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!!!
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.
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.
Come out to the Austin Slam tonight for a slam plus a great non-poetry feature, with tap dancer, Matt Shields!
You may have seen Matt perform along with Ebony Stewart and Buddy Wakefield at our Anis/Buddy Write Bloody Poetry feature last month. We did! And we were so impressed, we wanted to give him his own set to dazzle and entertain you!
Here's Matt's bio (from the Tapestry Dance Company site):
Tapestry Dance Company’s Dance Captain and Tapestry On The Fringe Director, Canadian tap dancer Matthew Shields is in his seventh season with Tapestry Dance Company.
He has taught and performed at the TDC’s Soul to Sole Tap Festival, Tap Ahead in Dusseldorf, Germany, the Vancouver International Tap Dance Festival, The Chicago Human Rhythm Project, Space City Tap Fest and the Hoofin’ Ground Tap Festival. He has traveled to Switzerland to teach at the Liba Borak Dance School, and was a guest performer at the International Dance Organization's Swiss Tap Championships. Matt has also performed in Edmonton at the International Jazz Festival, Feats Festival, as well as the Fringe Festival. With Tri Tone Productions and Tapestry, he has also appeared several times at the Festival Le International Dance Encore in Quebec. Performing on occasion with Breaking Barres, and CanTap with Heather Cornell, he is also honored to have accompanied the stage with Dr. Arthur Duncan, formerly of the Laurence Welk Show. In addition he was seen in the opening number of the 2008 Jerry Lewis MDA Telethon and his choreography was voted winner of first ‘Virtual Rhythms’ online contest held by The Chicago Human Rhythm Project performed at the Museum of Contemporary Art, in Chicago. As well as his principal position with Tapestry, Matt performs with the Austin based alt-rock band Tornahdo, volunteers his time to perform at numerous non-profit events including support for the Dell Children’s Hospital and Project Transitions and teaches the boys tap program at the TDC Academy. Mr. Shields is a regular on stage, and is very pleased to be here with you today.
Plus a full open, uncensored slam, hosted by Andy Buck & backed by DJ Digg!
Lance is trying to see how much fun he can squeeze into one life. And he is probably doing a good job of it. His life certainly sounds more interesting than mine most of the time.
Here he is causing some fellow poet to swoon.
He has a website, but don't look at it if you have a hangover.
Brian Francis is some sort of royalty over at Austin Neo Soul (every Thursday night at 9:00 at 11th St. Station), our sister slam. But not, like, the unattractive with braces sister, more like the attractive sister who writes really well and reads and shit. Yeah. He can usually be found over there, but lately he has been coming and winning New Shit Slams. Royalty.
Eric Breland is a veteran of the Austin Poetry Slam scene, where he has been competing for several years now. Prior to that, at some point as of yet undefined, perhaps 2005, let's say it was 2005. In 2005, Eric was a member of the Dallas Poetry Slam team. In 2011 he was a member of the Austin B-Sides, which competed in the Southern Fried Poetry Slam in Atlanta, GA.
As loveable as he is sassy, Jomar is a loveable and sassy poet. He competed on the Austin Neo Soul team that placed 4th in the nation in 2010, and the following year competed for the Austin Poetry Slam team.
Living for 301 years teaches on a lot about poetry, and Jomar's poems ooze experience and wordskill. When he is not studying diligently at the University of Texas he works part-time as an Auror for the Ministry of Magic.
An alphabet architect, consonant constructionist, and word welder, Lacey Roop is a nationally recognized poet who has performed in front of thousands all across the country.
It is through her unique voice and lens on life that she is able to encapsulate and explore a wide range of topics such as: gender, imagination, reality, science, intimacy, and understanding.
You can read the topics Lacey explores by purchasing her poetry compilations, seeing her on tour, or booking her to perform at your next event.
In 2008, after 20 years of living in Mississippi, Roop loaded up her car and began to drive west not knowing that the road of happenstance would lead her to the beautifully blue beating heart of Austin, TX. It was there she tried tofu and poetry.
Since then Roop has been on the national poetry circuit placing 6th in the 2011 Women of the World Poetry Slam (WOWPS), was the Austin, TX Individual World Poetry Slam (IWPS) representative, has been a two-time member of the renowned Austin Poetry Slam, and has self-published three books of poetry.
When not writing or performing you may find Roop high-fiving strangers, drinking copious amounts of coffee, bicycling all over Austin, or rendezvousing through a library.
One of these days she would really like to make a slingshot out of all the fallen stars and catapult herself to your city. There, she would read you poems and offer you a hug. She thinks it’s a marvelous idea and hopes you do as well.
For our first slam of the year, we're having another cross-community feature, this time with Jugglers from the Texas Juggling Society!
