“Makin’ all that noise cause they found new toys.”

-no poetry this last monday cuz of the holiday

–acentos was another great tuesday. michele kotler came down with rachelle, marina, lisa & aracelyis to give us the biggest injection of female energy to date. her feature was tight and her poetry incredibly engaging as she switched up between short, tight work & longer, narratives and personal lyrical pieces. once agin, the shows are just so damn tight and i am very close to getting a national name to show up and that will just put our rep in the stratosphere or at least i hope. the open micers are progressing lovely and all the people i’ve asked have given me good, positive feedback and these are mofois that will say “the show sucked” if it did. i am starting to think more in terms of next year when it comes to the series and already planning on making some moves to branch it out a lil bit more.

lynne: “acentos has been around since january, right?”

me: “nah, we started up in march.”

lynne: “wow! it feels like its been a round forever.”

thats what im talkin’ about!

-the nerd slam at the BPC was in need of a few good nerds and i am going to commit to next years nerd-a-thon. shappy is always gold on the mic and was, of course, a kick ass host. omar backed him up and they had a great chemistry up there with omar having a blast and smiling throughout. still had some good laughs and made the most out of it.

– back to rikers for more poetry workshops. the ride into the island was smooth but i almost lost control of the class going over langston hughes “theme for english b” the class had some more heads and the fellas were taking the analysis of the poem WAY out of hand. it never got real crazy but that was the first time i felt that i wasn’t getting my whole message across. i admitted to fish that i had lost the interest of the fellas and asked him to finish out the last half-hour of the class and then we got interrupted. “gentleman, class is going to be cut short as we have an emergency situation on the island” well, that was that. the guards asked the fellas to go back to their dorms (the cells) and then escorted us out through the underground exit. no one was acting the fool as the c.o.s were cool and the guys were acting like business as usual. i was just glad we got off the island smooth and without incident.

about six members of the louderCREW is supposed to be coming next week to give the fellas a poetry showcase. that should be good and some of the guys will perform their work as well. it’s all thanks to fish who has really taken this program by the horns. i can see this being a permanent louderPROJECT and all it can do is help the organization stay focused on teaching and public service.

– went with fish to check out rob neil over at the nuyo for their last run-off slam. anacaona was also slamming and came within (booming tony brown voice on) two tenths of a point (voice off) from making the nuyo team. an acquaitance of fish, hostage took the slam and his work was pretty good. rob came in last with a second round stumble but he still left a mark and thats the best you can do. got to play scorekeeper and had a ton of fun since i wasnt really *with* any of the slammers so i could be as big a kackass or a big a hatah as i wanted to be. karen jayme is doing a great job hosting and i am hoping to get her up to the bX soon. ended up hanging with dianne and her friend from the new school, tatiana. did someone say ‘latina poet’? the you know i have her on track to calling acentos home. a silly game of scrabble that would have had taylor pullin out his hair and then some talk of the louderARTS. a great night that didnt end till very, very late.

that be it…. catch ya latah

“Don’t care if it’s Chinatown or on Riverside”

Poetically Incorrect had a good turnout this Saturday. Not as packed as I’ve seen it before but pretty good considering the holiday weekend and lousy weather. Debuted a new poem. The crowd reaction was positive even though my voice cracked halfway through.

The nervous jitters are a bitch! On one hand, there are many people that tell me they still get the jitters and I am talking about mofos that have been doing this for five plus years. They claim that when they don’t get the jitters there performance is off and therefore they look forward to that sinking in the stomach feeling. I can relate. When I started to hear the nervousness come out in my voice I upped the volume and added some intensity to make the PeterBrady in my voice. Looks like it worked and coming off stage towards the end of the poem seemed to have worked as well.

The other hand says that anytime you feel like you are about to fall out of a plane with no parachute is BAD. Only thrill seekers with nothing better to do should be in the position that you are in! Running is a perfectly acceptable option and isn’t it the better part of valor and isn’t *that* poetic.

