Once again it has come to the time when poets put their chops through the ringer for a chance to be one of five members of the 2013 Austin Poetry Slam Team!!! You have been watching, you have been waiting, you may have even been slamming, but this night will be the one for the books! Austin's best is hitting the stage big time at the Stateside Theatre for our Final Slam Off of 2013!!! The worthy five who emerge from the competition will travel to compete in the National Poetry Slam this summer. Get ready Austin! This is definitely a show you won't want to miss as the top slammers of 2013 duke it out one last time in the hopes of earning one of these coveted spots! TICKETS ON SALE NOWWW!!!

https://tickets.austintheatre.org/public/show.asp

Hey poets and fans! It is April, and we are now in the most heated part of our slam season as we are weeks away from selecting this year's Austin Poetry Slam Team!!! This week was our Last Chance Slam! With 18 poets competing in one night, it was an absolutely awesome show!!! With a duo host team of Peter Nevlan, member of 2011 Austin B-sides, and Christopher Michael, They Speak Slam Papi, and two time APS Slam Champ, the slam was on fire!

The for mat was not like our regular slam at APS. 18 poets competed this week. The poets were split into two groups of nine depending on their random draw. Red card draw went in the first round, black card draw came in second round. The number of the card that a poet drew determined their performance order in their respective round. The top 3 poets from each round advanced to the finals, and the Top 4 poets went home splitting 101 American Dollars.

The list was an amazing turnout of regular APS slammers, members and Slam Champs of our sister slam Austin Neo Soul, new voices, and veterans.

In Round 1:

1. Mark
2. The Naughty Rooster
3. Eden
4. Jomar Valentin
5. Rachel
6. Allen Small
7. Elijah Allred
8. Lindsey
9. Glori B.

After the first round of soul bearing and hard slamming, Round 1's top 3 came down to Eden, Allen Small, and Jomar Valentin. Eden won the Austin Poetry Slam a few weeks ago on her very first time ever slamming. Allen Small is a member of the 2011 Austin Neo Soul Slam Team, and Jomar has represented both Austin Neo Soul and APS.

In Round 2:

1. Ruff Draft
2. Margaret
3. Scott Free
4. 0 cents
5. Nemore
6. Shappy
7. Ebony Stewart
8. Desiree Hooper
9. Daniel

The quality of the second round was just as hot as the first. After a grueling fight with words, the top three of this round were Desiree Hooper, Scott Free, and Ebony Stewart. Desiree is a new voice at the Austin Poetry that we are very excited about. She has been slamming diligently these past few weeks and holding her own, consistently advancing from out of the first rounds every time. Both Scot Free and Ebony Stewart are former Slam Champs of Austin Neo Soul. Ebony, is Austin only 3 time champion.

And so in the final round of the Last Chance Slam, we had these poets competing:

1. Desiree Hooper
2. Eden
3. Scott Free
4. Allen Small
5. Ebony Stewart
6. Jomar Valentin

It was APS and the Neo Souldiers going in hard this final round. We could not be prouder of our new voices to the scene, Eden, and Desiree Hooper for being able to make it so far into he competition and having to slam against former team members from both Austin teams, two of whom were former Slam Champs. Scores for the Top 4 were so close, and tension in the round was building up since final totals were not announced until the end. The Top 4 scores were separated by no more than .3 between each poet. At the end of the night, we were shown how much love we get from our sister slam, 3 spots in the Top 4 were taken up by Neo Souldiers from last years Ne0 Soul team. Top 4 of the night was Scott Free, Allen Small, Ebony Stewart, and Jomar Valentin with his first win of the season at the Last Chance Slam!

It has been an incredible slam season! Next week is 4TH QUATER FINALS!!! 10 poets will be competing for a spot at Finals in this slam, see our timeline to find out if you will be competing!

As always, thank you to our venue and our lovely and talented bartenders for keeping us all happy! Come see them every week at the 29th St Ballroom bar! Tip big, drink responsibly!

Don't miss any of our up-coming slam! These are the ones to watch!

Hey hey Slam fans! We are down to the wire as this week's slam was this season's last open sign-up slam excluding of course, next week's very special Last Chance Slam when EVERYONE who signs up will get to read and compete for a slot into APS Finals!!!

The night was fantastic as we welcomed one of our own back home. Seth Walker came in to feature for us this week with a whole lotta new shit, old shit, a butt load of merch, and a mega cool musician friend who helped him put on a very interesting feature :p

As always, big thanks to our venue, the 29th St. Ballroom, and to our lovely bartenders that work so hard to keep us feeling loose and happy!

