Nationals top 10

[dlhoratio]

In no particular order:

7) Sierra DeMulder's (St. Paul) piece in the voice of Jeffery Dahmer's mother - semifinals.
3) Khary Jackson's (St. Paul) pieces in the voice of an enslaved man, and a man with Alzheimers - semifinals, and finals.
4) Ed Mabrey (Phoenix) saying "I'll get you, Gadget."
6) The Jewish Diaspora open mic, and all the new work from the JewPoets.  Holy shit.
2) Finding out that Kosher (OKC) can chant/sing like the holiest of chazzanim (it's a Jewish thing.)
Seattle's group piece in the voice of the Statue of Liberty, GP finals (and prelims).
5) Berkley's gays-in-the-military group piece, GP finals (and elsewhere).
1) Dancing for almost five hours straight at the afterparty.
10) The guy who ran the fabulous little Venezuelan food stand who gave me food in exchange for poems.
9) Feeling like this year's Nationals were spectacularly well-organized, well-attended and well-appreciated.  No protests.  Awesome volunteers.  Even the weather was somewhat cooperative (no hurricanes!)

And bonus thank-yous: Klute, Doc Luben, Whoopiecat, Lindsay Miller, Lauren Zuniga, the entire St. Paul team, Maya Hersh, Sophia Holtz...who was I kidding to think I could make a comprehensive list?

[Casandra]

Ok, even I have a top ten list... and I missed most of Nationals!

10. Hula hoop war in the courtyard.  Surprisingly, I did not win.
9. After party DJs Jive Poetic and Greg
8. Workers' struggle poems in finals, particularly from ABQ
7. Pre NPS slumber party/penne party in my kitchen with Dez and Erin
6. Post NPS slumber party
5. Cipher outside the Lounge on Wednesday night
4. My former students Emily's and Tiffany's faces: entranced by poetry at NUPIC
3. Kevin McCamery (spelling?) sneaking a tequila bottle into finals
2. Devils horns and angel's halos for volunteers- thanks Winnie!
1. My mom's surprise appearance, and her continuous insistence during finals to want to hear something funny.

[BigPoppaE]

1] being a part of one surely must have been one of the hottest bouts in all of the national poetry slam this year, and doing our best to not just compete with our fellow teams from dallas, ft. worth, and minneapolis, but to elevate the entire event with our love and energy. what a joy that whole show was, especially gathering at the beginning to give love for our temporarily fallen sister, amy weaver, and chanting, "for amy!" before the show.

2] seeing the different reactions to my absurdly voluminious prop violation, err, i mean beard. dudes in general gave mad props, especially young white dudes, but girls for the most part just kinda went ewww... although black girls tended to want to touch it and smell it and rub their faces on it. so many different reactions to the same beard, although pretty much the same reaction was garnered to the idea of having a zip-lock baggie holding snips of said beard... yeah... most people just held up their hands like they didn't wanna get any of it on them.

3] respectables, the home of the most unfunniest comedy open mic and the unsexiest erotic showcase of pretty much all time. what about that room seemed to suck the very life out of everything that happened within its walls?

4] fucking whoopeecat in the hot tub in front of everyone was kinda awesome, especially when j. bradley got out his quad-dildo called "group piece" and started yelling SHA-CLACK-CLACK at the top of his lungs.

5] looking over the huge crowd at finals and thinking, "well, lookie there... look at what we did..."

6] the mad love the local press gave us, which was really cool. i don't think we've had better media coverage since chicago 1999 and austin 1998.

7] finding myself sitting at the edge of the jacuzzi with danny solis and henry sampson and talking about "the old days" then realizing "holy shit i'm sitting with the old men of slam and talking about the old days!" then looking around at all the apple-cheeked half-nekkid kids filling the pool... then sighing... and realizing i was exactly where i needed to be.

8] just being able to wander hallways, wander city streets, wander random sidewalks, and being able to see someone i knew every moment of every day. so wonderful to be surrounded by such family.

9] my teammates rocked, and i am really glad i picked this year to come out of slamtirement. next year, though, i wanna go back to hosting again. fuck being on a team, dude, it's too damned stressful! i wanna just be a host again!

10] being challenged by some random drunk poet on a line from a poem i read, rolling my eyes at him and getting really annoyed, then forcing myself to work through it with him and ending up re-writing the line and making it way better than it had been. i totally surprised myself and didn't know i had it in me.

[The_Klute]

1. Team Phoenix - Ed Mabrey, Myrlin Hepworth and Aaron Johnson were probably the best group of poets I could have worked with. The drive on that team, the amount of work we put into our stuff - up until the last minute... Team Phoenix has set the bar for every team going forward. No disrespect to Corbet Dean, Taneka Stotts, Trish JusTrish, Technocolor Holly (2002) Johathan Standifird, Regina Blakely, Corbet Dean (2003), Brent Heffron, Corbet Dean, and Aimee Doyle (2005), Corbet Dean, Lauren Perry, Shaun Kuter (2006), or Jeremiah Blue (2008), but goddamn did we work for what we got. We left it all on the stage.

