Why pay full price ($5) at the door when you can purchase tickets in advance for $3?

For more information, contact Slammaster John "Survivor" Blake or MySpace us an an e-mail (or directly to slamrichmond@gmail.com).

See you Saturday!

2.       Denver Slam ..Nuba

3.       San Diego

4.       NY Louder Arts

5.       Austin

6.       Denver Mercury Slam

7.       Atlanta

8.       Slam Charlotte

9.       St Paul

10.   Los Angeles
11.   San Francisco

12.   NY Nuyorican

13.   Berkley

14.   Lincoln Nebraska

15.   Austin

16.   Baltimore

17.   Chicago Mental Graffiti

18.   SlamRichmond

19.   Boston Cantab

20.   Silver City

After two nights of competition, the 2008 National Poetry Slam is beginning to take shape. Some teams scored high, others struggled and some had their hopes dashed.

And Team Richmond is ranked 21st out of 84 with tonight's bout against both Houston venues remaining.

The bout is at 11pm EDT/10pm CDT. Expect an update late tonight. If Team Richmond beats the Houston teams tonight, they are all but assured their first semifinal berth... but we won't count our slam win until it happens.

Coach Survivor is no doubt putting the team through final preparations for tonight's bout. Richmond had made some noise in 2006 and 2007, but now the River City has established itself as a legitimate contender on the national scene. SlamRichmond executive producer Jason Moore assured his curators and poets that this is what would happen if we remained patient, and now our efforts are paying dividends. It's a good feeling, although this guest blogger wishes his big butt was in Madison with the team, cheering himself hoarse.

- Tom Sanchez Prunier

Update on Team Richmond at the National Poetry Slam...

In their opening bout last night, Team Richmond defeated two of three opponents and is still in the hunt for the River City's first National Poetry Slam championship.

Team Richmond is ranked 16 in the country, and got there on with four outstanding performances. Survivor led off with "Blue" to let the room know how serious the River City was this year. Then, 2007 Grand Slam Champ Narrator dropped "Insomnia" to increase Richmond's lead to more than three points (in slam bouts, that's large). In the third round, a seasoned San Francisco team caught up against NaZDaK, a veteran from Richmond's 2006 team.

And then came Richmond's first rookie, as the anchor. Megan, who narrowly missed the 2007 team and made her case in 2008, torched the stage with "Judge That," earning huge ovations, locking down a solid, high-scoring finish and earning an invitation to come feature in San Francisco.

Even though San Francisco outpaced the field, Richmond stayed in the hunt with a strong finish last night. Their second-place matches Richmond's best in national competition. The team was psyched to see "Richmond" in the first column of scoresheet, which extends to 84 teams...

... and all of it done with SlamRichmond 2008 Grand Slam Champion Sabrina Gilbert ON THE BENCH.  

Team Richmond takes on not one, but both teams from Houston in its second preliminary bout tomorrow night (8/7). If Richmond scores well enough, it will move into uncharted terrority and a chance at making Finals stage.

Stay tuned for updates.

~TSP

2008 NATIONAL POETRY SLAM - Madison, WI

Preliminary Bout - Tuesday, August 5, 2008

San Francisco 114.1 points

Team Richmond 111.7

Dallas 110.3

Buffalo 102.6

Correction from the previous blog entry: Sabrina and NaZDaK arrived yesterday (8/3). The team is united two days before Nationals and getting ready.

Here's an excerpt from Sabrina's weekly newsletter:

It's so hard to say goodbye....unless you know you're coming back soon!!! We had our going away party at Slam Richmond and it was such a pleasure to know that the City is behind us as we go to represent Richmond at nationals!!! We will be sure to make you proud while we're here and not do anything that will get us into the papers...at least not papers like Enquirer LOL!!!! ..TR> ..TABLE>

..Madison Mania I would like to start off by giving a VERY HUGE thank you to everyone who helped my team get to nationals!!!! We were cutting it close time wise but none the less we met our financial goals and it wouldn't have happened without your support!!!!   The trip for some of us was short and sweet as we flew into the city but my other teammeates chose to drive 16 hours and they left Saturday night at 1am and arrived around about the same time we did. So we're all here in one piece!!! The city is beautiful the weather is favorable and I can't complain at all!!! I'm looking forward to seeing those of you who are making this trip while I"m here and for those of you who couldn't join us I know you'll be here in spirit!!!   I've listed the days we have bouts (competition) so if you would be so kind as to send your prayers and positive thoughts on those days in particular that would be greatly appreciated!!!   Thanks again for everything!!!  We'll be sure to keep you informed of our progress!

..TR> ..TABLE>

Sabrina

 

~TSP

 

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So that's the scoop this week and I'll be sure to touch base with you around Friday to say how we did and what's going on. Till then be blessed!!!   Sincerely,

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March 22nd was an interesting Saturday in Richmond, VA. We had poets travel to SlamRichmond from as far as Westchester County, New York! We had an entire crowd of NEW faces. We had Marty McConnell conducting our workshop. We could not have asked for anything more!
     Students, known as the Urban Poets, from Weschester Community College, were awarded funding to fly four students down to Richmond and back home; just so they could sit in with the fabulous Marty McConnell for a workshop from the Gods and to bear witness to her magical feature.
     Marty showed us the gentle surgery of a poem, line by line. We learned why poets carefully choose each and every word in every line...brilliant! Then she had us write some work of our own; after leading us through a short meditative exercise. The workshop was pretty full (about 12 people). We actually ran out of table space!
     Then we had our open mic hosted by John "Survivor" Blake and chock-full of new work, even by our host himself (Nat Turner to Barack Obama...Way to go, Survivor!). We couldn’t finish the sign-up list in time for our feature, but many were more than willing to wait until after Marty stimulated us all (something rarely seen at any event). That she did! Ms. McConnell gave, as she even admitted herself, one of her best performances ever. With poems about the Tarot, letters from holy martyrs to modern-day stars, and finishing with "Instructions For A Body", Marty had our audience mesmerized! Westchester Community College was given back their illustrious students just that much more wise!
    
