40!!!!

Aaaaah! My second chapter is right around 40 pages, prior to editing. Plus, I just got 2_Deep's interview today, so I have yet to add the material from that (and many thanks for the interview!).

Now - to work on the intro and conclusion!

Christmas Break - Update

Well...I think it's high time for another update. Yeesh - it's been since Thanksgiving.

Professor Wheeler approved of the 1st chapter that I presented her. Hooray! Naturally, it'll be further honed and refined, but it's a good start. I'm planning to write at least the next chapter over break. I started working on it some last night, and I'm already making good headway.

I'd like to offer a special thanks to everyone who's granted me an interview! I really appreciate your time, and your answers have been AMAZING, going right to the heart of some of the big issues in the thesis (audience-artist dynamic, slam v. non-slam poetry, modern technology, print culture, etc...). THANK YOU SO MUCH!

There'll be further updates soon.

Yay!!! Drafted!

I just wanted to celebrate the fact that I'm finished with a legitimate draft of one of the chapters of my Thesis!!! Hooray! In this one, I discuss the nature of communication, body language, the influence of the medium upon the artwork, and the role that the audience plays.

I'll be doing extensive editing yet, but it's incredibly satisfying to be at this point. Now, to edit and see what Prof Wheeler says!

Thesis Time!

Hey all!

It's been ages since I've posted, I know...but life in Lex is busy, and there aren't that many poetry events around. Hahahaa.

I'm actually getting my nose to the grindstone with actual writing this actual break, and I just wanted to celebrate the 16 page milestone! Woot woot! That means I'm roughly half-finished this very ROUGH draft of one of the chapters of the thesis. To give the background, I need to have one chapter finished by the end of this semester (That's roughly 1/3-1/2 of the thesis), and the rest done by the end of winter term.

*Knock on wood* Here it goes... the goal is to get to page 20 tonight, about 30 tomorrow, and then to make it decent writing by the end of break. Here goes...

August 14, 2008 - Jibber Jabber Open Mic

Tonight, I went to Jibber Jabber for my last session before heading back to Lexington. Crowd turnout was pretty strong, and we had four poets present pieces prior to the feature performance by Black Root. I read a piece about my grandmother that was built off of work I’d written some time ago. This was the first especially long poem I’ve read before an audience, and it made me realize that I still have some degree of stage-fright to get over. It's a very different experience to present a piece of your own creation as opposed to teaching or lecturing.

I enjoyed the nice closure that this was bringing to my summer research experience; my first slam at the Den featured Black Root, and now I was concluding the summer with a feature by the same performer and with a number of the same pieces.

August 9, 2008 - Top 20

Ultimately, the top 20 teams to place were as follows.

Final Results

	Name of Slam	Bout 1		Bout 2		Final Rank	Final Score
1	Oakland	1	114.2	1	114.2	2	228.4
3	Denver NU	1	116.8	1	110.4	2	227.2
4	San Diego	1	112.6	1	110.3	2	222.9
5	New York LA	1	112.1	1	110.8	2	222.9
6	Austin SF	1	109.6	1	110.7	2	220.3
7	Denver DMS	1	113.9	1	106.3	2	220.2
8	Atlanta JM	1	107.3	1	111.1	2	218.4
9	Charlotte SC	1	108.5	1	109.2	2	217.7
10	St. Paul	1	101.2	1	112.7	2	213.9
11	Los Angeles	2	116	1	116.7	3	232.7
12	San Francisco	1	114.1	2	111.8	3	225.9
13	New York NU	2	112.9	1	111.3	3	224.2
14	Berkeley	2	111.2	1	111.4	3	222.6
15	Lincoln	1	111.4	2	108.9	3	220.3
16	Austin AP	1	111.2	2	107.9	3	219.1
17	Baltimore	2	109.1	1	109.7	3	218.8
18	Chicago MG	1	107.4	2	110.6	3	218
19	Richmond SR	2	111.3	1	105.1	3	216.4
20	Boston CT	1	108.9	2	107.4	3	216.3

Baltimore earned 17th overall, and I was glad to see them make it to finals and compete so well.

Saturday, August 9, 2008 - National Poetry Slam Finals

There were no workshops on Saturday, but the NPS officials encouraged everyone to attend Madison’s “Lyrics on the Lake” festival of free music at a lakefront pavilion by the University. The day was basically a chance to rest or, for the four finalists, to prepare. Boston, Austin, New York Louder Arts, and Charlotte would be competing tonight.

The Slam Finals were held that evening in the Overture center. The concert hall was large and crowded, and the crowd was dressed notably more formally than on previous evenings. Prior to the competition, several poems and dance routines were presented. There was also a promotional video about the University of Wisconsin’s “First Wave” program, an educational program on Hip-hop and spoken word art. Finally, they presented the “Spirit of the Slam” award, a prize gifted to the individual who “embodies community, the essence of family,” to Dr. Sheila, Shannon Leigh’s mother. Sheila spoke about the support the slam community had provided her, and she was followed by the reading of a commemorative poem by many individuals in series from offstage while a light shined upon the lonely microphone.

The preliminary formalities concluded, Sonya Renee, a former member of the Baltimore Slam team, gave the Slam spiel and introduced the judges. It was interesting to note that all the judges were in pairs tonight. There were three sets of women, two of men. This was followed by the sacrifice of the calibration poet, who set the tone with a 26.6 after a half-point time deduction.

The scores ultimately ranged from a 26.8 for both New York Louder Arts’ poem on the abuse of women in the first round and Austin’s group piece critiquing the direction in which the United States has gone to a perfect thirty for Charlotte’s group piece on the abuse of women. This piece had brilliant staging; they placed one of their female poets onstage in front of the microphone. She mouthed the words, but they were actually recited by a man, who was offstage and invisible to the audience.

It’s particularly worthwhile to note that none of these poems were repeats; slam teams are no longer permitted to reuse a poem in any stage of competition. One of my particular favorites from the competition was the very first poem presented by Boston, in which the poet, dressed elegantly in a suit, personified the devil, described his torment of a women with great imagery before describing how his attacks pale in comparison to the abuse that she’s been subjected to. The diabolically inspired nightmares actually awaken her to the peril of her predicament, and she leaves her abuser, becoming “the only person at the shelter who owes her life to the devil”.