Our host for the evening, Christopher Michael, did a wonderful job starting us right on time as usual! Round one took 13 poets into the competition and they were:

Peter Nevland

Glory B.

Patrick Hogan

Moody

Eden

Margaret

Eric B.

Allen Small

Desiree Hooper

Keith Ruckus

Jason Bayani

E. Rodriguez

Phetote

These brave poets fought hard this first round as we saw some of the toughest judges we have seen this season, with some of the lowest scores ranging from 4's and 6's, avering around 7's and 8's. Any higher scores were rare to come up. But that is the beast that Slam can be sometimes. After fighting it out with the scores and against each other, there were 6 poets left in the second round, but before that our lovely and extremely tall feature took the stage.

Seth has never been one to be predictable, and the set he did this week spoke volumes about his spontaneity. It's great to see a performer who is not afraid of pushing a few boundaries.  We love Seth Walker at APS, and hopefully, you did too!

After a grueling second round, we were left with three to compete for the night's title as winner. Patrick, Phetote, and Ruckus pulled no punches, but at the end of the night, the bane of Slam that is time caught up to our friend Patrick, who took a heavy 1 point time penalty to his score, leaving Phetote and Ruckus with a tie for first place. The winner was decided via Haiku Death Round!

"Your soul is an airplane.

Mine, the twin towers.

Me. You. 9/11"

received three flags giving Keith Ruckus the win for the night! Way to "make an impact" Keith!

Remember, next week is our Last Chance Slam! Come early as the list will close at 8pm sharp, no exceptions! Expect a lot of names on the sign up, and don't forget that X's for this week are not going to be counted. You MUST sign up if you wish to slam for Last Chance. Also, buy your ticket packets for all 4 of April's slams at http://aprilfinals.eventbrite.com/ . It will cost $22. This will get you in to all the slams in April and will save you about 10 bucks! FYI, semi-finals will cost $8 to get in, and finals will be $12 as they are our biggest shows of the year, and they will help fund sending who you choose to be the 2012 team to Charlotte this summer.

It's looking like it's gonna start heating up at the Austin Poetry Slam! Don't Miss a minute of it!

And here we go!!!! He Slam fans! Here is your update for this week's slam! Our feature was the beautiful Sierra DeMulder of the Soapboxing Slam, 2009's National Poetry Slam Champions!

Hosted by the always Shap-faced Shappy!!! Also, this Tuesday, we celebrated the birthdays of two of our amazing brothers in love and poetry, Shaan Heng-Devan of APS B-Sides, and Kevin W. Burke of the 2011 APS Slam Team! Funny, Kevin came here from Chicago, now Shaan is in Chicago from here :p

K.Birthday-Burke opened up the slam with his now-classic "Scratch" and the beast of the slam began. The night's brave souls were:

Ed Koch

Tim

Tal

Jomar Valentin

Lindsey

Ahmad

Lance Hunter

Danny Strack

Love

Lizzie

Good Ghost Bill

Arlen

Glory B.

The first round was a fight as always, with poets baring their souls and teeth. The variety of poems that are being presented at our venue lately are staggeringly brilliant! Every voice indeed has something to say, and we at the Austin Poetry slave appreciate the bravery that pushes these poets to share parts of their lives with us every week. With only one time penalty in the entire round, we moved on to our feature.

Sierra was absolutely marvelous, delivering poem after poem that made the audience laugh, almost, cry, and scream out loud because of here amazingness!!! There was no stopping this tiny giant once she got up on that stage. If you missed it, youtube this artist, you will not be disappointed

The second round began with our other birthday poet of the night, our very own Shaan Heng-Devan who we dearly miss at the Austin Poetry Slam. We're so proud that he's rocking it out in Chicago with his Catcher in the Rhyme! And as usual, 6 poets from the first round earn their spots in the second round, and from 6, it was narrowed down to 3.

This particular slam was special to say the least. It was sooooooooo great that it never wanted to end! Before starting the third round, an epic dance battle ensued between Shappy and DJ Digg. There was no clear winner.

At the end of the long night and after another time penalty, our top three were:

Lizzie and Jomar, tied for second, and the top spot went to the very dapper Good Ghost Bill!

As always, we thank our wonderful venue for for playing host to our lovely event! Big love to our very pretty bartenders, and giant hugs to everyone who comes to support us Tuesday nights!!!

