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Once again, we had an incredible open mic and an even more incredible slam. Though the mic list was rather light given the holiday week, the slam sign-up list filled up almost immediately! Regulars shined on the mic including Ash (God is dead, did you hear?) and Will Leonard, and newbies excelled including René and Norm (back after so long!). We then had a notably killer smoking section, with staff debuting new shit reminding us why we love them.
The ✏️Line of the Wednesday✏️ goes to newcomer Raquel, who, at the very end of the mic, hit us with “listening is the real sodomy”
Then, we had our OPEN SLAM! The slam was chock full of eleven slammers, including regulars, first-timers, and our very own curator Myles Taylor. We first heard Chris share about grief, and Myles riffing on shoplifting/want/capitalism. Abe and Jack Chasse then shook things up with their energizing styles, Edie and Charlie Jay tugged at our heart strings, and Cail made an incredible debut on religious trauma. As the marathon first round continued, Keaton’s pen game continued to stun us, Ilse definitely made sure we knew they knew what hunger was, and Daniel wowed us with his worldview-changing work. Our two finalists, Isaiah and Ilse, went toe-to-toe in a free-for-all final round (and both are now qualified to try out for the BPS 2025 Slam Team!). In a mic-drop poem written on and about their birthday, showing their range, what they value in life, and taking us in a journey through both grief and love, Isaiah emerged with the title and the $50 prize! Thank you to all our slammers, our bout staff, and our judges!!
TONIGHT!! DUY ĐOÀN (pronounced zwē dwän / zwee dwahn) is the author of We Play a Game (Yale University Press), winner of the Yale Series of Younger Poets Prize and a Lambda Literary Award. Duy’s work has appeared in the Academy of American Poets Poem-a-Day, The Margins, Kenyon Review and Poetry. A Kundiman fellow, he received an MFA in poetry from Boston University. He lives in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.
We also have a workshop at 6:30 by Amy Asherah on Writing for Healing! As a reminder, workshop attendees get first access to the mic list.
– Amy ✈️
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