August Slam Roundup
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[Current scores are here. - Mike]
By 7:30, it was standing room only. By 7:35, signup was complete and 20 poets were vying for the 12 slots in the slam. Yes, 20. There were some hungry poets out there and 8 wordslingers had to face momentary disappointment when their names weren’t drawn. And I write “momentary” because they soon heard some potent poetry bursting from the mouths of spoken worders young and old, rookie and veteran.
What did August’s audience enjoy? Valentino and Molle busting out a tightly written duo piece; Stina Sativa givin us a taste of what she’s all about, which includes a healthy dose of blunts and B.C. bud; Gypsy Eyes reminding us about the joys of “poetry tag”; Macer taking us on another ride up to Dawson City in a story about a woman named Lou; and Elyse mesmerizing our attention with a tender poem about the joys of finding beauty in your own skin.
After the first round, the TPS fans were treated to a great set by Detroit feature Versiz, who veered from serious to funny with ease, and also dropped some poems written by students in workshops. As he told me later, the anthology of kids’ work was one of the hottest sellers at the merch table. We look forward to seeing Versiz hit the mic in Toronto again.
The second round gave us another dose of Elyse (this time transporting us to New Orleans). Truth Is also brought her powerful delivery and content to the stage, and Val and Gypsy both went sombre too with pieces about love and death, respectively. Props to Yogi for hitting the right notes in his second round poem.
In the third round, it was a tight battle between Gypsy, Truth and Val. When all was said and done, Valentino took the crowd with one of his best renditions of Variations in the Sea, the poem about his father and brother (if you haven’t heard it yet, you have to stop Val on the street and ask him to get all karaoke on you). Val took home $80, the Random House gift prize, a berth into the semi-finals and a free photographic portrait courtesy of Frank Gross.
It was a nicely packed house at the Drake, and the summer doldroms didn’t seem to stop the frenzied crowd from gettin into the poetic action. Gotta love the Toronto crowds, and the beauty of word-of-mouth promotion. Keep on spreading the good word about TPS and we’ll see you on Sept. 20 for the next big slam, featuring Ardath Whynacht from Halifax.