Prelim #1

The first Clark / Worcester Youth Unified Poetry Slam of the season was a rousing success! Over 80 folks in attendance. Front page newspaper coverage. Tons of folks joined the email list, donated to the team and spent an evening listening to some great work!!! Thanks all who came, and a special extra thanks to volunteers, including Heather who worked the merch booth and kept me calm and centered throughout all the zaniness! Thanks also to Alana Melanson for the great photos!

To get the crowd warmed up, the night began with a short but dynamic showcase of Worcester Performance Poets. Host Alex Charalambides took the stage and invited several friends of the Youth Slam to the stage. The showcase included performances by former Youth Poetry Slam Team Members Nick Davis, Tak Mogel and Danny Balel. We’re always super happy when ex-youth team comes out to support! Also included in the invitational showcase were 2009 Worcester Slam Team Member Dave Keali’i who also co-hosts the Sunday Readings at the Poets Asylum, Cowboy Matt Hopewell, who runs the Monday Night “Little a” Series at the Q Cafe was on hand and gladly shared a poem. Special Guest Tui Scanlan, Hawaii Slam Team Member and Co-Coach of Hawaii’s Youth Team, just happened to be in town while on tour and was gracious enough to share his good words with us.DJ Muse was on hand to spin funky tunes between poets, bringing a true party atmosphere to the proceedings.

The First Worcester Youth Preliminary Slam of the 2009/2010 Season took center stage with a Speakout! record SEVEN participants facing off in poetic battle (including 6 poets who’ve never slammed before!) Ricky from the Lowell, Mass Youth Team served as our calibration poet. Carolyn Mshooshian drew the dreaded first slot and started the slam w/ a 19.9. We were soon to find out the the judges were gonna be tough all night, but they remained consistent and the crowd got their boo-horns out in force.  Going first in a slam is always tough but Carolyn impressed a lot of folks with her verbal command and measured performance. Taylor took the two slot and delivered a powerhouse second person narrative about Jackie Kennedy on the day of her husband’s assassination, earning her 22.5, which got knocked down to a 22.0 with a short time penalty. Amiana took the room in another direction with a belly laugh satirically biting ode to hand sanitizer, scoring her a 22.3. The judges were not budging, they were gonna stay low most of the evening. Even the host and bout manager Jon Wolf made were dumbfounded during their back and forth commentary. Adrian went fourth in the round and kept the good writing coming, but suffered at the hands of the merciless judges, scoring an 18.0, perhaps signaling that the judges were looking for more in the performance aspect, which will certainly come in time with a lot of first time slammers. It can be easier to work and improve performance than writing and everybody came out with excellent writing. Eric took the stage next, taking on the challenge of competing in both Youth & Clark Slams (which is allowed, but forces the poet to come with four different pieces). Eric took the stage and turned it up a notch with clever wordplay and rhythmic style, earning him a 22.1 for the round. It was becoming clear that in order to keep the show moving on schedule, we were going to have to cut the second round down to 5 poets, with the top three scoring points towards making it to Grand Slam next Spring. The bout manager and host kept in close contact to make sure that we would be able to get as many young poets on stage as possible. April took the stage next and delivered with honesty and positivity and took 20.6 score. So many slams become a “30’s for all!” type of show, but sometimes a lower scoring slam can tell us a lot about the room and what is important to a particular group of judges. Anna closed out the first round and finally broke the room with an extremely well performed persona piece about domestic abuse. The passion and dynamic performance forced the judges into action, earning her a 25.9 which turned out to be a commanding lead heading into the second & last round. The top five scoring poets, Anna, Amiana, Eric, Taylor and April moved on into the second round, with the order being determined from high score to low score in the second round. Carolyn & Adrian received loud cheers and mad respect from the audience. Anna had to lead off the second round, keeping the momentum going with a 24.0 giving her a combined 49.9 for the slam. Amiana followed with a 26.1, high score of the night, enough to put her into second place, with a cumulative score of 48.3. Eric went third and delivered another strong poem that scored a 24.2, taking him to 46.3. Taylor and April closed out the slam with scores of 23.9 and 21.9 respectively, leaving Anna as the night’s winner, earning her 3 points towards team finals. Amiana took second, netting her 2 points and Eric finished third, giving him a point. Everyone did a great job. All participants received a free Worcester Collective CD, crazy applause and an earnest wish to see them next time!

Onward to our special guest feature. No stranger to Youth Poetry Slam, Two Time National Brave New Voices Champion, Jamaica Osorio, from Hawaii (by way of Stanford University) took the stage and delivered a powerful, elegant set of both her better known slam work and a selection of pieces from her new book, “Tangled Roots and Broken Hearts.” She kept the room mesmerized by her stage presence and command of craft. She’s a dedicated artist who is already making her mark on the world of performance poetry at a tender young age. We were honored and ecstatic that she lent her fine work with us and hope to welcome her back one day.  Find her on facebook or myspace, check out her videos on You Tube, send her a message if you were there and let her know that she rawks! The night closed with the first preliminary Clark University Slam with four competitors vying for the opportunity to gain glory and a chance to represent Clark at the Annual Collegiate National Poetry Slam. Eric, Michelle, Kate and Sean went two rounds, with the final tally looking a little something like:                                                                 (Michelle)

Poet:           Rd#1              Rd#2             Total              Rank

Kate            27.6               26.0               53.6                1st

Sean            27.3               24.0               51.3                2nd                        (Sean)

Michelle      23.4                25.6               49.0               3rd

Eric             23.4                 22.7              46.1                4th