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Nationals was AMAZING!!!!!!
Back in July, I went to Washington DC with three teammates [Ethan, Joseph, and Devin] and a wonderful coach [Jenna] to the Youth National Poetry Slam! It was one of the most amazing experiences in my life.
There are two videos of my team on the official YouthSpeaks website.
Here: <http://www.youthspeaks.org/BNVFESTIVA
But it's easier to see the copies on youtube, links above.
We did not make it to semifinals, but given that our first bout was up against New York, Chicago, Madison, and Manchester, England... that isn't surprising :P But it didn't really matter., You can't tell from the videos because they are from the second bout which was a much smaller, more intimate stage/setting, but in our first bout, we were on the most amazing stage I have ever seen in my life! OMG! We were in the Atlas Center for Performing Arts. No Amarillo stage compares! I first performed in front of a 250+ person audience of cheering supporting poets and fans. It was probably the most gratifying thing in my life so far.
In my first bout I went up first. I did my Addiction piece "Personified Denial". A teammate of mine was backstage waiting for me. When I finished, I turned around, walked off stage and ran to hug him. We were jumping up and down with excitement; he said "Where did that come from??!! I have never seen you perform like that in my life!!!" It was GREAT!!! I got good scores, too!
Devin and I closed out the Bout with our team piece of awesomeness called "Looking for tomorrow" to an amazing response. That poem was taken by one of my poems we had he contribute to it and we created choreography and split up the lines to make it ours.
That day after lunch, we waited for the other bouts to finish before we were on and we took the time to practice and try to put our nerves on ice. I was nervous like crazy because my upcoming piece runs long and is really difficult to perform, but it was our team's strongest piece, so I had to do it. (This is the poem in the video linked above.) We were up against New Orleans, Leeds England, And others that I can't remember.
The leader of the New Orleans team is none other than Sunni Patterson, a poet of whom I am a HUGE fan (video of her here) She was THERE! It was the most amazing thing, getting to perform for Sunni Patterson. After the show, every one was mulling about talking with people, congratulating people, etc. and Sunni came up to me, took my hands in hers, and quoted a line from my poem back to me: "You've got holocausts in your fingertips? Wow, girl. Thank you, thank you for that. You were amazing!" I was like: "Oh my god... don't melt!" I was in such awe of her. 'Twas amazing.
That one got a standing ovation --including the teams against whom we were competing! and Three 10s!
We were staying at the George Washington University dorms. Which rocked. We never got in before 3am, hahaha.
We were always with each other, or off on our own, walking about, exploring DC. We ate at an Indian restaurant where we all got Lamb kabobs (delicious!!!!) and we ate at an Ethipian restaurant (which Ethan was almost falling over himself to get to because he's the world's biggest fan of Rastafari). The food there was also amazing. So filling, too. If you've never had Ethiopian food, it all comes on one big platter, the meat you ordered in the middle and all around the edges of the plate are sauces, meats, veggies, etc. to dip the meat in. You eat it with your hands: there is this bread that it comes with, a thin, moist, sponge-like bread (that fills you up in, like, 5 minutes!) You tear off a piece of the bread, put it in your fingers and scoop the food with it. (I am getting hungry just thinking about it!) hahaha
Things I did that were totally new on this trip:
Indian food, eat lamb, Ethipian Food, Airplane, Train, Subway (all forms of transportation in 8 hours lol. The subway was awesome!!!) etc. etc.etc.
TWAS AWESOME!
We also got to got sight seeing, see all the monuments and museums. Ethan got his dream when he encountered a Rastafari exhibit at the Smithsonian! Hahaha
The other big this that happened was the rear-Riot / BNV protest!
OMG!
During Finals, in the Lincoln Theatre, the poets' disdain for the HBO cameramen came to a head. Basically all week (and even longer for some of the tams the camera people had been following...) there was a snowball effect: At first we liked HBO being there, then it was a little annoying, then we wanted to punch them all in the faces.... something like that.