The poems covered a variety of topics, namely:

History 1

Inspirational 2

Literature/Writing 1

Persona poem 1

Politics 1

Pop culture 1

Poverty 1

Race 1

Regional 1

Suicide 2

War 1

Women 3

Ultimately, the results were as follows:

4. Boston 110.2

3. Austin 110.5

2. NY LA 113.2

1. Charlotte 115.7

The trophy presented at the end of the match was incredible and particularly apt; a sword impaling a stack of books. It was presented to Charlotte at the end of the match. And so ended the National Poetry Slam.

August 8, 2008 - Semifinals

Semifinals were exciting. After the first two rounds of competition, the original field of 76 teams was narrowed to the top twenty competitors. Baltimore (109.1 as of Wed) was pitted against Oakland (114.2), St. Paul (101.2), Chicago MG (107.4), and Charlotte (113.8).

All of the bouts were held simultaneously in the Overture Center for the Arts, an absolutely gorgeous facility. The Baltimore team arrived early to check out their room and the settings. Before too long, the other teams started to arrive. Then, the crowd filled the stands.

Chris Wilson, Ryan Mergen, and Kyle Eichmann testing out the stage

The event opened with three group pieces from teams that had not made the top twenty. Then, the judges were introduced and the calibration poet sacrificed (with a score of 26.3). Three group pieces were played in the very first round, and scores in that round ranged from 26.5 to 28. However, they soon climbed, and there were many 29’s before the evening was out. Major topics included:

Art/Music 1

Geography

Homosexuality

Inspirational 1

Literature/Writing 1

Love 1

Personal Issues 2

Politics 3

Pop Culture

Race 2

Religion

Social Commentary 3

War 1

Women 5

Group Pieces Two, Three, Two, two, five, two

Particularly notable was Chicago’s five-member group piece in which they shaped the microphones into a V to discuss the power of water (eg. Floods), from which they shifted into a discussion of global warming. I especially enjoyed the performance by Inner City from Oakland in which he used batteries as a metaphor for the struggles of young, particularly black men, in society. St. Paul’s final piece was also impressive; a discussion of religious intolerance, it was told as a memory in the voice of a child who didn’t quite understand, though the issue was all to apparent to the crowd.

The Baltimore team’s performance was solid, earning them third place. They presented the following pieces:

Ryan – Nerd Girl

Kyle – Virgin Man

Twain – Funk Poem

Chris Wilson – Pregnant Women

The overall results were as follows:

5. Oakland 112.7

4. St. Paul 112.8

3. Baltimore 113.6

2. Chicago 114.8

1. Charlotte 115.5

Only Charlotte would proceed to the next round of competition: finals.

August 8, 2008 - Lyrics on the Lake Workshops

During the day, there were numerous workshops, performances, and panel discussions from Wednesday to Friday. Topics ranged from open mics to discussions of the classics, politics, managing depression, children’s literature, publishing your own works, and healing through writing. Especially notable events included the Nerd Slam (see previous post), the discussion on “Teaching Spoken Word in the Classroom”, and the sign language slam.

The Lake

Because I didn’t arrive until Thursday, I missed the events earlier in the week. However, I very much enjoyed the Nerd Slam. After the SlamMasters’ meeting, I also made it to one of the “Writing Circle” events and the “Stage Coach”. At the “Writing Circle”, we were given a prompt and allowed ten minutes to compose. After the allotted time was up, poets from a vast array of teams read the product of their ten minutes. Most had chosen to reject the given prompt (the National Poetry Slam) and write about a topic more to their interests. My favorite line from this event was “artists are like fireflies in June” because it captured the beautiful yet ephemeral nature of performance poetry. The National Slam is a huge event, and the poets had been preparing for months. However, a few days later, you would not be able to tell they had been in Madison. Part of the beauty and part of the tragedy, the short lifespan of slam poems does not matter if the works achieve the goal of opening hearts and minds, of starting a discussion regarding important issues in our country and for ourselves as individuals and humans.

The “Stage Coach” performance workshop was particularly enjoyable. Four slam poets – Alvin from Chicago, Charles from the Bay Area, Sharon from Memphis, and Mona from San Francisco – critiqued the presentation of the first thirty seconds of the work of numerous poets. They stressed the importance of body language, of commanding the stage and having a confident demeanor, though this may be tempered to suit the performance. They encouraged the use of the full vocal range and facial expression. They also suggested gesturing to the side rather than the front to create a bigger profile. Finally, more with respect to content than presentation, the coaches warned that a poem should explain itself rather than relying on the title to do so. This is especially true of slam, in which the title is rarely given.

Ultimately, I enjoyed these workshops very much. I learned a good deal, and I even left a little inspired.

August 8, 2008 - SlamMasters' Meeting

Held in a conference room in the Concourse Hotel, the organizational center of the National Poetry Slam, the SlamMasters’ was packed with SlamMasters and team representatives from around the country. Slam is described as the democratization of poetry, and it was interesting to see the actual democratic process underlying the organization of American Slam Poetry.

Run under Parliamentary procedure, proposals were made to all parties gathered. Motions that were seconded would then be subjected to discussion, alternating pro’s and cons. Motions would then be voted on; though everyone had the right to participate in the discussion, only the SlamMasters actually were able to vote.

Topics discussed ranged from the order of the rotation within each bout to the order of the presentation of scores. Huge considerations in any decision was given to what would help maintain the integrity and quality of slam as a literary form as well as what would help keep the competitions fair. For instance, there was a proposal to return individual slam competition to the National Poetry Slam (currently, individuals compete separately at the Individual World Poetry Slam) in order to return a focus to the individual pieces themselves rather than on overall team performance. Additionally, there was a motion to revise the rules regarding alternates on the team in order to insure that teams with alternates didn’t receive an unfair advantage. Other motions included reforming the process by which judges are selected and moving the SlamMasters’ meeting to the Women of the World Poetry Slam in order to consolidate meetings while meeting the requirement of the by-laws that the Slam Masters meet in the spring, Finally, there was an almost unanimous movement to put a memorial page on the Poetry Slam, Inc. website for each slam poet who has passed away. This was motivated by the recent death of Shannon Leigh, who died on this past June due to a diving accident.

