WordFest 2019 — Invitational Slam, April 19

The next-to-last event (& the last I was at) was the Invitational Slam held at Troy Kitchen, the site of the weekly Poetic Vibe open mic, on Congress St. in Troy, NY. The host was Mojavi who had been an integral part of the Albany poetry scene from the early days at Soul Kitchen (hmm, seems like a theme here…) at Clayton’s Caribbean Restaurant, then on to be a member Nitty Gritty Slam Team.

Like all good Slams it started with the “sacrificial poet,” someone not in the contest to perform for the judges to practice, or as they like to say, “calibrate” their scores. Tonight’s sacrifice was the incredible D. Colin who, as always, set a high bar.

The field of contenders started off with 7 performers from 2 Slam teams, the UAlbany team & the CapCity Slam (formerly Nitty Gritty Slam). Alex from the UAlbany team was first, followed by Poetik from CapCity, then Andrew from UAlbany, Sidney from CapCity, Kat, then Eve, both from UAlbany, & Liv from CapCity. Body image/pride-in-self was the dominant theme, along with, of course, love & longing.

Thom Francis from AlbanyPoets served as time-keeper & compiler of the scores. When the numbers were crunched the 4 remaining performers, & their pieces they next performed, were Liv (a litany of Slam poets), Eve (a take on the pledged of allegiance), Andrew (hip-hop rhyme on violence on the street), & Poetik (with some rare & welcome humor on trying to be a different kind of poet).

Slam Master Mojavi with Eve & Poetik

Usually the second round settles out to the 2 top contenders, who then duke it out for the championship. However tonight, there was a 3-way tie at the top, Andrew, Poetik, & Eve. Andrew did a stream-of-consciousness piece, then Poetik talked of her love living “on the spectrum...,” but it was Eve from the UAlbany team who took home the win with a piece that began “I love being a black woman…” taking us back to the dominant theme of the 1st round. 

& when the final votes were counted, the winner of this year’s WordFest Invitational Slam was Eve of the UAlbany tema with an impressive 29.6 (out of a possible 30) from the judges. 

You can catch the CapCity Slam at the Albany Barn, 56 2nd St., Albany, NY on the first Wednesdays of the month, with an open mic starting at 7:00PM.

[Although WordFest 2019 continued on Saturday, April 20 with a book fair at the Troy Farmers Market, I had some peace-work to do & wasn’t able to be there, but my books were. One copy was sold. So this post is the last of my coverage of WordFest 2019. But there are ots more Blogs to come on other poetry events in the area.]