Remember, only one more slam before the last Quarterfinals! Poets, come get your points, fans, you are in for the most intense 5 weeks of poetic battles ever as our favorite voices and faces claw to earn their spots to become members of the 2012 APS National Slam Team!!!

See y'all Tuesday!!!

Hey slam fans!!! Apologies for the late recap, but here it comes! This month's New Shit Slam was a beast!!! NO poets were able to get in through regular sign-up since the X list was full!!! Regardless, the poets that competed did NOT disappoint!

Our hosts Peter Nevland and Ruff Draft we're on point that night, bringing us a heated 3 rounds of hard slamming. The slam itself was filled with some of the familiar faces at the Austin Poetry slam, with some new voices sprinkled in. Tonight, there was no feature, so we were able to take 13 poets into the slam. The first round order:

Cupcake

Doc

Naughty Rooster

Jason Bayani

Allison (NC)

K. Ruckus

Danielle

Good Ghost Bill

Jomar Valentin

Christopher Michael

Megan

Margaret

Scores were insane in the first round where 2 poets tied for 27.5, and 3 others tied for 27.6, which was also the cut-off score for advancing into the second round. In the second round, 4 out of the 6 poets read more new shit, and again we sat on a 3-way tie of 29.4's, advancing a total of 5 poets in the 3rd round. CRAZINESS!!!! Order for these three poets, Margaret, Megan, and Jomar, was determined by an impromptu dance off.

Finally, the third round decided our top 3 poets: Megan, who was slamming for her FIRST TIME EVER drew the 3, second place went to Jomar Valentin, and the 1 goes to They Speak Slam Papi, Christopher Michael with a DIRTY 30!!!

Remember Slam Fans, this week there will be NO SLAM as SXSW will be happening all week. Does not mean you can't get your dose of poetry! Our sister slam, Neo Soul, will still be in full swing on Thursday at 11th St. Station, where there will be an open mic for anyone who signs up! Also, keep in mind that our ladies are doing it BIG up in Denver this week, competing in the Women of the World Poetry Slam. Lacey Roop, Ebony Stewart, Tova Charles, LaLove Robinson and Faylita Hicks, doing Austin proud! Get 'em ladies!

Thanks to the Spiderhouse Ballroom  for being such a wonderful venue as always! And Slam Fans, thank you for supporting Austin Poetry Slam, supporting the bar, and for tipping your lovely bartenders!

PS: If you signed up this week and did not get to slam, you have an X for the next slam in two weeks which will be March 20! Get in gear folks, we are nearing the end of the slam season, and will soon fill those 5 coveted spots to be part of the 2012 Austin Poetry Slam Team!!! LET'S GO!!!

Another great night at the Austin Poetry Slam where young, old, new, and curious come to flock ever Tuesday night! Our feature came out to us down from the Ft. Worth scene, and true to form of Texas poets, he did not disappoint! Big ups to Dave Stanley for gracing our stage and doing it so well!

Our sign up list has been growing like crazy every week, and last night, we have 28 POETS sign up! All those people signed up even after our super cool host, Christopher Michael, closed the list promptly at 8pm! Out of the 28, a lucky 14 drew into our slam.

Here is our list of performers as they came onto the stage in the first round:

Emily

Shappy

Ed Koch

Lizzie

Jenn Mann

Tim

Desire

Lance Hunter

Jacob Dodson

Lindsey

Spokesman

Kevin Burke

Scott Free

Glori B.

After a grueling first round, the second round was narrowed down to 6 poets, and in the 3rd round two poets tied for third place! Glori B, a new voice to our scene finished in the top 3 score along with Neo Slam vet, Scott Free. Second place went to Ed Koch who has been frequenting our venue the last few weeks, and is alse a former host at Spoken and Heard. Finally, defending his position on the leader board, Kevin Burke, APS Slam Champ of 2011 took the 1!

All night the groove was kept going by the super mega awesome, DJ Digg!

For those that signed up and didn't make it into this week's slam, Tuesday is has a spot waiting for you! Don't forget, since it is going to be the first Tuesday of the month, the next slam will be March's New Shit Slam!!! Get those pens and keyboards going, because we can't hear to hear what you've got! See y'all next Tuesday at the Spiderhouse Ballroom! Come excited, show love, tip your bartenders, and have a great night!!!!!