August 7, 2008 - Madison, WI: Round 2, Bout 2

In the second bout, the overall scores were consistently lower, ranging form a 23.2 for the sacrificial poet and a 25.1 for the lowest competitor to a 28.5 for Baltimore’s group piece, which helped Baltimore secure a strong victory. Scores did increase over the course of the night, and pieces of social critique, humanism, and humor did especially well. Particularly memorable was a piece from the Minneapolis team in which the poet talked about his “gangster” life on a rural farm with frequent references to Hip-hop and rap lyrics.

The results:

4. Newport 102.2

3. Minneapolis 106.1

2. Silver City 107.1

1. Baltimore 109.6

The Baltimore team had a very strong performance, and I was excited to see them take first and progress to semifinals. The team presented the following pieces, and further descriptions of them can be found in previous posts:

Ryan: Love Drive II

Kyle: Deangelo/Tattoo

Twain: Dance Poem

Chris Wilson and Chris August: Foodstamps

The Baltimore Slam Team

The topics presented throughout this round included the following:

Art/Performance 1

Geography/Regionalism 1

Homosexuality 1

Literature/Writing 2

Love 3

Nerd 1

Other 1

Politics 2

Pop Culture 1

Race 4

Personal trauma 1

Group pieces 3 Two People, For People, two people

August 7, 2008 - Madison, WI: Round 2, Bout 1

At Nationals, the rounds are held simultaneously at a variety of venues. For the second round of competition, there are two series of bouts, one at 8 PM and one at 10 PM. I went to The Brink, a lounge several blocks away from the Capital Building. Cincinnati, Albuquerque, Chicago, NY were completing during the first round. Baltimore, New Paltz, Minneapolis, and Silver Spring would be competing during the second Bout.

BOUT 1

The first bout was tightly contested, and the difference between the first and second place teams was on the order of tenths of a point. The scores didn’t increase much overall, however, certain topics tended to score particularly well. For instance, New York had a two-member group piece presented as a letter to Katie Couric that scored a 29.3 out of 30, and Chicago had a love poem in four parts about a relationship that ended because the one partner didn’t get the poetry of the other that scored a 28.5. Chicago also had a high-scoring poem (28.2) exploring religious policy and the lack of tolerance to homosexuals.

Ultimately, the results were as follows:

4. Cincinnati 104.8

3. Albuquerque 108.6

2. Chicago 110.6

1. New York 110.8

Additionally, here’s a breakdown of the major topics observed from the bout.

Geography 1

Homosexuality 1

Literature/Writing 2

Love 1

Politics 2

Pop Culture 2

Race 4

Religion 1

War 1

Women 4

Group Pieces 3 Two of these had two people, one had four

August 7, 2008 - Madison, WI: Nerd Slam

I made it to Madison without any difficulties; my flight went smoothly and there were no delays. Unfortunately, I had to miss the first two days of competition, including the Baltimore Team’s first bout, because my last evening teaching was Wednesday. However, I was thrilled to finally be there!

After getting settled into my hotel and registering for NPS 2008, I caught up with the team on the way to the Nerd Slam. This was held in an auditorium at the University of Wisconsin’s humanities building, and the room was bustling and the energy was high. The Nerd Slam was interesting because, not only was it a specially themed event, it was such an incredibly popular one that they had to modify the rules to restrict the number of poets presenting in a fair fashion. Everyone who was interested in performing put their name on a sheet of paper along with their “nerd specialty”, and then placed it in the gender-appropriate box. Two names would be drawn at random from a box, and then the poets would be asked a series of questions depending on their area of specialty. The first poet to get the question wrong was out while the winner performed.

Nerd Slam being a Nerd Slam, they gave out free comic books before the emcees opened the event. The first poem was a persona poem, presented from the perspective of a Zombie comedian. Absolutely hilarious, and in the voice of the undead comedian, this piece was full of puns and jokes only the buried could fully appreciate.

There were several “Nerd Trivia Masters” on hand to ask questions. However, they frequently needed to call in guest experts to handle more unusual specialties. While a good procedure in theory, the enactment didn’t seem particularly fair on two accounts. First, the questions often varied dramatically in difficulty. Second, inordinate amounts of time were spent on certain duos. It seemed like the whole event would have run much more smoothly if they’d prepared a series of questions in advanced or if they had some way to validate the answers. Still, with improvement, the trivia-tournament method of qualification has a lot of merit.

Nerd specialties included the following: movies, an inordinate number of Star Trek Next Generation experts, 80’s cartoons, cosmology, ABC and TGIF television shows, literary nerds, World of Warcraft, web comics, Marvel comics, X-Men, Harry Potter, impressions, videography, post modern film theory, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, 70’s disaster films, Dr. Who, obscure animals (YES!) and Animae.

Poem subject-matter included: lots of nerve-style love, the evolution of the human species, such nerd coming-of-age poems as growing up in an arcade, dealing with parents, and skipping grades.

One of my favorites was Shannon’s “Erotic Poem to my Man Crush Jeremy Goldbloom”. Using made-up words and delivered in the voice of an 11-year-old fan, Shannon professed her love with wonderful comedic delivery and numerous footnotes (and end-footnotes). I also enjoyed Tony and Duchene’s group piece on being black nerds and “the Glutes’” Supervillian poem.

All competitors were awarded a comic catalogue packet and especially proficient competitors were given little prizes, such as a mini-model Millennium Falcon.

August 3, 2008 - SLAMicide Sendoff

The energy was high tonight; it was the last home performance before the National Poetry Slam in Madison, Wisconsin. The Den was full, predominantly with the family and friends of the team.

