What an exciting night Tuesday night was. Election night in America and the first semi-final at Nitty Gritty Slam to determine who will be moving on to the next stage in the team selection process.
The night started out with the open mic to warm up the already smokey room, electrical fires be damned. Mojavi welcomed Rachel M. Bolton, RJ Schmollinger, Jackie Kirkpatrick, Jess Listen2MyWordz, Poetyc Visionz, Daniel Nester, Christopher The Poet, Hat Guy, and Kevin Peterson to the upstairs stage.
When it was time for the slam, it was not the usual open slam and it was not even the usual host for the evening. Rather, guest host Daniel Nester had the top eight points leaders for the first four slams of the season battle it out to move on to the Grand Slam. The first and second place winners for NGS #30 will join the winners of the next semi-finals in the spring to fill out the 2013 Nitty Gritty Slam Team, which will then compete in Boston at the National Poetry Slam next summer. Of the eight performers who were invited to slam, six (Mojavi, Avery, Kevin Peterson, Poetyc Visionz, Billy, and Alex Sherman-Cross) were able to make it. In the end, KP and PV came out on top to move on to the Grand Slam.
Here is how the rounds broke down:
Round One
Mojavi – 25.8
Avery – 26
Kevin Peterson – 26.7
Poetyc Visionz – 27.4
Billy – 25.9
Alex Sherman-Cross – 26.2
Round Two
Alex Sherman-Cross – 26.1 (Combined 52.3)
Poetyc Visionz – 27.5 (Combined 54.9)
Kevin Peterson – 27.4 (Combined 54.1)
Avery – 26.5 (Combined 52.5)
Round Three
Poetyc Visionz – 26.3
Kevin Peterson – 28.2
For all of those who were not involved in this semi-final fear not, we will be starting the open slams again on December 4 and the points will be wiped clean and we’ll be starting over from scratch, giving everyone equal opportunity to qualify.
In the meantime, we are looking ahead to the next slam, NGS #31 on Tuesday, November 20, which will be a prelim for determining who will be going to the WOWps (Women of the World Poetry Slam) that will be taking place in March in Minneapolis. We will be following the special time formats for this slam go give the slammers a taste of what to expect at WOWps. Be sure to check back for more details next week.