The Open Mic was similar to Acentos’ (we share many of the same regulars) and Henry even gave us a free plug when he was on-stage. {Brief Aside— After Chance outros Henry he re-mentions Acentos and then drops my name as host. Mild applause follows, so I yell out “Clap muthafuckas!” Which makes everyone turn around to notice that I snuck in right as Henry was on-stage! “Clap! You didn’t think I was here did ya? Clap!”) The features were all good. RAC did here entire set while holding baby Holden in her arms! Rob Neil got to go over his set that he is going to drop in Friday at the Nuyo. If he wins, he goes to Nationals but he has to beat the Hebrew Mamita and she has some distinct homefield advantage. Babtunde is this new cat hailing from Nigeria but living in NYC for seven years. His poetry is a diamond in the rough in that he makes a few too many cultural references for my taste but his work has a great narrative feel to it and he sounds like he firmly believes in his politics. Ras is the host of an Arab-American poetry series at Cornelia and his work was brief but strong. Nathan P hosts the Wednesday Slam at the Nuyo and he runs the mic like if its his 80lb little brother. So natural and confident, his work is good even though I am not a fan of rhyming couplets.

I was talking to Rich and Maria afterwards and they invited me to hang. No prob. Youlanda joined our goup and then we trekked all the way to the other side Manhattan to check out “Raising Victor Vargas.” Caught some Thai food at Kai-Kais met Rich’s friend Nikki(sp?) and then casually strolled into the theatre about 10 minutes late. Hey, it’s an independent film about young Latino. How packed could it be? Very! I though we walked into X2 and had to catch seats in the fifth row. The film was a tight story, only lost me for a second and the performances were all very genuine as was the dialogue. As the film ends and the credits roll I start commenting when the star of the movie, Victor Rausk, pops out of the aisle and says that the Q&A will start as soon as the lights go on. Holy Shit! “I am coming her for the next Salma Hayek film!” is all I can say. No wonder the palce was so packed. The Q&A was pretty good with only a few dumb moments which is pretty rare. The dumb moments were “I am an actor, like you…” No dude, he was just on the screen in a critically acclaimed film. You are still hustling. “What pool did you use for that scene?” Huh? What does that have to do with the process? Another trek back across Houston for some slammin(!) ice cream capped off the night.

Only in New York…

“I watch the ripples change their size”

checked out another pepatian show at BAAD. this was my first time at BAAD and the space was dope… straight out of some movie… its in a loft office space warehouse building and its the first thing you hit when you get to the second floor. candles, pictures, statues… all very santero… then you had the dance studio area with a big structure pole in the middle that had all the circuit breakers hooked up to it. the saeting area was this bunch of wooden coaches piled up on tope of each other bleacher style… so f’ing ghetto and thats what makes it all good.

the show itself was very interesting in that they did everything in a shock tv type format… lights off… performer… lights off… performer… no intros and almost no set up from the actual artists… a very cool way to see how good your work is… my mind set has alwasy been this: if you need three minutes to introduce a four minute poem– you wrote it bad… so i really dug the whole flash-in/flash-out format

i wont comment on what i didnt like and just focus on the poets.. which were excellent… the 2 one-woman shows were off-da-hizzy with a great combination of drama and dance… the exerpt of ‘positive women’ (a play of latinas living with AIDS) was great… carlos rice-gonzalez read an exerpt of his fiction with a dancer interperting his words– that shit rocked! and let carlos concentrate on just reading as opposed to the performance he tried to sneak at pregones… gane gabriel is an amazing singer… wanda is both a fabulous artist and a damn funny sketch comedian.. and i may have found another feature for acentos… handed out flyers, of course, made some new friends and may have found a musician to help with synonymUS… that is a damn fine night of entertainment