Chris August started the open mic portion of the evening with a poem about his mother’s 60^th birthday, describing how she would like to get a tattoo of a butterfly. He shifts from this to discuss religion and tolerance, transitioning from a description of St. Francis as the patron saint of animals to the lack of a patron saint of gay sons. I especially enjoyed how the answer to his mother’s angst-ridden prayers was, “to love him”. Over time, she learned tolerance, finding that “sometimes you have to poke holes in the sides so something beautiful can come out”.

Moving directly from that poem into his high-energy hosting, he welcomed everyone to the “penultimate” meeting before Nationals, using that term specifically because “multisyllabic words make your penis bigger. I’m almost sure it’s been biologically proven”.

Christina read first. A little nervous and rather fidgety, she presented a wonderful remake of Allan Ginsberg’s “America”. This poem had gone through several transitions, originally being written as a solo piece, transformed into a group piece, and then re-written as a solo piece, and the final result was wonderful. “America, it’s been 52 years and I’m still not in my right mind”, she began, proceeding to describe how “plastic is our cash crop” and we are “playing footsie with China”. “America, if you’re going to lie to me,” she continued to many laughs from the crowd, “please do so in my own tongue”. One of my favorite direct references to the original was the line, “America, we’ve finally got them Russians, but now it’s those Tal-heads”. One of my favorite images in this piece was, “America, I’ve hooked my finger in your pocket because you won’t hold hands”.

I thought it particularly interesting how serious (as is usual for readers of “America”) she was in her reading, as opposed to Ginsberg’s own hilarious, tongue-in-cheek presentation.

John Olson next presented two pieces from Kipling. The first, “The Gods of the Cobybook Heading,” he read from the book. The second, “Our Fathers of Old,” he had memorized, and he recited as he moved around the stage-area. Dario next presented a few pieces. This was only his second time at the mic.

Gayle Danley, the 1994 Individual Poetry Slam champion and a member of the 2006 Baltimore National Team presented next. She was playful and conversational, chatting merrily with the audience. She had only prepared one piece, so she asked the audience to select the others. The current team gladly obliged. Gayle’s first poem was a fun piece about how she used to pee on the playground with a childhood friend. “The sun always kept our little secret”. She spoke with a powerful voice and incorporated the audience dramatically. I especially enjoyed the local references in the poem. Ultimately, the piece criticized the teacher who had punished her for deifying herself, and Gayle promised that she’d support her own daughter in such a circumstance rather than allowing society to shame her for a natural process. “Sugar,” she’d tell the teacher, “you aren’t God. My daughter is.”

The second poem, “You Came Together” broke a tie that had enabled the team to make it to finals. A rescued poem, it had nearly been thrown out. I loved the images describing the origins of the child, such as, “Babies come from Friday nights melted into Saturday mornings,” “from EPT tests”, and “three glasses of white zinfandel”. Sweet, sarcastic, and true to life, this was a very fun poem.

The next, “Bird Watching” was written by Christian Drake, a former member of the D.C./Baltimore team in 2005 and the Berkley team between 2006 and 2008. The crowd roared with excitement when Gayle announced the piece, and it proved well worth the anticipation. Opening with a description of how the narrator was attacked by a bird at the zoo, it continues to tell how “for the rest of my childhood”, his mother “taught me to stand holding my hands out”. It proceeds to tell about how, now that his mother is gone, he looks for her through his bird watching. “When I reach for you, I see feathers.” “I do not believe in angels,” he says, “but that doesn’t stop me from looking for you through binoculars”.

This concluded the open mic portion of the night, and Chris August proceeded to introduce the Baltimore Slam Team, describing how they’d been practicing for moths and were able to bring a diverse array of skills and perspectives to the competition. I especially enjoyed this feature because it was a preview of many of the pieces the team would be using in competition. I’m going to list the pieces now, but check the subsequent posts to see when and where they were used in competition.

Baltimore Skyline

Twain performed his piece on the gospel of funk, a fun poem that tells how “funk put wings on the blues” and not it is the turn of Hip-hop “to bring us back together and make us one nation under groove”. Twain’s next piece was a playful poem about marriage. “Any man can love a thousand women,” he concluded, “but it takes a fucking genius to love a woman a thousand ways”. Twain’s third poem was a fun piece about being a bicycle courier.

Ryan performed “Nerd Girl,” his poem in praise of smart, if nerdy, women. His next piece was “Fuckups,” the poem opening with a description of suicide and concluding with a fuckup who has survived and is now committed to life. Ryan’s followed this with “Sex Drive”, the fun poem that described a relationship in terms of many well-played automotive puns, counting off the references on his fingers as he performed.

Chris Wilson adopted a deliberately nervous demeanor as he performed his apology for stealing an ex’s shampoo. Chris’ next poem was “Waiting to Inhale,” a new piece humorously exploring the hypocrisy in our nation’s drug policy and the lost potential resulting from this. It was interesting to see how this poem had changed from the first reading I had seen of it. Chris Wilson next performed a piece with Chris August. They started standing back-to-back, listing the prices of food as opposed to the expenditures of individual politicians. This powerful piece went on to challenge congressmen to experience actual poverty before making their policies.

Kyle performed “DeAngelo”, his piece about a highly tattooed student who speaks his pains in the ink on his flesh. He followed this with his poem about his mother, and the lines about how her heart pumped Elmer’s glue were still powerful, though it was also neat to see how this poem had been modified. Kyle’s next poem was about “Darius Jackson”, a student who could dance and who’s smile lit up the room until he took a hard blow from God.

The team concluded with a very powerful group piece. Standing at each corner of a box, they began by listing a series of related concepts; Twain named a saint, Chris Wilson described that Saint’s subject, Kyle listed a ribbon, and Ryan described that ribbon’s cause. “With more colors and causes, our ribbons are becoming tangled and frayed”, they declared, describing how now a single color can stand for many, and even contradictory, causes. “We’ve been praying to the backs of cars,” they declare before urging the audience to take the causes to our jobs, homes, hearts, and voting booths.

A powerful piece and a good way to end the evening, I was excited for the team. They seemed to be on solid footing for Nationals. They would be leaving in the morning for Madison.

