Bout 2 National Poetry Slam Details
Okay, hold onto your seats. The roller coaster ride is even more amazing:
Bout 2: Team Columbus vs. Atlanta, Oakland, Palo Alto and Boston Lizard Lounge. Scores flying in the high zone all night long. Teams with their posses. Strategies attempted--some good, some not so good, and a group of judges that don't know quite what to think when they're hit with a complex poem. Team Columbus draws a "five" in this five team bout by 1.7 points. Get that in your head before we go further: Only 1.7 points separated the "one" team from the "five" team. We thought our work would be easier tonight! Not so, holy Joe.
I can't pinpoint what the judges were about here. There was none of that "we want content" attitude from the night before. They appeared to react a little more to performance and for some reason scored a few poems well that I thought were fairly average, but that's slam.
Scott went in round one with "Queen Takes Black Knight," a thoroughly engaging and unique poem about a guy whose girlfriend is a rape survivor. Not soap box, not pablum. Scored very respectably, within about .3 of his rotation leader. On to rotation two:
Ed goes in with "Take a Walk in My Shoes," a eulogy to Gregory Hines. I love this poem, but it is complex and requires listening. Frankly, I don't think the judges were listening (or maybe were not able to) as Ed fired that poem with passion, and Ed-type speed and rhythm. Now, let me say this--Ed will either agree or disagree: I don't think Ed was full-on with this piece. He'd not been feeling great earlier in the day after eating something possibly undercooked the night before. He was stuffed up and had had trouble breathing earlier as well. But he did the macho thing, said he was fine, and went for it--after all, we had no choice with only three members on the team. He did well. We should have concensed on a different poem for him, but he did well with this one. For the record, I had voted for "The Blackest Poet," but my vote was misunderstood. I should hit myself for not calling Ed back when he began to walk away.
Round 3: Rose goes in with "Pressure Switch." Complex poem that requires listening, but full of enough emotion that someone not familiar with the history or similar occurrences in present culture can still grab the meaning. I put everything I had into it. Scored well and was, happily, momentarily tied for first place individual poet score of our bout. Shortlived tie for first, being wiped out two poets later by the last poet of the night, but a respectable tie for second place nonetheless. I have to owe it to the slot: Ed, Scott or me--whoever was in that third slot would probably have scored well with our type of work.
So... sorry Columbus, but Team Columbus will not go to semi-finals this year. We've done our best and come out somewhat closer to the bottom than recent years in spite of our awesome efforts here. Here's why:
Remember that historically low-scored bout we were in yesterday? It will hurt us BIGTIME in the rankings with we go from a "two" team rank to a "seven" team rank and our two scores are added together. We can still potentially come in in mid-field, but that daggoned low score from night one for a "two" slot will definitely hurt us in overall team rank. I'm not very excited to see the team rankings when they're posted later this morning.
We came, we saw, we went out swinging. Hopefully you all still love us.
Peace and great tidings for new things to come.... rs
Bout 2: Team Columbus vs. Atlanta, Oakland, Palo Alto and Boston Lizard Lounge. Scores flying in the high zone all night long. Teams with their posses. Strategies attempted--some good, some not so good, and a group of judges that don't know quite what to think when they're hit with a complex poem. Team Columbus draws a "five" in this five team bout by 1.7 points. Get that in your head before we go further: Only 1.7 points separated the "one" team from the "five" team. We thought our work would be easier tonight! Not so, holy Joe.
I can't pinpoint what the judges were about here. There was none of that "we want content" attitude from the night before. They appeared to react a little more to performance and for some reason scored a few poems well that I thought were fairly average, but that's slam.
Scott went in round one with "Queen Takes Black Knight," a thoroughly engaging and unique poem about a guy whose girlfriend is a rape survivor. Not soap box, not pablum. Scored very respectably, within about .3 of his rotation leader. On to rotation two:
Ed goes in with "Take a Walk in My Shoes," a eulogy to Gregory Hines. I love this poem, but it is complex and requires listening. Frankly, I don't think the judges were listening (or maybe were not able to) as Ed fired that poem with passion, and Ed-type speed and rhythm. Now, let me say this--Ed will either agree or disagree: I don't think Ed was full-on with this piece. He'd not been feeling great earlier in the day after eating something possibly undercooked the night before. He was stuffed up and had had trouble breathing earlier as well. But he did the macho thing, said he was fine, and went for it--after all, we had no choice with only three members on the team. He did well. We should have concensed on a different poem for him, but he did well with this one. For the record, I had voted for "The Blackest Poet," but my vote was misunderstood. I should hit myself for not calling Ed back when he began to walk away.
Round 3: Rose goes in with "Pressure Switch." Complex poem that requires listening, but full of enough emotion that someone not familiar with the history or similar occurrences in present culture can still grab the meaning. I put everything I had into it. Scored well and was, happily, momentarily tied for first place individual poet score of our bout. Shortlived tie for first, being wiped out two poets later by the last poet of the night, but a respectable tie for second place nonetheless. I have to owe it to the slot: Ed, Scott or me--whoever was in that third slot would probably have scored well with our type of work.
So... sorry Columbus, but Team Columbus will not go to semi-finals this year. We've done our best and come out somewhat closer to the bottom than recent years in spite of our awesome efforts here. Here's why:
Remember that historically low-scored bout we were in yesterday? It will hurt us BIGTIME in the rankings with we go from a "two" team rank to a "seven" team rank and our two scores are added together. We can still potentially come in in mid-field, but that daggoned low score from night one for a "two" slot will definitely hurt us in overall team rank. I'm not very excited to see the team rankings when they're posted later this morning.
We came, we saw, we went out swinging. Hopefully you all still love us.
Peace and great tidings for new things to come.... rs
posted by Rose | 11:01 PM
2 Comments:
We love you!
Thank you for these compelling detailled accounts of the slams.
Keep it together, Team Columbus. You are three talented poets who make us proud of your efforts, no matter what. Thanks for putting Columbus on the nat poetry map. Ride the adrenaline and have as rich an experience as you possibly can. -- Kathleen
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