guy was one of the readers and it was great seeing him outside of 13… especially with his departure from the louderARTS project. interesting times indeed in the future which has suddenly become a bigger part of my thought process… when i was first asked to join the collective and be co-slammaster, eric & fish both asked the same thing “will you be hosting 13?”… “hell no!” was my answer and not because i dont love mondays (i do) its just that my brief hosting stints at synonymUS and some other events let me know that it is hard work being up there… co-hosting ONCE at 13 and acentos have also let me know that it is physically draining at times… now, here i am, a year and a half after walking in the door and a big part of the process that makes louder happen… so weird… last monday, for a minute, i was chillin with j’ai, youlanda and jayme on the couch and was so happy to just be the audience… back to the present and i dont fully understand all the reasons guy has decided to walk away but i do know he has a family and as much as 13 is like a family there is no substitute for the real thing… one day i may write this long ass post as to the fact that guy was the person that helped me take my first steps on the mic and encouraged me to keep coming back… that, to me, is what mondays is all about… the slam will determine who are the best performers… workshops will help the better writers emerge… but the open mic is where people can go and make a statement… they can fail… they can be who they never thought they could be… but they have that chance and that shot… and thats what it should always be about… thats how i started and its something that i wont ever forget

speaking of mics… tonight is poetically incorrect at cornelias… it is a miserable saturday and a holiday weekend… hope they get a good crowd… i know i’ll be paying my eight bucks…i’ll also try a new poem and see what happens… more on that latah

had to miss some events this week… first was poetry hill, a new open mic that chance has a hand in… really feel bad about missing that one but louder business called… then i missed a meeting with the freshstart program, the group that lets me and fish teach at rikers… fish said the meeting was an exercise in repetition, so i guess i’m glad i missed that becuase ihate when mofos go in circles for meetings… also missed my first class with the fellas at rikers… wonder if they missed the class too… fish says this goes on till the middle of july and i wouldnt mind doing all the classes till then… would also be nice if someone could lend a hand and see if they like working with the fellas… when i first volunteered for this program i had some residual regret… other louder stuff was piling up and i thought that this wasnt as important but now i’m glad i did volunteer as this, along with the reading i did at the elderly home, are what i really use to prove that i can wear the title of poet

Your Six O’clock Report

I have to set some more time to just write poetry. “Ultimo Canto” is the last thing I’ve really written and I am not too happy. My other two poems need a ton more work and I’m questioning what they are really saying. There is this other lil ditty in the back of my head but it needs some more coaxing to come out.

“Latino Deli” was off the hook and a good complex read. On my female poets kick– Lucille Clifton is next after I finish Adrian Castro’s book.

The last Rikers class was sooo good. The fellas broke down this poem like a champ and they all had opinions and ideas about the authors intent. When we started with the poem they were all “I don’t get it” and that turned into “Nah! That’s not what he’s saying at all!” Especially good considering I had them reading a poem by Artress Bethany White written in the perspective of a defrocked reverend. Fish read one of the guy’s poem on the mic last Monday at 13 and it was da bomb.

Speaking of 13, Tony Brown was an excellent feature and a great audience member. He was listening like mad all up in the front row. His post-set interview was tight and informative as well. The Shappy vs Guy match up was all that and a bag of Doritos. Guy would’ve SO won if he had done what I told him to do… bring your kids with you on stage for the anything goes round. He didn’t listen to me and lost to Shap who brought his kids (Saylor/Mali) and won.

I just booked Acentos through till August with some damn good poetic talent and haven’t used the louderARTISTS since Sabrina’s feature and that is good news. Good to know that I still have Ray, Lynne, Rog and Marty in case things get tight booking wise but it doesn’t look like that is going to happen any time soon as I have a some good future plans that don’t involve them in the booking.

Def Poetry on Broadway is gone and know I feel bad that I just didn’t universally send everyone over to see it. My initial thing was “you could spend $65 to see what we do for $5” which isn’t false but the showcase they put together was tight. Mayda and Lemon were simply bananas up there. Stacyanne is one of the best features I ever saw at 13 and her DPB performance was just as hot. Beau is Beau. Steve Colman played up the lone white guy thing a bit too much but his duet with Poetri was just plain fun. Speaking of I thought Poetri was damn entertaining although I don’t really call what he does poetry. Ditto Georgia Me. Black Ice was way too preachy for me. Suheir was wonderful and her words amazing but I wish she had exploded a bit more on stage. DJ Tendaji was trying way too hard to hype a crowd with music when the focus should have stayed on the words. I’m still waiting to see what will be the counter programming for Def Poetry. If it will stay in the same footsteps or go into an entirely different direction.

