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