What I am going to talk about is the good, some bad, and little to no ugly thoughts on the weekend, based on what I saw and felt. There were some individual poets who stood out for me, and I have to share my feelings about them.
Chauncey Beaty - Third place, congratulations. After one sentence of your first poem on the finals stage I saw some amazing growth. You're not the same poet you were in Columbus.
Lauren Zuniga - Someone who I had heard of but never saw until La Fogata. Very accessible work, really enjoyed it.
Megan Rickman - Gave me her CD outside of Barley's this morning. Sidewalk love. You rocked it six.
Gypsee Yo - The best pregnant Albanian poetry slammer ever! Seriously. One of the most passionate poems of the weekend. A heart gripping poem about being a refugee.
Nicole Homer - I saw her talking to a wall outside in Berkeley, getting ready for her bout. She was awesome this week.
Sierra DeMulder - Totally floored me at Zanzibar. She and Amy Everhart delived a one two punch of poetry on that stage that will be hard for anyone to beat, ever.
Amy Everhart - Finally introduced myself to her at Zanzibar before the bout. Thanked her for beating me. She is a paragon of humility.
Dee Matthews. If there is one poet who I would have to pick as my favorite of the weekend, it is definitely her. I had never seen her before, heard some great things about her, and ended up judging her bout. She wiped me out. Why bother doing poetry after seeing that? I'm not a big fan of persona poetry, but she does that. Holy shit she does that. I could go on and on about how amazing she is.
Tristan Silverman - I told the people at La Fogata she'd be moving on, and I was right. She was on the finals stage.
Rachel McKibbens - Your poem for Gabrielle had the audience in tears. A massive thank you.
Laura Yes Yes - You brought it. Boy did you ever.
Andi Kauth - Your first poem, a love poem, at La Fogata was one of my favorites of the weekend. Thank you.
Cristin O'Keefe Aptowicz - I introduced myself, said I loved her book on slam and promptly forgot the name of it. Doh! She is loved by everyone it seems and in watching her play with her friends and seeing her rip it onstage I can understand why.
Syd Malicious - Best arms of the weekend. Lovely poem about working in Tanzania got her in the competition when she won the last chance slam.
Lucky 7 - Made me laugh. Hard. At La Fogata. Word play and doobies, awesome!
Megan Thoma - Please, do not punch me.
Barbara Fant - You broke my heart out there. Next time. You know this.
Sara Brickman - For the 'dick don't go into crazy' line. You and Megan Thoma are the speccy poets.
Dusty Rose - Best Maggie Gyllenhaal look alike.
Inky - You fought back with you one minute poem at La Fogata. That's a comeback!
Finally to Vernell Bristow and Gina Blaurock. You angels, you represented Writers Block and yourselves. I could not be prouder of you both!
More good: The Lincoln Theater. I had not set foot inside before. What an amazing facility. First class all around. The sound blew away the nasty sound at Wheeler Hall in Berkeley. Could not ask for a better venue. Everyone who worked there last night (from the ushers, to the people doing the set and lighting) deserves a round of applause. Professional does not begin to describe how perfect it all was.
The bad: Zanzibar. Your sound sucked. The size of the venue did not bother me, especially after performing in a venue the size of a boxing ring in Berkeley.
Surprisingly good. La Fogata. Very large and cool space upstairs. Great place for an event.
The ugly: Haters. For those who ripped on the judges. Too damn bad. That's slam. And to one who ripped on the poster for the event (too white and pretty) and the 'beauty vs. brawn slam' as sexism and an easier way (of dealing with patriarchy) to get through the day. Why not show up at the event instead of hiding behind your computer screen? Guess it's easier that way.
You were awesome but I forgot your name - The woman who hosted the bout I judged.
Who I missed not seeing most - Rose Smith. She had to have been incredible Friday night to climb the ladder.
You guys rock award - Beverly Wilkinson, Louise Robertson, Joanna Schroeder.
Best Star Trek computer voice of the weekend - Karrie Warrala.
A disappointment. No Columbus poets on stage during finals. Chauncey lives in Atlanta now and does not count. Next year!
The other cool place I'd never been in Columbus until last week. Barley's basement. What a great space. Kept looking for Stuart Sutcliffe's ghost.
To my wife. Thank you for putting up with my bloviating.
To everyone and everything I forgot. That was a large glass of Laphroiag I was drinking last night.
Edit**Someone I completely forgot, and should not have - Liz Woods. Who worked her tail off organizing venues and did everything asked of her with such quiet brilliance and competence that I did not see her footprint. That's how good she is.**
One more thing. Next year WoW is in Columbus again.
The mic is waiting.
4 comments:
Well said!!!!! The only think I didn't like about wowps was that I couldn't be everywhere at once and that it being in Columbus meant I still live here and have to work it into my life. But I couldn't be prouder of my host city. Next year I'm just going to pretend I don't live here, move into the hotel and wander around like a tourist in awe of so many cool people in one place at one time.
Thanks Maranda. Columbus did well. You can stay in the hotel, I like going home to my own bed!
I wouldn't normally do this kind of cheerleading, but Liz did so much work on this event (no one h\who did would suggest what we saw would have been possible without her) that it made me sick to my stomach that she wasn't on that stage getting her props. And that you don't list her here is exactly why she should have been: because it's easy to forget.
I'm not blasting you, Ed. You just prove a point that, honestly? I'm tired of people not taking the point seriously. I mean, do-something-about-it seriously. Same thing happened in Berkeley, so this isn't a wifey thing.
Scott. You are absolutely right. I messed up not including Liz and regret the omission.
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