2. Dane Kuttler - for so many reasons. Her Tel Aviv poem. Reminders at 12 Tribes. Dancing at the afterparty - something I did not get to do enough of.

3. The staff at the Hawthorn Suites. Phenomenal group of people who bent over backwards for us (giving us the keys to the executive conference room to practice), giving us an extra room free of charge so no one had to surf the couch, doing our dishes, cleaning our rooms, bonding with us in the lobby. If you ever get back to West Palm Beach - Hawthorn Suites.

4. Ed Mabrey - He gets a special mention for respecting my work. Seriously... I know he hates it when we say this - but he's Ed fuckin' Mabrey, and I got a chance to work with him. All you haters on "Cereal Aisle Racist" - we adapted that for a group piece. Ed respected the writing, understood the message - and had we made it finals, it would have exploded. Plus, he arranged a stretch limosuine to pick us up in Fort Lauderdale.

5. The snorkeling trip - to those who didn't get to come because of my incompetence (Bundy and Kat), I am SOOOOO sorry. To those who did brave the seas (Stefan, Christian, Lauren, Raul of Slamarillo, Issac, Cheryl and Tara of Boise - and I know I'm forgetting someone else), I'm glad I got to see it through your eyes.

6. My local people - Bret, Judy, Maria, Danny, Cris Rapp, Chris Bentall, Joe, Andrew (even though he heckled me during my poem), Jeanne, Randy... Thank for coming out and making me feel welcome.

7. Team Vancouver - You guys were awesome. The comraderie and kinship I felt with you guys really made our bout fun, and the too brief times we spent together awesome. Can't wait to see you all next year.

8. All Arizona teams - I think this year we came together as a state - Flagstaff, Mesa, Tucson, and Phoenix - E Pluribus AWESOME.

9. The Nerd Slam - Seriously, PSI. It's time to make that a 3 hour event.

10. Team San Jose - Didn't get to hang out as much as I would have liked... but the time we did hang out was fun. See some of you soon!

Special Mention: My dad for making it out to all three events and the Nerd Slam. People - you didn't know this, but my dad flyered the hell out of all the downtown condos, including posters in the elevators and at all entry and access points. Best story: Team Vancouver totally offended my dad TWICE. To the point where bailed on the Nerd Slam with the masturbation poem. And then Robbie Q. asking "What? Doesn't your dad masturbate?"

[The_Klute]

11. During PHX's "Supervillians" group piece, there's a line:

"In fact, as a supervillian you can: Sink California? Done!"

At that moment I caught Stephen Michael Meads' eye and decided to point to him, and say the "Done!" part. There was an awesome look of shock in his eye, and then hearing the crowd chant later, when San Francisco went up: "You can't sink California, baby!"

Awesome.

12. The Orlando Bradleys, and really all of Team Orlando - Good group of people, lots of love between Phoenix and Orlando. Also, Teresa likes Jelian's dancing...

[Stefan Sencerz]

Perhap these links (to photos I took in WPB) belong here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/29760335@N03/sets/72157621952872550/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/29760335@N03/sets/72157622006359450/

Please, feel free to use!

[Harlym 125]

NUPIC 2009!

[Stefan Sencerz]

Definitely!

You rock, M. Harlym.

[legacyleonard]

Not necessarily in a particular order:

1. Slam Nuba's off the chain group piece that brought the crowd to it's feet during their semi-finals bout @ Monarchy.
2. Team Nuyorican's group piece featuring Eboni and Falu.  Now that's the sound of a true woman scorned!
3. Dallas Grind's group piece about men loving Sex In The City, glasses of wine and bubble baths. Tickled me. Absolutely delightful!
4. Chas, Didra and Leann from the San Francisco Slam City Team.
5. Dancing with Original Woman @ The Finals Afterparty.
6. The Finals After Party with T. Miller, Mic Write, Phenom, Sho and Crayola. We got live!
7. Swimming under a full moon and the stars all night with poets
8. The poets poolside debate about what quantifies a "real" lesbian.  Wildly hilarious.
9. Being there to support my Detroit team: Mic Write, Phenom, Omari King Wise, T. Miller and Jeff Nelson.
10. Tripping out with my brothers Omari King Wise and One Truth.

[militant x. amerikkkan]

Legacy Leonard: That was The Dallas Poetry Slam team and not The Dallas Poetry Grind that performed Sex In The City poem.

[jordanmichaelg]

EVERYONE WHO CAME AND SHARED THEIR HEART GETS A TOP 1 - 10. 

Because without the poets... there would be no nationals....


Kudos... to Dellon... the hotel security guy who was most cool....

Peace.

Mike G