Austin, TX

This years finalists for the National Poetry Slam 2007 Team Finals were:

1. New York, NY - Nuyorican Poets Cafe
2. New York, NY - The Louder ARTS Project
3. Killeen, TX
4. Charlotte, NC - SlamCharlotte
5. Denver, Co - SlamNuba

The evening started off with the Best of Show performances. My favourite was Team Berkeley with their “Yo Ho Ho Corporate Pirates” piece. There were 6 showcase performances that were all worth watching but it did seem to take up a fair chunk of time. The Spirit of the Slam award went to Team Oneonta.

The hostess for the Team Finals was SlamMaster, Dasha Kelly, from Wisconsin, whose skirt was fly.

Sacrificial blood was shed by Ed Mabrey and the 2007 Indy Winner, Danny Sherrard. I’d heard Danny’s piece the night before at the Indy finals but Ed’s piece was new to me. I’m not sure what the title of his piece was but I’ll call it “Letter to Darfur” and it was absolutely brilliant. With a fair bit of humor, Ed easily brought home the plight of the women and children of Darfur.

The main difference between the Indy finals and the Team finals was that each team performed three pieces with no elimination process. Scoring remains the same. Teams have the option of having different team members performing each round. This gives the teams the opportunity to play to individual strengths.

Round 1 highlights included a fun piece by the Killeen, Tx, team all about zombies. How can you fail to love a piece about zombies? Team Charlotte, the Nuyorican’s, and Louder Arts each came on with strong individual performances. Rachel McKibbens took the lead for Louder Arts with 28.9 points for an outstanding performance that brought tears to my eyes. The points were close, ranging from 27.9 to 28.9.

NY’s Louder Arts Project kicked off Round 2 with a wonderful performance by Oveous Maximus Salcedo, “if you look for us, you’ll find us, kissing your heart like the skin of a coconut.” SlamCharlotte walked off with this round, though, with an emotional piece called “No Place Like Home” by Carlos Robson which effectively compared Vietnam Vets with the Wizard of Oz. Shouts of 10-10-10, followed his performance and the judges agreed and awarded SlamCharlotte 29.3 points. Sadly, technical issues with the microphones hampered the Nuyorican’s performance leading to an apology at the end of the evening and an additional performance but there was nothing the judges could do about the mishap other than to apologize. I really enjoyed Team Killeen’s performance about redirecting anger with the power of the pen.

SlamCharlotte’s Bethsheba, “Sheeba” started the final round with a powerful performance about rape. I would have had a difficult time picking a winner in this round. Each team showed their strengths with great performances. The judges picked Team Killeen with 29.4 but LouderArts, Roger Bonair-Agard and the Nuyorican’s Eboni also performed noteworthy pieces. I guess if I had to choose, my favourite in the final round was Denver SlamNuba’s Panama Soweta, “I’m taking my ball and going home.” This piece, like Ed Mabrey’s earlier performance, brought home a point with humor. “I put storm clouds in a #2 pencil”, he said.

When the points were tallied the results were:

5th Place:

New York, NY - Nuyorican Poets Cafe with 84.7 points
(28.1 28.2 28.4)

4th Place:

Denver, Co - SlamNuba with 85.2 points
(27.9 28.3 29 )

3rd Place:

New York, NY - The Louder ARTS Project with 85.7 points
(28.9 28.2 28.6)

2nd Place:

Team Killeen, TX with 86.1
(28.1 28.6 29.4)

and finally in 1st Place: SlamCharlotte from Charlotte, NC, with 86.5 points (28.8 29.3 28.4)!

Congratulations SlamCharlotte, 2007 National Poetry Slam champions:

Bluz
Bethsheba Rem
Carlos Robson
Michael Simms
Tavis Brunson
Paul D
Inkera

As you can see, it was a close competition. The trophy was very cool, a stack of books with a sword stuck in them.

And thus we say farewell to another National Poetry Slam. It’s been a great two years. The next two years will be held in Madison, Wisconsin. Hurry back, NPS, we’re going to miss you!

National Poetry Slam 2007: Indy Finals

Slam Poetry, Poetry Slam, National Poetry Slam, National Poetry Slam 2007, Spoken-Word, Poetry, Danny Sherrard, Austin, SlamCharlotte, SlamNuba, Team Killeen, LouderArts, Nuyorican Poets Cafe, The Louder ARTS Project, Nuyorican’s, Panama Soweta, Rachel McKibbens, Eboni, Roger Bonair-Agard, Dasha Kelly, Bethsheba, Sheba, Ed Mabrey, Austin Slam, SlamMaster, Oveous Maximus Salcedo, Carlos Rem, Inkera, Bethsheba Rem, Tavis, Michael Simms, Paul D, Bluz, Team Berkeley