July 27, 2008 - Sunday

The Den was quite tonight. Kyle was reading when I arrived. He said that he was using the open mic to test out a few new slam pieces, which he read from his paper. His first explored the question of “what if God danced?”. The second detailed how he wished he were a big, black woman. In continued to wonder about how his life would be if he were an archer. “But I’m a skinny kid”, and he tells how he can be a feather in a relationship and a brick in a conflict, how he wants to result himself.

Ryan read next. The first poem was about money, and Ryan read with a loud, aggressive voice. “Money can’t by happness, but it sure can buy happiness at the Gentleman’s club,” he said. He made an analogy relating New York to Delaware as a banker is to a debt collector. He continued by delivering the piece about how his fathe is a navy man and a hypocrite. “Nah, you never killed nobody. What you did was worse” he said. “Your way isn’t working. It hasn’t worked forever”, he says, calling for a change of our national view with respect to war and the military.

The next poet was a fellow named Elijah. He read while wearing sunglasses and reading from a paper. His voice was low and hard to make out, and he prefaced the poem with a description of how he was in a relationship and it left him depressed.

Liz Bowen featured at the Den, as she had at Jibber Jabber. Her first poem was hilarious, an extended love poem to a number of serial killers. “Dear Charles Manson,” she opened. She’d been told that her lover would demonstrate “leadership, determination, and homicidal qualities”, so she was now seeking love from “Charlie” and a number of others.

“Dear Zodiac Killer, what’s your sign? I’m a Capricorn”

she proclaims. She continues to tell how she really doesn’t want to be killed, but is always drawn to the wrong man. Playful and fun, I really enjoyed this piece.

The next poem was the honor killing pem, and then the one about telling her grandparents about her bi-racial boyfriend. She then delivered the abortion poem and the poem about missing Baltimore, concluding with the poem about abused women. Except for the serial killer piece, all of these are detailed in the last post. The poems were just as powerful and wonderful to hear the second time around.

Thursday July 24, 2008 - Jibber Jabber

Jibber Jabber was crowded, though few people had come prepared to read. Ryan opened the evening with a few poems he read from his own little book of poems. The first was called “Down There”, and it was a hilarious and playful piece that culminated in feeding a turtle. The next poem was a piece about his grandmother. He called her a saint while claiming that he’s just the opposite. Naturally, this makes conversation about serious topics challenging. For instance, “she’s a saint, so gossip’s out.” However, this comical opening led into a serious critique of the problems within the church that culminates in a comical reprimand form the grandmother as she observes that the narrator really just doesn’t want to wake up early on Sundays.

Nicole read next. It was her first time at the microphone, and she read quickly and seemed nervous. Her poems seemed good, but it was hard to hear let alone fully appreciate them. The first discussed dead bugs and the second was a wry, comical piece about boogers.

I read next, Allen Ginsberg’s “A Supermarket in California”.

When Dave took the stage with his guitar, I expected his focus on the music. However, his lyrics were powerful and prominent. Prior to performing the first piece, he plugged the record he’s about to record. This first song, “Best Friend,” was all about the bond of love and friendship he shares with his lover. He had a nice voice, and his guitar playing was minimal. He talked between songs and plugged his next performance. Dave’s next song, “Everything’s going to be Allright,” was a new song with syncopated, rapid lyrics.

Ryan next performed a new slam piece which punned upon technological terms and computer jargon to describe a relationship. “Baby, you’re the Wikipedia of my soul,” he began. “Like asdfjkl;”, he said, “you’re like my home row.” However, when the relationship went sour, he realized that “I only have three words for a user like you; ‘control, alt, delete’”. It was absolutely hilarious, and the audience loved it. Ryan next performed the piece about how his father is a hypocrite; he serves for the military and claims religiosity, but actually acts counter to many of his professed beliefs. “My father was the hand of God,” Ryan said, “which is how I know he swings to the right”. He described how the military seduces young men “with words like honor, strength, and character”, but really fails to deliver. Instead, Ryan called upon the United States to “drop knowledge” and to spread good rather than war.

Ryan then introduced Liz Bowen, the featured poet. Originally from Hartford County, she’s now a sophomore at Fordham University where she is studying languages. Though young, she is a Grand Slam Champion and placed on the Baltimore Slamicide team twice. She actually looked a little like Professor Wheeler. She’d started writing when she was 15, and then started performing when she was 16.

Her first poem opens by describing a man with a record-breaking ability to hold his breath. She shifts to discuss the travails and sufferings of beaten women. She culminates by describing the creative power of women, wondering “did anybody stop to think maybe God had a wife…or was a woman.” She tells how there are “no men on the moon”, and Liz culminated by uniting herself with the audience. “We are women, now breathe”.

Liz then described how she was going to try out a few new pieces. The first transitioned from fossils to the fossilized memory of her first love. “I was reading the Polar Express when he asked me to marry him”, she says of her preschool love before continuing to tell how she wishes love was still so simple. She says of remembered loves that “they wouldn’t die if we didn’t let them”.

Her next piece was called “Karopan” (phonetically spelled), and this described Honor Killings in Pakistan, working from the perspective of a mother confessing to her daughter the story. “I named you ‘Nawa’, which means ‘secret’ in God’s language”, the woman tells her child. She was born of love, not of an arranged marriage, which means that the mother may be killed by a family who does not approve. “We are their mothers and their whores,” she says of women. “We are martyrs of our beauty”.

Another new piece, Liz presented one she’d written that morning about dating in a mixed race relationship. In particular, she described how she talked about her partner to her grandparents, revealing his Caribbean/Thai heritage. His “skin was the color of the world” and “love is not a black or white issue”. She says that we “are brightest when we are together like light separated into colors”.

Liz wrote a piece discussing how she missed Baltimore, the good and the bad. Her final poem was a powerful piece about abortion and responsibility. In it, she described a woman who had received $100 from the man who impregnated her. “It was the least he could do”, he said, and she agreed. He left her with the heart wrenching decision of whether to abort and how to approach the issue. “I wonder how someone so obsessed with creativity can care so little e about what he creates,” she wonders.

