We are back home at Valentine’s on Tuesday, September 17 for Nitty Gritty Slam #54, the second slam of Season Three of NGS.
We will be back with our traditional “8-4-2” slam format right after our open mic for poetry and spoken word. This year we have some new rules (the no-repeat rule is in effect) and some exciting featured poets lined up.
NGS #54 will also be an opportunity for a poet to represent Nitty Gritty Slam at a special iWPS-style slam in Jersey City on Thursday, September 19 competing against poets from Urbana, Suffern, Loser Slam, Jersey City, and more.
Kicking off the season at the last slam we welcomed some new faces to both the open mic and the competition portions of the night. We even saw an old friend slam for the first time at NGS. Bless, who has been a fixture of the local poetry and spoken word community as a performer, poet, and promoter for many years decided it was time to come out of “retirement” and take the stage. In the end, by a very slight margin, Poetyc Visionz took the first place prize over Bless with Kevin Peterson right there taking third.
Now that we have points on the board, who will come out and try to knock the leaders off their perch? Who is setting their sights on making the trip to Oakland next summer to represent Albany and NGS? We will find out on September 17 at NGS #54.
Albany Poets, Urban Guerilla Theatre, and The Frequency North Reading Series have brought slam back to Albany with the Nitty Gritty Slam.
NGS takes place at Valentine’s (17 New Scotland Ave.) on the 1st and 3rd Tuesday’s of each month.
If you’re not into slam, but want to get on stage and share your work, we have an open mic before the slam.
Sign up begins at 7:00pm, open mic starts at 7:30, and then Thom Francis starts the slam at 8:00pm.
Admission is $5.00 ($3.00 with student ID). This is an 18+ show.
For information on the rules and format of the Nitty Gritty Slam and to meet the team, go to http://nittygrittyslam.com.
