Poetry Slam

Read more about the article NPS Update

NPS Update

Omar just called: LA beats Union Square (2001 redux?) while Nuyorican beats Urbana, ensuring NYC’s streak of Finals appearances since 1996 (at least) continues. They also landed someone named Jive Poet, ranked 7th overall, in the indie finals. (Celena Glenn was Urbana’s top individual @ 21, Ta’i Freedom Ford for Union Square @ 45.)

Had the winners of both of those wrong (Urbana & Los Feliz) in my predictions. We’ll see how the other two turn out. I picked Austin and Chicago-Wicker Park, though an Omaha upset would be a special kind of cool.

It’s weird, being home this year. Last year I really missed it and it was the beginning of the end for the Virginia experiment. This year, I’m rather ambivalent about it. I would have liked to see some people I haven’t seen in quite a while and taken part in the general festivities but at the same time, I have little interest in the competition itself beyond rooting for various friends to do well. That said, I’m a bit nonplussed about Union Square’s results. To be honest, it’s exactly what I expected based on their matchups in the first round. From what I’ve heard, they came out on fire the first night with Trent Lott, Homeland, Rakim and Other Thesis, surely not wanting to lose to the LA team that knocked us out in the 2001 NPS Semi-Finals. According to Ed, LA did it right this year in the semis, coming strong and winning with solid work. I wonder if not making the Finals means the veterans will slam yet again next season or finally step aside and give other people the opportunity to experience Nationals from the stage as opposed to the shadows. One can hope…

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Must see: http://www.bushflash.com/dlc.html While I don't buy the Kucinich-Dean parallel, it's a pretty powerful piece of propaganda. I'm watching the AFL-CIO / Working Families Forum on C-SPAN right now, featuring all nine candidates and it's been a bit of an eye-opener so far. Interestingly, it's being held at the Navy Pier in Chicago where this year's National Poetry Slam Finals will take place on Saturday night and the forum has a bit of a slam feel to it. Lieberman is one smug bastard that loves to reference Clinton as if some of his mojo might run off on him. He…

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"[Marc] announced a three-year sabbatical in '99; by the fall of 2001 he was back. Without him, he says, things had gotten so bad that this year's 14th annual National Poetry Slam... wouldn't be happening otherwise." "He says that some of the people who tried to step in while he was gone were looking to use the slam for personal gain. 'This thing that I started and have put so much energy into [but] have never exploited for my own purposes. I was pissed off." I wasn't going to address this until I had a chance to read the full…

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I'm a great believer in luck, and I find the harder I work the more I have of it. -Thomas Jefferson Some would say - and have, at times - that I've always lived something of a charmed life, had luck on my side, a guardian angel watching over me. I'll be the first to admit that there's been times when things have inexplicably gone my way but I like to think it's more about karma than luck. Both good and bad, of course. That whole circles thing. After a hellacious 2002, when it seemed all the calls were going…

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Read more about the article But I’m not the least bit excited

But I’m not the least bit excited

Ditched the morning sessions of the conference yesterday and wandered the streets for a couple of hours, getting some air and clearing my head. Finally checked out the Pokemon Store in Rockefeller Center. Good thing I never went in there when I was actively collecting the cards! Had lunch with Salomé at Bread from Beirut and then struggled to stay awake through the afternoon sessions.

The slam ended just before midnight on Monday and I didn’t get home til nearly 3am. I’m still feeling it today, both the exhaustion and the mixed emotions from how things turned out. It was an interesting night to say the least. Shappy got eliminated in the first round on a time penalty despite having the advantage of going last in the first round. My prediction for the second round was on point as Claudia fell victim to score depression midway through, delivering yet another awful variation on “the slam is bad” poem. Third round saw Shawn take a dive, dedicating yet another lame anti-slam poem “to the person who said in their online journal that I’d come up short this round” (that’d be me!) and going way overtime with it. Remaining six were, in order from low-to-high, Dawn, Omar, Lynne, Marty, T’ai, Roger and that’s how things stayed at the end with Roger, T’ai, Marty & Lynne making the team.

And that’s where the mixed emotions come in. They all performed wonderfully, as you’d expect from a bunch of seasoned veterans, but I’m not the least bit excited about them being on the team. Excluding T’ai, who I AM excited about and feel a little sorry for, I’ve got no interest in seeing Roger, Marty and Lynne at Nationals yet again. This is Roger’s fifth year competing, Marty’s fourth and Lynne’s third. Roger’s won the Individual Championship and coached a team to the Championship. Lynne won a team championship. Marty’s toured the country three times over. I fail to understand their need to continue competing in the slam especially in light of my very public stance that the slam should be about encouraging and developing NEW voices.

Honestly, it’s just selfish.

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Read more about the article The Great Debate, #632: Is Freestyle Poetry?

The Great Debate, #632: Is Freestyle Poetry?

Many say it isn't. I say, it depends. One of the arguments against it that I hear the most is that it's unfair to pit a freestyle against a poem that's been crafted over time, edited and revised, etc. If you picked up some slam bias from the "unfair," you nailed the issue. Freestyle is impressive to an audience, generally scores high and, therefore, e=mc2 and freestyle is not poetry! There's also the question of how much of the freestyle is actually improvised, with the inference that the prefacing of a piece that may incorporate pre-existing work as a freestyle…

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I think I have officially crossed the line and become completely jaded about poetry slam. I've never been so bored at an event as I was at last night's Urbana Finals. Not that it was a terrible show, mind you. It just didn't have the energy of a FINALS! The host, John S. Hall, sucked the life from the room every time he took the stage and the long setup of the club itself means what ever energy is there dies halfway up the bar. (They had the same problem when they were at CB's Gallery across the street.) The…

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