July 27, 2008

I rented the Def Poetry Jam to get a broader sampling of performance poetry artists. This was an interesting and enjoyable set of performances. The write-up describes it thus:

MOVIE: Russell Simmons Presents Def Poetry: Season 1

Russell Simmons, the man behind Def Comedy Jam, applies the same winning formula to the world of spoken-word poetry. Hosted by rapper and actor Mos Def and filmed at New York City’s Supper Club, Def Poetry Jam shines the spotlight on some gifted performers who deliver their political, personal and poignant monologues to a national audience. Contains all episodes from the show’s first season.

Rated: NR 1 hr. 53 min. 2002

The View: Studyslam Appears in the Newspaper

If anyone is interested, The View, a Howard County Newspaper, featured an article about Jibber Jabber. The article described the event and the performances from the Baltimore Slam team members. My research project also got a brief mention.

Along those lines, Jibber Jabber is happening tonight. If you're in the Howard County area, come check it out!

July 17, 2008

I rented the DVD version of the documentary SlamNation to learn a little more about Slam. Most especially, I wanted to see how the makers of this movie approached the study of this fluid and evolving art form.

Here’s what the Netflix write-up had to say about SlamNation:

MOVIE: SlamNation: The Sport of the Spoken Word

Director Paul Devlin’s fast-paced documentary follows four ards as they head to the 1996 National Poetry Slam. The competition begins with the Grand Slam tournament at New ork City’s Nuyorican Poets Café, and then it’s off to the nationals for champs Saul Williams, Beau Sia, Mums the Sohemer and Jessica Care Moore. The quartet view against 26 other teams from across the country in a dramatic contest awash with tension, enmity, and controversy.

Rated NR 1 hr. 23 min. 1998

Friday July 11, 2008 - D.C. 11th Hour Slam

The Langston Hughes room was absolutely packed at Busboys and Poets. I arrived more than half-an-hour early, and I waited in the bookstore, as before. However, when no one appeared for the next half-hour, I asked the hostess if the slam was still happening. She pointed me towards the backroom, and a waitress outside warned me that there were no seats. She suggested trying to go on stage, so I peaked through the doors. My breath was taken away by the sight of not only a packed room, but also a packed stage. I decided I didn’t want to spend the evening in the spotlight anyway, so I slipped to the main portion of the room to see if I could find anywhere to sit. Fortunately, I managed to squeeze in at a table of high-schoolers.

Twain of the Baltimore Slam team featured at the D.C. 11^th Hour Slam. He opened the evening, performing prior to the slam and following 2 Deep’s introduction of the venue and the history of the Langston Hughes room. Twain started with a poem/speech about his name, and he incited audience participation. He gave a preface before each poem, and was extremely personable all around.

His next piece was one of my favorites, the “D.C. Love Poem,” which described love in vivid terms derived from experiences in the Washington D.C. area. For instance, he told how “my heart skips like the Green Line” an dit will last “As long as the politicians’ lies”. His line telling how his “love is as tenacious as parking enforcement” particularly won audience approval. Twain continued on this romantic vein, and his next "poem was about how he cannot be a poet anymore because of his lover. Now, his “muse rolls her eyes and walks away”, and he gives examples of the mushy writing he is inclined to produce.

Twain described his subsequent piece as his “second angriest poem”, and it had suh great lines as “the pot called the kettle a racial slur”, a vivid description of how the teapot blows off steam, and numerous other kitchen-related references to describe the current state of the nation.

This he followed with a haiku:

“If grass is greener

on the other side there must

be some more shit there”

Twain’s second-to-last work, a poem about names was a poignant and powerful piece about how children ultimately have to develop their own identity. He started with a discussion of Apple, Blossom, and other strange celebrity names, and proceeds to describe the dilemma in choosing a name, because the child’s name will become what he makes of it: “Will it be inmate 60203 or ‘Your Honor’? I’m hoping for ‘Your Honor’”. “He’s gonna have to make a name for himself”.

The concluding poem was a patriotic poem that relied heavily upon gesures to add meaning to the lines. For instance, when describing his hands on a woman’s hips, he extended his arms shoulder length apart, then widened it, to the crowd’s delight. “Dance like there’s no tomorrow cause we’ve got to,” he advises. Twain ended, afterwards, with an advertisement for the Fringe Festival in DC.

I especially enjoyed Twain’s performance because you could see in it elements of both slam and literary reading. Especially notable was his comfort on stage and his ability to produce a good dynamic with the audience.

After Twain left the stage, 2 Deep gave the rules of slam and then offered herself as the “sacrificial lamb.” Judges had been selected from the audience prior to my arrival. 2 Deep delivered her mother poem, opening with the song. She told how, “sometimes, when I look in the mirror, the only person I don’t see is me”, and how her mother’s friends tell her “you should do this because that’s what your mother would have done”. “It’s had when you’re not allowed to be you”, and she tells how it’s been 9 days and 11 hours since her independence day. “You’d better look at me…I am Felicia’s child”. She followed this piece with her background, and the story of how she went to the same school as her mother, looked like her mother, and she only feels free of her mother now that she’s lived past her mother’s 27 years. This poem was absolutely beautiful, and even more powerful the second time that I heard it. It still brought tears to my eyes, and I was able to pick up more of the nuances in her gestures and tone the second time around.

As energetic and amusing as ever, 2 Deep presented the audience with her jeopardy re-mix while we waited for the scores. As at SLAMicide, I decided to pick one judge and track her scores to see if I could observe score creep. The judge that I selected was a woman sitting in the back corner of the room. She was the only judge whose board I could see.

10, 9.2, 7.0, 7.8, 8.5

Then, we began the Slam. Seven poets performed in the first round, and this was narrowed down to the top four for the second round.

The first poet called himself EZ Danger. He was actually 2 Deep’s cousin. He received a great, enthusiastic greeting from the crowd, and he gave a preface about how he was a godfather and had promised to dedicate this piece to his goddaughter. He mentioned that he likes to write about writers, as he waved aside 2 Deeps warning that the clock was running. In this poem, EZ danger told about how “my style is priceless” and he tells how he thinks it devalues his work to sell it. He had a hip-hop cadence with strongly syncopated lines and a very overt, four-beat lines. “There’s something special about the dude who gives you a cd, it’s the only way he can be heard”. EZ Danger read from a paper, but he made good contact with the audience. “My words are more essential than hydration,” he argued, but 2 Deep pointed out that, without charging for CD’s, it’s hard to keep a stock.