Matrix:Reloaded is still on my mind and I am surprised at how so many people don’t like it. Some reviewers are going into full hate mode but I got my $9 of entertainment and a primer on some new philosophy. My friend Diane suggests checking out Foucault.

The Hulk is next on the movie hit list and it should be interesting to see how they take on big green. Peter David completely reinvented Bruce Banner in the late 90s when he changed the Hulk from a separate creature to a trapped part of Banner’s psyche. Seeing his father murder his mother as a child left a young Banner afraid of ever even admitting that he had any anger or passion for that matter. Thus, he becomes this uber geek that only cares about science in that it is cold and rational. Tapping into Greek tragedy, David figured that the more you run from your destiny the quicker and more powerfully you hit it and when Banner’s studies lead him to become the military’s most prominent nuclear physicist; he unleashes his repressed side which hates Banner for keeping it under wraps and thus has the maturity of a nine year old. Only through therapy(!) does Banner acknowledge his childhood trauma and integrates all three sides of himself—Banner, the Grey Hulk (his emotional side) and the Green Hulk (his anger) into one being which, of course, likes being 7 feet and 400 pounds of gamma brawn.

The Yanks are still on a roll. The Nets are rocking but will never win shit because at their core: they are still a bunch of Jersey losers. Thank God the Lakers are out and I am so pulling for Dallas! Don’t care about hockey if I don’t see it live.

Weather in NYC still sucks and I hope you remember that everytime you use hair spray.

And that’s all the news that’s fit to blog…

The Wrap Up

Semis and Finals are over and it’s a good time to look back over my performance this past season. “Mercy on the Battlefield” came into its own this year and I was able to ride its success into almost automatic entry into 13’s second round of Slam. Oddly, “MotB” never had great success at the Nuyorican and I can’t explain why. My second rounds at 13 saw me bounce back and forth between a pseudo-political/rant to a new poem to a bilingual love call and all had almost no success. “Ceviche” turned out to be the magic bullet and a non-sappy love poem was a welcome change from some of the angst on the Slam stage. Switching up the order proved to be the winning formula and my ticket to Semis. Reaching the third round only once leaves me with little to reflect on.

Semis saw me try to recapture the magic and use “Mercy…” to ry to find favor in the judges eyes and ride the wave into Finals. A shallow battle plan that ultimately revealed my lack of work and left me on the black&blue side of a poetic beatdown.

Final analysis: I wasn’t ready to Slam this year. Three poems does not a Slam champ make as I had deluded myself into thinking. I needed to work harder at writing and then performing. Will I Slam next year? If I can get more poems under my belt. Yeah. If I spend all this time in the administrative side of poetry and don’t give myself time to write, rehearse, perform, edit, rinse, lather, repeat then I can forget it. Next year someone else who has that time will come along and kick ass. I would love to be that person but what good will it do for me to keep using “MotB” all the time. It’s a great poem and I have a blast performing it but I don’t ever want to get sick of doing it and besides, poetry is all about love and falling in love with one poem limits your ability to fall in love with other poems. “Ultimo Canto” came at me like gangbusters and while I wish it had that feel good taste of “MotB” it is still a good poem and one of the most honest things I have ever written.

The biggest thing I have walked away with from Semis is the fact that Slam is not for everyone and that you need a great thick skin to compete. I have it but not everyone does. Those who don’t could find themselves frozen out of the Slam and that would be a shame. I will be much more careful about recommending Slam to people and make sure they have the thick skin and good poems necessary to do well in Slam. I don’t want to be the one responsible for a potentially fine writer finding themselves stuck in self-doubt because of my advice.