Happy New Year! The first slam, actually the first POETRY event of 2013 in the area happened on January 1 at Valentine’s. Some of us came from the incredible annual get together at Dan Wilcox‘s house, other right from the Governor’s open house with Sandra Lee, and the rest were shaking off their hangovers from the night before.
Needless to say, it was a great night for poetry and spoken word with a couple new faces in the crowd and some old friends coming back and joining us for the event.
The open mic was again hosted by Christopher The Poet, who had graciously taken the reigns from Mojavi who is with family for the holidays. Ben Golden was the first poet up, promoting his new chapbook. Laura B, Avery, Emily Gonzalez, the returning Emily Epstein, and Tasha all shared their post-holiday work with the crowd.
We finished off the open mic with Christopher The Poet doing a couple of the pieces that made him a legend in South Carolina and that are leaving a mark here in his new home, Albany.
The slam that followed definitely warmed up the chilly, winter air with Ben Golden returning to the stage with Jackie K., Algorhythm, open mic host Christopher The Poet, Elizag, Billy, and Shannon “In The Money” Shoemaker.
When all was said and done “The Golden Boy” Ben Golden took home the win and the prize money in what was shaping up to be another close race going into the final round.
Round One:
Jackie K. – 23.7
Algorhythm – 26.4
Christopher The Poet – 26.8
Elizag – 28.1
Billy – 26.2
Shannon Shoemaker – 26.7
Ben Golden – 27.6
Round Two:
Ben Golden – 27.4 (Combined – 55.0)
Shannon Shoemaker – 26.4 (Combined 53.1)
Elizag – 28.7 (Combined 56.8)
Christopher The Poet – 26.1 (Combined 52.9)
Round Three:
Elizag – 16.1
Ben Golden – 27.9
For more information on Nitty Gritty Slam and to find out what we have coming up, be sure to head over to the NGS website – http://NittyGrittySlam.com. We have a lot of great shows and events coming up that you will not want to miss.
