We had so much fun last year at the Word Fest Haiku Battle, we thought we would bring it back this year. To take a break from the very competitive slam season, we are going to have a good old fashion tournament of three line poetry for 68th installment of Nitty Gritty Slam as part of the 2014 Albany Word Fest.
Here is the format:
- 16 poet single elimination tournament
- Two poets compete head-to-head on stage in front of three judges
- After both poets do their haiku, judges raise their paddle for their preference
- Each match is 2 out of 3; semifinal and final are best 3 out of 5
- At the end of the night, there will be the one Nitty Gritty Haiku Battle Champion!
We are capping this event at 16 poets. If you would like to be a part of this event, please sign up ahead of time at albanypoets@gmail.com and give us your name. The first 8 poets who email us, are in with the remaining 8 poets signing up beginning at 7:00pm at The Low Beat on April 15.
But wait, there’s more!
We are very happy to welcome DDE The Slammer to the Nitty Gritty Slam stage as our featured poet.
DDE The Slammer is a spoken word and slam artist that has been performing since 2007. He has performed in various places throughout the US and Germany. A current native of Indianapolis, IN, DDE is born in Mexico and very proud of his heritage, which is a combination of Mexican and Italian. His poetry topics go from everything to political issues, police corruption, immigration, video games, nickelodeon, song lyrics, and everything in the middle.
DDE has put out 2 CDs and has opened for the likes of Gabrielle Patterson, TruthBTold, and Buddy Wakefield. He travels all over the US performing and bringing messages to any stage, even the ones people don’t want to hear. He is challenging, thought provoking, humorous, loving, and as much entertaining as he is educational.
If you can’t make it out to the show that night, be sure to follow along on Twitter! We will be live tweeting pictures and results all night at @NittyGrittySlam and #NGS68.
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 The Low Beat (335 Central 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.