The documentary crew was restaging things, suggesting things, not just documenting.
Ugh.
So on finals night, there were five teams on stage. Philadelphia went on stage with all 6 team members holding hands (which you are only allowed to have 4 on stage at a time) They said that they hadn't been acting like a team, too concerned with scores, not the poetry, and too worried with the imposing camera crew in their faces since March. So they said they were disqualifying themselves and going to do the poems that meant the most to them, screw the scores. :D
It was AMAZING!
In the last round, New york did the same thing, bringing the whole team, friends, family, etc. on stage so that a friend with MS (whose disability prevented her from performing) could do a poem. :)
At the end, all five teams were on stage in a huge mass, mosh-pit style and before the host/MC could
announce the winner, a stage director from HBO GOES ONSTAGE!!! and starts trying to get the poets to separate into their teams. This was the "Oh, hell no!" moment. The poets grabbed a mic, telling the guy to get off stage, basically starting this little riot! There was chanting "Fuck HBO! One mic-one team! No winners, no losers!" Etc. It was us vs. corporate America and we so totally won. It was hilarious to watch the HBO camera people rushing about trying to get instructions!!!
Eventually they gave up, Hawaii would have won, we think, but it didn't matter, in the end, we were all just one big 400 poet team, no winners, no losers!
WOW!
It really in indescribable; You HAD TO BE THERE!!!!! AH! OMG!
btw: one of the judges was none other than poet Sonia Sanchez. Look her up. She's important, and SUCH a spirit!
I got to meet Ishle Yi Park, Chinaka Hodge, Beau Sia, Ise Lyfe, and more.
WOW it was such an experience. The whole trip, I had NO concept of time, haha. I would feel like there were three days packed into one.
PS: I got to protest with poetry behind the White House in a poets' "This is where I've been left behind" rally. First ever Brave New Voices political protest.
PPS: I was a 1st annual "Individual slam" FINALIST! ;D
Back in July, I went to Washington DC with three teammates [Ethan, Joseph, and Devin] and a wonderful coach [Jenna] to the Youth National Poetry Slam! It was one of the most amazing experiences in my life.
There are two videos of my team on the official YouthSpeaks website.
Here: <http://www.youthspeaks.org/BNVFESTIVA
But it's easier to see the copies on youtube, links above.
We did not make it to semifinals, but given that our first bout was up against New York, Chicago, Madison, and Manchester, England... that isn't surprising :P But it didn't really matter., You can't tell from the videos because they are from the second bout which was a much smaller, more intimate stage/setting, but in our first bout, we were on the most amazing stage I have ever seen in my life! OMG! We were in the Atlas Center for Performing Arts. No Amarillo stage compares! I first performed in front of a 250+ person audience of cheering supporting poets and fans. It was probably the most gratifying thing in my life so far.
In my first bout I went up first. I did my Addiction piece "Personified Denial". A teammate of mine was backstage waiting for me. When I finished, I turned around, walked off stage and ran to hug him. We were jumping up and down with excitement; he said "Where did that come from??!! I have never seen you perform like that in my life!!!" It was GREAT!!! I got good scores, too!
Devin and I closed out the Bout with our team piece of awesomeness called "Looking for tomorrow" to an amazing response. That poem was taken by one of my poems we had he contribute to it and we created choreography and split up the lines to make it ours.
That day after lunch, we waited for the other bouts to finish before we were on and we took the time to practice and try to put our nerves on ice. I was nervous like crazy because my upcoming piece runs long and is really difficult to perform, but it was our team's strongest piece, so I had to do it. (This is the poem in the video linked above.) We were up against New Orleans, Leeds England, And others that I can't remember.
