What a great way to kick off the summer season with NGS #46 Tuesday night at Valentine’s. We had a full room of poets, performers, and an audience ready to soak it all up. Taking over the hosting duties for the first part of the show once again was Team Nitty Gritty captain and Albany Poets board member Kevin Peterson, who kicked things off with Steve Connell‘s poem “Compromise”.
The rest of the open mic portion of the show featured poetry from Brian Dorn, Jacky K. (celebrating Allen Ginsburg’s birthday), and Thom Francis (reading a poem about familiar people and poets and a bar), and a brand new voice who read out for the very first time, Amy Jones.
The slam itself featured a mix of returning poets, seasoned Nitty Gritty veterans, and some poets who are getting their feet wet in the slam pool. Kevin, Michael, RoseMarie, ILLiptical, and Jess ListenToMyWords all stepped up to the mic and giving everything they had for the audience. In the end, though, it was a couple familiar faces who came out on top as Kevin Peterson beat out ILLiptical by .2 point margin with Michael coming in third.
Now Team Nitty Gritty is off to perform at the 518 Fest on Friday night at The Linda and then traveling out to western New York for the Buffalo Niagara International Poetry Slam on Saturday. Kevin Peterson, Christopher The Poet, Poetyc Visionz, Algorhythm, and Mojavi will be competing against some of the finest poets from New York, Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Ontario including: Mark Bowers (Syracuse, NY), Debra Ancillotti (Syracuse, NY), Shawn Lyndaker (Syracuse, NY), Catrina Gill (Philadelphia, PA), Jamaal St. John (NY, NY), Lakeya Haygood (Rochester, NY), Deonte Osayande (Detroit, MI), Ian “IF” French (Toronto, ON) , Tomy Bewick (Burlington, ON), Sir Rock Bottom 137 (Buffalo, NY), Danielle Johnson (Buffalo, NY), Native Child Mays (Detroit, MI), Marquis “10 K” Burton (Buffalo, NY), Michael Gaut (Syracuse, NY), Aceyon Owens (Rochester, NY), Jacob Herring (Buffalo, NY), Martin Sonchild (Buffalo, NY), Tyesheka “Spoken” Long (Buffalo, NY), Rae Sunshine (Syracuse, NY), Benjamin Turchiarelli (Buffalo, NY), Thomas Hoad (St. Catherine’s, ON), Dane Kemp (Rochester, NY), and Shaq Payne (Rochester, NY).
All of this is just a sampling of what Team Nitty Gritty will be doing for the next couple of months leading up to heading out to Boston for the National Poetry Slam. To make the trip and cover some of the costs involved with competing against the best in the world the team needs your help. We stated a new fund raising campaign to assist the team. So, if you can help, please head over to the Support page to find out more information on how to donate and what you can get back as a “thank you”.
Here is how the scores worked out for the evening:
Round One:
Kevin Peterson – 29.0
Michael – 27.0
RoseMarie – 26.6
Illiptical – 29.2
Jess ListenToMyWords – 28.8
Round Two:
Jess ListenToMyWords – 25.3 (Combined 54.1)
Illiptical – 28.2 (Combined 57.4)
Michael – 27.8 (Combined 54.8
Kevin Peterson – 28.9 (Combined 57.9)
Round Three:
Illiptical – 28.8
Kevin Peterson – 29.0
We are back for Nitty Gritty Slam #47 on Tuesday, June 18 with the triumphant return of our open mic host and slam team coach Mojavi (we hope) as we get closer and closer to the National Poetry Slam in Boston!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4vTGsWDrH10
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