the slammasters meeting sets off the day. i was under no obligation to attend but my curiosity got the better of me. a well run meeting with only a select few going into “slam mode” the whole slam mode thing is the true pain in the ass
‘i am here

today

to speak

of a grave

grave

grave

injustice. perpertrated not only to my person

but to the ENTIRE slam… fam/ily’

ten! ten! ten!

after the sm meeting i was off to the womens showcase more to get a good seat and an early jump at the latino showcase but i was happy to hear some dope pieces from the ladies of the community.

latino showcase aka acentos takeover! myself, raina, nina, maria, jess, eliel, ed, rich and fish hosting. ah yeah. a real highlight of the trip. i tried to write some new hotness before hand but it wasnt meant to be and i went with ‘Sorta Rican’
“is ecuador in the house?”
(cricket, cricket, cricket) LOL

adventures in navigation followed as i chilled with the vegatarian crew in a failed attempt to find a vegan type spot. no such luck but we still had good times as my hateration level went through the roof!

semi-finals night. the winner of this baby goes to finals, the rest are done. louderarts has to go up against team albuquerque (again!) as well as oakland, hawaii and del rey beach. fish was able to sneak some of us in and we were able to have a strong united louder-presence. i was afraid that we would be TOO large an entourage but we were in ‘burque and the home field advantage didnt hurt. bottom line- louder came in second to albuquerque. the slam gods giveth and taketh away.

the indy semi finals was right down the street from the hotel but there was a line and a half. i didnt feel like being on the cheese line so back to the hotel room for pizza and tequilla. yes, i did have a sip. this time around the bulk of the talk revolved around copyright & genetic engineering. we watched some Def Poetry Jam and fell asleep. ah, irony can be so ironic.

love ya like the mountains love ‘burque

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its 3am friday morning and familia acentas just left our room. today started with an early morning poetry reading/q&a at a local high school. gettin there was like 40 days in the desert, a true test of my faith. the drivers had zero navigation skills and i came precariously close to taking the wheel myself. we arrived late but we arrived. the we included laura ej moran (one of my favorite poets) and cali’s own anthony miller and kat sanford. long story short: we kicked ass.

back to the hotel and a costume change then off to the rules & protest committee meeting. (yes, guy, im on the protest committee. guy, stop shaking your head. thanks.) the meeting went mad long and as a resut, i missed out on a trip to santa fe. i cant go into details just yet but im glad i stuck around.

bummed through the city, back to the hotel for an ice cold bath to help out my joints. second costume change for my first ever nats bout hosting duties. the venue was small and hot as hell plus i messed up one poets intro and a couple of other nervous errors but the bout finished on time with a ton of compliments afterwards. yay!

off to the louderarts bout which was off the hook as familia acentos scores front row seats. louder won by a nice margin which has them going into semis as the #2 ranked team.

back to the protest committee and then fun with the crew as we crack on each other, drink (i had coke cola) and talk about childhood beatings.

great day and tomorrow may just be a lil better with the latino showcase. werd.

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louder won in a tightly contested bout that included the french team slamming with subtitles in the background. the venue was sod out, ima guess that the spot holds at least 300. nice!

i had to leave early to bout manage (make sure all procedures are followed) which took a back seat to the fact that my pounding headache may have sumthin to do with the fact that it was 14 hours since i ate anything. after takin care of dat, i got to witness a good bout that had alot of good poetry. who knew?

no after party for ob as i am on the protest/rules committee and i had to take care of sheet. lets say it wasnt that bad but it wasnt that good.

off to sleep as i get to spread the poetry love to some high school kids tomorrow mornin. early tomorrow mornin.

g’night y’all

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ed and kyra are here and now the tribe is fully gathered. i was up at 730 which is really 1030 edt so i had mad energy much to the chagrin of my roomie– el profe. some breakfast, some laughs and then ob gets himself a hat! mah very first one. white straw with a navy blue thin red striped band and a small feather. (this is the part where ms ver says “hey poet! can a sistah get a jpeg in this piece?” sorry, no personal cam but ima try to get a pic up soon)

danny solis & all of burque is killin it out here. following up yesterdays succesful welcome reception with todays equally fun opening ceremony. an azteca dance troupe blessed the proceedings and then the teams got to give a one minute speech. some just did straight intros, some did comedy skits, come just spoke from the heart. some were damn god and some really tried hard. united texas (all six teams) sang ‘deep in the heart’ burque brought their entire slam community on stage with them and united nyc also brought their whole entourage as well.

a visit to old town was aight. too commercial but there was an amazing church that had me all awe struck. we searched for Frybread Mama but it seems its closed down. (boo, hiss!)

ed drove us out to the foot of one of the mountains and we hiked for a bit to a REAL view of the southwest. ed took some pics so ima try to get those uploaded on the quick.

louderARTS is about to slam which officially kicks the competition off.

(cue the brad pitt voice) Is there no one else?! IS THERE NO ONE!?!?

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the welcoming reception was off da hook. beer, sangria & liquor (not that i had any) plus a great southwest buffet (chips, salsa, guacamole, tamales, relleno and chicken wraps, all for free!

good music as well as i see quite the number of familiar faces. just based on this, we are all gonna have an awesome nats.

afterwards, we found a spot to chow down at. “shop at garcia’s. help end gringo food” werd! me thinks i had some of that fried bread beXn was telling me about along with some huevos a la mexicana.

the room parties are going on right now but i aint about that. walked the acentas to their hotel and then soaked in some of late night burque.

so far, so good. even though ed and kyra have yet to show up.

more tomorrow

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