Battle of Ohio II

***This was going to be a much more vibrant and detailed post, but word of Gabrielle's passing knocked the wind out of me***

To fulfill our obligation for the Win and You're In Slam system, the powers that be in Ohio put together the 2nd Annual Battle of Ohio Slam. The first one was hosted in Columbus by Writer's Block (1st place - Writer's Block, then Writing Wrongs, Cleveland & Dayton). This year, we brought it back to Columbus and Writing Wrongs hosted it. The night was very, very fun. I left all the hosting duties up to the staff, but was still running around with my head cut off. I thought I had most things ready to go (most things anyway), but learned some lessons for hosting a Win & You're in Bout (should I ever need to again). I do believe the night ran pretty smoothly from the Open Mic to the slam and Spike definitely deserves a lot of credit for that. To spare any suspense, here was the final tally of the night:

Writing Wrongs Poetry Slam - 118.8
Cleveland Poetry Slam - 116.9
Writer's Block Poetry Slam - 115.7
Dayton Poetry Slam - 107.2

I was pretty proud of my squad. I felt like everyone came out and performed really well, put their own stamp on the night by winning pretty handily. I was most happy/nervous for Jason Brazwell. Look, I love the guy, love the work and it was a joy slamming with him, hopefully beyond just the one night. He also had the most at stake slamming that night as well. Jason had never slammed in a team event that wasn't with Writer's Block before, so it was a departure for him regardless, let alone the fact he was taking this big step AGAINST Writer's Block. Isn't necessarily how I would've scripted it for him, but he was up for the challenge and he KILLED. Damn, he killed it...Lets hope this lit a fire under him for the Writing Wrongs Slam season. That would be spectacular.

Other highlights/notes: Besides anything my team did, Rachel Wiley's poem was my favorite of the night. She's tough, real tough.

I don't know who in Dayton broke a kicked a puppy when they were younger, but they have the worst luck/fortune. Like, the LA Clippers type of luck. Two team members either had car trouble or were MIA altogether. Luckily, they had some people (Link being one of them) just there to take in the festivities that could slam, otherwise they may not have been able to field a team. I enjoyed what they're team put up, but they were at a disadvantage just from the fact that they had a couple of team members unaware that they'd be slamming when they arrived. Kudos to that. Me, I'd be pulling my hair out over shit like that.

I thought Scott's poem should've scored better. Good piece.

O' Cleveland. What a good showing. A couple of vets, a couple of rookies...either way they did the damn thing. It was funny standing back there with Tom Noy watching him employ what he calls 'Will Evans' slam-tactics. Which is flattering until Cleveland ends up kicking our ass in the future. Hopefully he surpasses that manual. But I was really impressed by them all. And then there's Dave 'Muthafuckin' Nichols. I mean, after the nickname, is there anything else to say? That cat is electric and Tom placed him perfectly in the first round.

I decided to do a duet in the last round (or my slot in the slam) for the wow factor if nothing else. The poem, 'Curtain' is a piece Barbara and I adapted from a short poem I wrote during April last year and I'm really proud of it (which I don't profess out loud too much about my work I'm not realizing). But the language is kind of experimental, its intended to be just a storyboard of images and limited narrative and I was so excited when I saw what Barb had wrote to compliment what I had started previously. So we pulled it out, knowing most people in the room and had never heard it. Jason and I went back and forth over three new poems I had written while on tour for my slot previous to the slam, but doing the duet and getting Barb up on the Mic again (there were two 30s during the night, Barb had both of them) won out for me. I was just glad we could do it in front of the people we knew would like it.

Fun, fun times all the way around and it was nice to come out with a win. I'm looking forward to Episode III in Cleveland next year.

(Attempting to) Beast in the East: 1

If you're scoring at home on how to test a marriage four months after its union, this the second departure and cumulatively 3rd week I've been on the road in the last couple of months. This week, I was able to take Niobe (that would be my 1999 Acura 2.3 CL in case you weren't aware) on an almost non-stop drive to Providence, RI on Tuesday.

I don't want to write any preemptive eulogies here, but I was intent on doing my Tryst through the Tri-State with my Acura as opposed to taking Leah's Pontiac Vibe like I do on most road trips. I've had Niobe for a long time. But she is getting up there. And I was determined to let her have one more long road trip left in her before getting myself a younger, giggly, still can walk the run way model later on in the year. Its been a good trip so far for her. She's held up remarkably well and wants to prove to me that she's still capable of being my steady. We'll see.

Anyways, I started my mini run at Got Poetry Live which was a pretty nice treat. I don't think I've ever been that far north east before, so it was a treat before I even entered the venue. The reading is intimate, but extremely attentive and welcoming. I felt like I could really run the gauntlet of subject matter in the room and everything was being received well. And getting to hear some Tony Brown and Ryk McIntyre live is always a good thing.

Wednesday, I made my way up to Boston for my feature at the Cantab. Look, the Cantab is the muthafuckin Cantab. That's all there is to it. Far better poets than me have described what its like to rip a set there, so I won't bore you with my analogies. I'll just say it feels like home. The room was ridiculously stacked, standing room much of it. J.W. Baz had featured at Hampshire College the day before so he and some incredibly talented Hampshire kids made the trip down there to see this hack from Columbus feature. Mike McGee was also in the house which always makes the room three times more comfortable. My set felt good. Real good. I did everything I wanted as far as a set list and got rewarded with a standing 'O' for it. Aww shucks, Boston. I fuckin love this scene. It always stays with me a little after the night.

So the next day or so I spend hanging with Simone Beaubien. Simone and I can talk for HOURS (as we proved over the course of a couple days). Her unflinching honesty is infectious, her perspectives are completely unique, even within our poetry slam fam. She's like the anti-cliche. We must have spent two hours alone making fun of all the 'fem and esses' isms (as in her favorite title in the world, Fem-cee) that our community has created. At any rate, if Leah ever comes to her senses and realizes that she's way out of my league before dropping me like a kidney stone, I'd have to add the Boston Area to my short list of relocation spots (for those scoring at home, said list is Chicago, Boston, Phoenix, NYC & Charlotte, in that order).

Tonight I make my way to the NYC for my co feature at the Nuyorican with Brian Ellis. So, I'm geeking out a little bit because Brian is probably my favorite poet doing his thing right now. Period. So sharing a Nuyo stage with him should be pretty damn exciting. After that, I'm gonna make a non-emergency run home for the weekend. Cuz ya know, I wanna see my wife. I'm so anti-Tiger living son. I'll come back to NYC on Monday for a co-feature with Aricka Foreman at LouderArts, Urbana on Tuesday, deconstruction of poems with Roger on Wednesday, then Loser Slam on Thursday. Then the big boat ride home Friday morning.

Till then homies (and homie-esses)