6.8, 7.0, 6, 6.2, 7.2 for a total of 20

So Many Styles read next. His piece was fast-paced and heavy on the end rhyme. He had a strong hip-hop baseline, and a refrain (“Rhyme for righteousness”), but it was hard to make out the individual words. Ultimately, it seemed to be an angry political rant, an “us against them” call for revolution against the current political powers.

7.4, 6, 7.2, 6.9, 5.8 for a total of 26.7

Princess then delivered a poem, “Praise” about her Grandmother and faith. She relied heavily upon internal rhyme, and she had that requisite swear-word…“forgive me, Lord, for cussing…shit.” The overall piece seemed to be a call to awareness of self and one’s place in the world. “Royalty is a trained process,” Princess mentioned, and she continued to tell how “I’m Nubian by birthright, but I’m also a God-damn American”.

9.2, 7.8, 8.4, 10.0, ? for a total of 32.6

Ah-Ny-Esse, who spelled her name out phonetically, read her poem from a book. She used accents and internal rhyme, talking about her position as a customer service employee. She challenged the no-props rule by removing one shirt to show a Howard Alumn Shirt, and she ended with “Peace,” as the first poet and numerous others tend to do.

5.5, 7.0 6.8, 8.0, 5.2 for a total of 24.7

Ronan, a Lakota Poet, read next. She wore a plain black shirt and skirt, and she frequently referenced such pieces of Native American history as Sitting Bull and Crazy horse. She rhymed frequently and had very short lines that gave her poem a feel that was wholly different from the Hip-hop rhythm. She got lost in the lines, but the audience was very supportive.

7.7, 5.4, 5, 6.3, ? for a total of 22.7

Melanie read next. “To the cool kids and my school, I am not cool”, she began. “I’m just that one girl that does poetry”. The rest of the piece went on to give her complaints against the cool kids and her pride in herself. She had three main points she wanted the cool kids to understand. First, “no part of the suburbs will ever constitute ghetto.” Secondly, “N—is still a slur”. Finally, she discussed her pride in her hair. “If only private school kids went to poetry readings without being offered extra credit,” Melanie lamented. Her ultimate message was, “be you,” be true to yourself.

10.0, 9.3, 8.5, 8.1, 10 for a total of 35.9

Roscoe performed next. His t-shirt was red on the left, green on the right, and had the continent of Africa in black on the front. He relied on couplets and had that hip-hop cadence. His piece was a call to action, to self improvement rather than blaming society or the man for one’s problems. “The block is not a job,” he critiqued.

8.5, 9.7, 9.7, 8.5, 9.0 for a total of 35.7

This concluded the first round. During the intermission, 2 Deep delivered her piece Hungry. The top scoring poets were Melanie Clay, Roscoe, Princess, and So Many Styles. They performed in order of lowest-score to highest.

So Many Styles was easier to understand this time, though he spoke incredibly quickly. He relied on end rhymes, and stressed the internal rhymes. His lines were long and syncopated.

8.5, 7.1, 8.8, 9.8, 8.5 for a total of 30.1

Princess performed next, and her piece was about how she told her parents she wanted to Slam because God gave her this gift. She makes puns out of the many meanings of slam, from doors to bullies, for “poetry is my only defense”. She sang for part of the poem, and she ended by telling how her parents “gave me a standing ovation”.

9.5, 8.7, 9, 8.5, 8.9 for a total of 33.8

Roscoe then tells of how he was proselytized after a performance one time. With “borderline blasphemy”, he tells how “The Bible may be a great place to find love and morality, but you aint got to look that far to find sacrifice.” In this beautiful, moving piece, he tells of a mother who prostitutes herself to buy food for her family, and relates this to the miracle of the bread and fish. He also talks about how Jesus cried on the cross, and relates this to the problems in the American justice system.

10, 10, 9.9, 9.8, 9.6 for a total of 37.5

Melanie performed last. She had short hair, and a lovely, Gerber Baby face. She read from a book, and she talked about working at Borders. Her whole poem culminated in eight points that she would like to make to customers. First, put things back properly. Second, don’t dump things on the floor. Third, “if you don’t know the author, title…then why the fuck are you in my face?” She ends by instructing the customers not to be assholes.

10, 10, 10, 10, 9.7 for a total of 37.8

2 Deep then performed Dead on Contact, which I love more every time I hear it. She did get a little tongue tied.

Finally, after the scores were tabulated (I don’t know what they did with the numbers), the winners were announced.

3. Princess

2. Roscoe

1. Melanie

Judging by the sharp rise in scores between rounds, score creep was quite evident. While I’m disregarding the overly small sample size of four, the scores rose notably over the course of the first round too. Finally, while my scorer was not afraid to give 5’s or 10’s, she consistently gave higher scores later in the evening.

July 10, 2008 - Jibber Jabber Open Mic!

The Java Coffee house was pleasantly packed tonight. It was exciting walking up to the doorway and seeing the crowd gathered outside and so many of the tables full inside. I was especially glad to see a number of the members Baltimore Slam team there.

My friends, Agata and Sabina, had come with me, and Agata and I had both prepared pieces. I was excited; this was my first time that I’d be reading at an Open Mic. We were the first to sign up, and, following Ryan Mergen’s introduction, Agata would open the evening. Ryan performed from memory a piece about a romantic relationship gone sour that brilliantly punned off of the names of dozens of car makes and dozens more car terms.

Agata recited Jeff Moss’ poem “How Are You?” from The Butterfly Jar. She'd been practicing he whole car ride over, and, though she stumbled a little, she carried herself very well. Next, she read a poem in polish about the rain. She’d selected this piece because of it’s rhythmic qualities, as well as the fact that the Polish word for rain (something that sounds like – “jim-jaf-ka”) and the poem itself were highly reminiscent of jibber jabber.

