and Outreach Program include FedEx, International Paper, Arts Midwest, ARTSmemphis, Tennessee Arts Commission, the National Endowment for the Arts, Mid-America Arts Alliance, Independent Bank, Evans Petree PC, First Horizon Foundation through an ArtsFirst grant, AutoZone, Nancy R. Copp, Pat and Ernest Kelly Anne and Mike Keeney, J. Walker Sims and the Sims Family Charitable Trust, Deborah Dunklin Tipton, Pete Pranica, Edward and Gloria Felsenthal, the Dunbar Abston Fund for Sustainable Excellence, the Barbara B. Apperson Angel Fund, and the Jack Jones Children’s Literacy Fund.
Our season is funded under a Grant Contract with the State of Tennessee.