The leader of the New Orleans team is none other than Sunni Patterson, a poet of whom I am a HUGE fan (video of her here) She was THERE! It was the most amazing thing, getting to perform for Sunni Patterson. After the show, every one was mulling about talking with people, congratulating people, etc. and Sunni came up to me, took my hands in hers, and quoted a line from my poem back to me: "You've got holocausts in your fingertips? Wow, girl. Thank you, thank you for that. You were amazing!" I was like: "Oh my god... don't melt!" I was in such awe of her. 'Twas amazing.
That one got a standing ovation --including the teams against whom we were competing! and Three 10s!
We were staying at the George Washington University dorms. Which rocked. We never got in before 3am, hahaha.
We were always with each other, or off on our own, walking about, exploring DC. We ate at an Indian restaurant where we all got Lamb kabobs (delicious!!!!) and we ate at an Ethipian restaurant (which Ethan was almost falling over himself to get to because he's the world's biggest fan of Rastafari). The food there was also amazing. So filling, too. If you've never had Ethiopian food, it all comes on one big platter, the meat you ordered in the middle and all around the edges of the plate are sauces, meats, veggies, etc. to dip the meat in. You eat it with your hands: there is this bread that it comes with, a thin, moist, sponge-like bread (that fills you up in, like, 5 minutes!) You tear off a piece of the bread, put it in your fingers and scoop the food with it. (I am getting hungry just thinking about it!) hahaha
Things I did that were totally new on this trip:
Indian food, eat lamb, Ethipian Food, Airplane, Train, Subway (all forms of transportation in 8 hours lol. The subway was awesome!!!) etc. etc.etc.
TWAS AWESOME!
We also got to got sight seeing, see all the monuments and museums. Ethan got his dream when he encountered a Rastafari exhibit at the Smithsonian! Hahaha
The other big this that happened was the rear-Riot / BNV protest!
OMG!
During Finals, in the Lincoln Theatre, the poets' disdain for the HBO cameramen came to a head. Basically all week (and even longer for some of the tams the camera people had been following...) there was a snowball effect: At first we liked HBO being there, then it was a little annoying, then we wanted to punch them all in the faces.... something like that.
The documentary crew was restaging things, suggesting things, not just documenting.
Ugh.
So on finals night, there were five teams on stage. Philadelphia went on stage with all 6 team members holding hands (which you are only allowed to have 4 on stage at a time) They said that they hadn't been acting like a team, too concerned with scores, not the poetry, and too worried with the imposing camera crew in their faces since March. So they said they were disqualifying themselves and going to do the poems that meant the most to them, screw the scores. :D
It was AMAZING!
In the last round, New york did the same thing, bringing the whole team, friends, family, etc. on stage so that a friend with MS (whose disability prevented her from performing) could do a poem. :)
At the end, all five teams were on stage in a huge mass, mosh-pit style and before the host/MC could
announce the winner, a stage director from HBO GOES ONSTAGE!!! and starts trying to get the poets to separate into their teams. This was the "Oh, hell no!" moment. The poets grabbed a mic, telling the guy to get off stage, basically starting this little riot! There was chanting "Fuck HBO! One mic-one team! No winners, no losers!" Etc. It was us vs. corporate America and we so totally won. It was hilarious to watch the HBO camera people rushing about trying to get instructions!!!
Eventually they gave up, Hawaii would have won, we think, but it didn't matter, in the end, we were all just one big 400 poet team, no winners, no losers!
WOW!
It really in indescribable; You HAD TO BE THERE!!!!! AH! OMG!
btw: one of the judges was none other than poet Sonia Sanchez. Look her up. She's important, and SUCH a spirit!
I got to meet Ishle Yi Park, Chinaka Hodge, Beau Sia, Ise Lyfe, and more.
WOW it was such an experience. The whole trip, I had NO concept of time, haha. I would feel like there were three days packed into one.
PS: I got to protest with poetry behind the White House in a poets' "This is where I've been left behind" rally. First ever Brave New Voices political protest.
PPS: I was a 1st annual "Individual slam" FINALIST! ;D