Twain Dooley, one of the qualifying members of the Baltimore Slam Team, performed next. He recited the first poem from memory. In this piece, he played off of the idea of safe sex to ultimately conclude with a message of lasting love, asking the audience to “remember when safe sex meant a padded headboard” at the beginning, and then asking them to consider safe sex as meaning taking your heart medicine at the end. His next piece described a man who was conscripted and then called into service. This dramatic monologue was highly narrative and drawn from “Revenge of a Cat Headed Baby,” a play in which Twain will be featuring at D.C’s fringe festival.

I was the next performer. The first poem I recited from memory. It was a piece written by my great-grandfather and passed to me through my mother by word of mouth. The next was a poem I’d written, inspired by the great social equalizer in Lexington - the fact that everyone shops at Wal-Mart because there are no other options.

Kyle Eichmann, the newest member of the Baltimore Slam Team, performed next. His first poem was a very powerful piece about his mother. He opened with a line of jibberish that he repeated three times, breaking it into its components the third time. He continued that to express how his mother taught him a great deal of the best kinds of parental, loving nonsense, such as the fact that “the monsters under my bed are only there to scare away bad dreams”.

I had heard Kyle’s next piece, “Tatoo”, at the Slam on Sunday. Part of the nature of performance poetry is that it is so transient, and I loved this rare opportunity to hear this piece a second time. As I’d found with 2 Deep’s “Two Hit Rule” poem, I was able to bring a great deal more out of it the second time. This poem went through a young man’s description of the pain behind each of his tattoos, the powerful emotions that caused him to permanently mark them on his body. He tattoos in memory of his mother, friends, and his daughter and her mother. He had wings on his shoulders, because “even concrete angles need to be reminded they can fly”, and musicians on his chest to drown out the sounds of an abusive father. He had hate and love on either breast, and, finally, he had a tear by the corner of his eye. This was not a gang symbol, but a mark of the pain. “If it were acceptable for young men to cry,” he would not have to hurt himself so to express his pain. I especially enjoyed this poem in context of the Bruce article on using poetry in order to help young people, especially men, express themselves verbally so that they can deal with their emotional difficulties constructively rather than violently.

Matt, a hated, side-burned, beatnik, and open-mic virgin read next. A first time reader, he was shaking as he read the first piece from his notebook. The second, he’d memorized. I suspect that he’ll be reading again.

Ryan Mergen then introduced Chris Wilson, the featured poet and another member of the Baltimore Slam Team. The “Johnny Appleseed of Hartford County”, Chris is an English teacher as well as a stellar performer. After opening with a joke, he started with a poem directed to his students. Chris roved the room, winding in-between tables as he made the audience a part of this piece. In it, he cautioned his students that he would be ruining their lives because, by the time he was finished with them, they would be passionate about writing. However, “writers are poor”. He assured the students that he wouldn’t let them be loners like Emily Dickenson or “cop-outs” like Sylvia Plath, even as he warned tham that “Anything you write here can be read out loud, even notes to your boyfriend or girlfriend…especially notes to your boyfriend or girlfriend.” Finally, he left them with the idea that “I am your words Big Brother,” and he told them that he’d always stand up for them.

A number of the Baltimore Slammers are teachers, and I enjoyed considering their work in the context of teaching, especially in light of the Kammer essay on teaching poetry.

Chris next read the first in a series of haikus on why he hate’s Justin Timberlake (and Macey’s #6). I personally loved these!

“I bring sexy back

Without the receipt return

Home still with sexy”

Chris’ next piece was a poem about his own mother. He referred to Kyle’s piece before beginning. In this poem, he addressed the mother’s paranoia regarding the possible death of her son, who was born a 2lb preemie. Chris even teared up a little during the presentation. He read this poem from the pages, but was clearly very familiar with it and maintained good eye contact with the audience and gestured actively. He ended by stating that he’s already made sure that, when he dies, his dear mother will be the last to know.

Chris' next haiku was better than the first!

“I bring sexy back
With a gift slip. Now someone
Wears my used sexy”

Chris’ next piece was an entirely new poem (and he cautioned the audience about introducing a new poem, saying that he advises putting it in the middle, so that it can be sandwiched by stronger works). Chris had just written this piece this afternoon, and it explored how a friend had applied for a government job. The government screens based on moral caliber, alcohol use, and drug use. However, it claims to be looking for innovative, creative individuals. Chris noted that the irony of this was that the government was excluding a whole realm of potential; he’s never seen such a work ethic that can turn a “chandelier into a smoking apparatus”. He joked about the presence of Clinton and Bush in politics, given the government’s standards, and pointed out that the government would either be excluding or making liars of those who’ve ever smoked pot. “But maybe that’s what it takes to get a government job”. I enjoyed this piece for it’s humor.

The next two poems dealt with love, the first about a rough break-up and the second a call for tolerance and acceptance towards homosexual couples that was inspired (and prefaced with) the story of Roy and Silo, a pair of male penguins at the NYC Zoo who had fallen in love. The background story was based on And Tango Makes Three, the number one banned book in America in 2006 and 2007.

Chris’s final Haiku:

“I bring sexy back

To the owner on collar

His name is not mine”

The last piece was another I’d heard performed in the Slam, a piece about a man who loves pregnant women and a call for acceptance of all harmless fetishes/romantic habits.

A few points to note about this performance in particular include the following:

- Most of the poets gave a preface, except for the slam team members, who were introduced by Ryan.

- It was also interesting to note how familiar the slam team was with each other’s repertoire. For instance, Kyle went to sit down after his first piece, but the others made him go up, and he had them tell him which to perform. He didn’t even have to consider, he just went.

- Finally, it’s interesting to consider Slam poems when taken out of context. These poems tend to be much more engaging than traditionally presented poems, but that may also be in part due to the fact that they are performed. They also tended to be more emotionally powerful, either funnier or very serious about a given issue.

I really hope Jibber Jabber thrives! It is amazing to have a literary venue right here in Howard County, especially one so lively! I can’t wait to come back and see Liz Bowen perform! She’s an 18-year old, two-time qualifier for Nationals!