 As the weather begins to warm up, it was another hot night at the Austin Poetry Slam! Feature, Lauren Zuniga, founder of Oklahoma Young Writers, and a published Write Bloody author gave a hell of a performance. Thank you to Laura for last night, it was incredible!

As for the slam, we have reclaimed our third round! After two weeks of the Slam being cut short after the second round, our host for the evening, Shappy was able to  supply is with a full slam, and it was GLORIOUS!!!!! Walking into the venue as er routine on a Tuesday night, the vibe was electric, beginning with a three man dance party at the door.  As the crowd filled in the house, poets signed to compete for the slam. 9 poets had the automatic in from signing up the previous week, and 4 others were able to draw into the slam. The night's line-up:

Jay Walker

Ellie

Doc

Yohan (apologies for the spelling)

Lance Hunter

Tim Clark

The Naughty Rooster

Anis Mojgani

Danny Strack

Jomar Valentin

Amir Safi

Glori B.

Olivia

A mixture of new voices and veteran faces, the slam was as intense as always with poets missing entry into the second round by a tenth of a point. And of course, the ever frustrating time penalty reared it's head in both first and second rounds. At the end of the night, it was a tie for second place between Doc and our slammaster, Danny Strack, with the win going to Amir Safi all the way from the Mic Check scene in College Station!

There's our quick recap! As always, we love you here at the Austin Poetry Slam! Come see us next Tuesday at 8pm at our favorite venue in Austin, The Spiderhouse Ballroom where the drinks are great and hearts are welcome! Live, love, SLAM!!!

It's the New Shit Slam!

Poets must read new poems in the first round, and get bonus points for new poems in rounds 2 & 3. A poem is considered "New" if it has never received a score in a slam before. In other words, a poem you've read in 100 open mics, still counts as "New" (however lame that would be), but a poem that you have sacrificed in New Jersey and received a score for, is not "New".

New Shit Slams are always super-fun, and hosted by Peter Nevland and Ruff Draft!

Plus Fluent is coming for a feature at APS! Fluent is a big part of the Houston scene, and always rocks the mic! He should be awesome!

Here's Fluent's Bio:
Jeremyah "The Fluent One" Payne was a member of the inaugural collegiate slam team at Prairie View A&M, which won their regional in 2008, and went on to place 8th at the national competition. Since then, Fluent ranked 9th in Famecast season 4 for spoken word, won make-it-wet spiffiest twice, as well as various various slams in Houston, and finished 4th in Austin Neo-Soul’s Last poet standing.

Fluent is currently a mentor in the Metafour Houston youth poetry slam program, where he helps young adults aged 13-19 to come together to write and perform poetry.

More here: http://www.thefluentone.com/The_Fluent_One/Fluent.html

Excelsior!

Tonight Austin Poetry Slam is pleased to welcome Christian Drake to feature on our stage!

Christian Drake is a six-time National Poetry Slam team member and has performed on three National Poetry Slam Finals stages. Originally and currently from New England, he was previously a host of popular slams, poetry shows and burlesques in San Francisco, CA and Albuquerque, NM. His poetry has been performed on at least three continents and covered by hundreds of high school forensics students, and he himself has performed in over sixty cities in the U.S. and Canada. He has never appeared on HBO, but has been featured on Al Jazeera.

Christian's earned his reputation in the slam world by combining finely-crafted poetry with wild, rock-and-roll-inspired performance. A poet of outstanding variety, his repertoire includes poetry about heartbreak, music formats, war, nature, pornography, immigration, gardening, mythology, love, and the relative merits of period sex. He's best known for his often loud, erotic, and political nature poetry; currently a science teacher in the New England wilderness, his work as an aquarium naturalist, planetarium guide, urban forester and park ranger has influenced his craft. The effect is, to quote one audience member, 'like nature poetry filtered through a guitar amp.'

We will also be hosting an open slam tonight so come sign up, perform, or come listen to a variety of local poets also!

For our first slam of the year, we're having another cross-community feature, this time with Jugglers from the Texas Juggling Society!

It's our slammaster's birthday, and juggling is his second passion to slam, so he's putting together an incredible set of central Texas jugglers to amuse and stupefy you! Come be amazed!

Plus a full regular New Shit Slam! New poems only in round 1, bonus points for new poems in rounds 2 & 3.

Hosted by Ruff Draft & Co!

The slam is also FREE this week thanks to Austin Free Week, so come on out!

@ The Spiderhouse Ballroom. Sign-up for Open Slam at 7:45, draw at 8pm. Slam Starts at 8:30 Sharp.