In other news, this coming Saturday is our last slam qualifier of the season. If you have not obtained any points towards semifinals, this is your last chance! Our semifinals will be held on April 12th, and Jon Sands will be the feature that evening. Our next workshop will be conducted by John "S" Blake, and, for  our 2nd anniversary celebration, Patricia Smith is our feature for the evening (there is just TOO much to write about Patricia. Do your own work; GOOGLE!). See you all this weekend.

Peace fam

    Another magnificent Saturday of poetry came and went; leaving behind a canvas, painted with new ideas; inspiration overflowing! Roger Bonair-Agard took an empty table, dressed with journals longing for lessons, and made us better admirers of other works as much as better writers. We studied the work of Patrick Rosal and Ross Gay. We learned the magic of line breaks and stanza structure and how to read different styles that would normally confuse the novice reader. He actually taught us how to understand poems that would otherwise require the writer to be there reading it for us! Amazing...
     We also read some of our work to him and were open to critiques. We leaned about editing metaphors and trusting our readers. We learned about something he called "Anchoring" which is to write a line that may seem unwarranted, but with some assistance of accompanying lines, makes perfect sense. We also discussed and wrote THROUGH "writers’ block". We all actually wrote poems that we didn’t think we could wrap our brains around! Roger Bonair-Agard is our HERO!
     Then it was time to start the show, hosted by John "Survivor" Blake. We began with our open minds/open mic. We had some amazing courage in the room; some poets came out of the shadows and read for the first time, aside from our regulars like Eva, Megan, and Transition. Then it was time for Roger Bonair-Agard to set fire to the wires! Let us just say that we owe some sort of a gift basket to Trinidad and the planet-Brooklyn for shaping such a phenomenal artist! Poems about Cricket were astonishingly more interesting than anyone assumed. The poems had so many other meanings; what it meant to be a man, to conquer fears, and even to embrace memories both joyous and painful.
     Then came the slam.
     Megan Rickman was the calibration poet, and Tom, Lance-Kelly (ask him to explain his name sometime), Blu Firefly, and Nazdak went at it for qualifying points. To make a long story short; Lance got himself 1pt for 3rd place, Nazdak- 2pts for 2nd, and BluFirefly took the winning 3pts for First place! There are only 3 qualifying slams left before our semis and grand slam!
     Next week, Saturday, March 22nd, we have Marty McConnell conducting our workshop and featuring for our open mic! She has obtained her MFA from Sarah Lawrence (NYC) and has appeared on Def Poetry twice. She is one of the curators for LouderArts in NYC; a slam team that has consistently made final stage over and over. She is a true advocate of the arts and deserves our attention. Please join us to celebrate her work on the 22nd. See you there. Or, you could just stay stagnate, writing the same stuff, no worse and no better than usual...

Peace fam

     This is just the beginning of March Madness! What a night of poetry! First, let us say that SlamRichmond is growing, growing just like we knew it would. New poets, poetry fans, and writers; Seats are filling more and more every week. New faces reciting poetry, and new pens at the workshops.
     This Saturday started with our workshop. With conductor, John "Survivor" Blake, we covered alliteration, consonance, and assonance in reference to sound and rhythm of poems. Then we covered Metaphors with a writing exercise matching non-living objects to animals and animal behavior to set a mood in poetry. Then came the open mic.
     When the sign-up list closed it was full! The new faces were refreshing. Almost everyone from the workshop recited new work. Survivor hosted as other new faces filled the list as well; people from as far as Ohio who just happened to be in Richmond (which tells us that word about our venue's getting out).  Then it was time for our feature.
     Taalam Acey brought the house down! He didn't miss a beat; not a word, a phrase, a step. We were simply blessed to have him grace our stage! We took a break to enable Taalam some time to get acquainted his fans in need of his product. It was a long line!
     After the break, no one wanted to recite, so Taalam fulfilled requests for older poems. He took complete ownership of our his; hence, making it his house. When all was said and done SlamRichmond was a home for many hearts left homeless by a lack of literary awareness in Richmond, Va. We'd like to thank everyone that has contributed to the envelope that has not only been pushed, but shoved across the city!

Peace fam,
your slam family.

This last Saturday was AMAZING! Kelly Zen Yie Tsai conducted our workshop on both; performance and writing. From breathing exercises to voice control, improve acting to body positions; we learned how consider body position and crowd response when reciting our work. Our writing exercise was just as fascinating! We wrote letters to someone (or something) we've needed to talk to, then wrote the response from that someone/-thing...Just awesome!

Then we had our event; open mic, Kelly's feature, then our slam! Tom, the man that started it all at SlamRichmond, hosted. Shawna, one of our new family members, KILLED it with a new poem, and on her FIRST time on a mic! We also had  Eva, Vitamin V, and others as well. CASSANDRA blessed us with a piece as well; just home from Italy (we're pissed she left in the first place)!
     Kelly Tsai blew us all away (Nuff said)!
     Then we slammed; Daniel, John "Survivor" Blake, Megan, Jamal, Lance Kelly, and Narrator brought everything they had in order to make a spot for themselves in our semis. Narrator got himself another point with a 3rd place finish, Jamal took 2nd and 2 additional points towards semis and MEGAN did it again! This woman's on fiyah son!
     Stay tuned when this week we're bringing you a workshop conducted by John Survivor Blake and a feature by none other than Taalam Acey! See you at 5 for the workshop fam. Peace