Wow, that was a lot of words, and there were some amazing words spoken at tonight’s Grand Slam Finals. The final teams were Hawaii, Rochester, NY, New York City, Chicago, and last year’s returning champs, Philadelphia.

There were so many poetry fans packed into the Lincoln Theatre here in Washington, DC that they had to turn folks away at the door. I barely made it inside and was let in after they made room for just a few more after about 100 people walked away from the door. The venue holds about 450 people.

This event was one of the most amazing poetry events I’ve ever been to. Scratch that…it was the most amazing poetry event I’ve ever been to. HBO has been documenting the teams up to tonight’s event, so stay tuned because in a few months time you’ll be able to see tonight’s event and a behind-the-scenes look into what these kids did tonight.

So, congrats again to Hawaii!

I live-blogged the event, so you can read the play-by-play below:

Brave New Voices 2008 - International Youth Poetry Slam Finals!

(07/19/2008)  Powered by: CoveritLive

  

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7:11	Ok, folks. thanks for joining me. Still in line outside of theater.

7:17	Ok, chaos at the theatre. Folks, like me, with reservations being turned away.

7:20	There is hope. Line slowly moving.

7:29

I’m in!

7:30	Rochester NY on stage.

7:35

Scores:

7:35	9.1, 9.1, 9.5, 10

7:36	Chicago on.

7:40	9.2, 9.5, 10, 10

7:41	NYC up w/ group piece

7:45

Amazing !

7:46	9.7, 9.9, 9.9, 10, 10

7:46	Philly 2007 champs on stage.

7:47	6 on stage

7:48	Talking about how they haven’t been a team. Disqualifying themselves.

7:50	Performing “Free”

7:53	Standing O from crowd

7:54	9.8, the rest all 10s

7:55	Hawaii up at mic

7:56	2 person piece

8:00	9.6 10 10 10 10

8:05	The theatre is at capacity. 450 attending

8:06	Round 2 begins now

8:07	Chicago on again. 2 poets this time.

8:10	Poem of tragic childhood. We’re all silent

8:10	9.7, 9.8, 9.9

8:11	NYC up w/ one poet

8:15	9.9, rest all 10s

8:16	Philly back up. FYI HBO is filming this for a documentary on Brave New Voices.

8:17	Poem: we are a vessel

8:22	Nice piece on growing up transgendered. 10, 10, 10, 10

8:23	Team Hawaii - two poet piece.

8:25	Piece on the 7 deadly sins. Parts getting laughs.

8:27	The talent at this show amazing! 9.9, 10, 10, 10, 10

8:28	Rochester on w/ a solitary poet.

8:32	Speaking on the tragedies of hip-hop.. The death of hip-hop

8:33	9.5, 9.9, 9.5, 10

8:34	All poets are between 13 and 19

8:35	http://youthspeaks.org

8:35	Team Austin on stage to share a piece between rounds

8:36	Speaking for the late Shannon Leigh

8:41	Shannon Leigh passed away a few weeks back.

8:41	Round 3 begins w/ NYC.

8:46	“Braething polluted air is better than not breathing at all” 9.8, 9.9, 10, 10

8:47	Team Philly up. 4 female poets. “we are doing this for our mothers”

8:51	An ordinary day in the life os a desparate house wife. 9.7, 9.8, 10, 10

8:52	Hawaii up at mic with 1 poet.

8:53	Story of cousin lost to war.

8:57	Judges : 9.8, 9.9, 10, 10 for Hawaii

9:04	Photo from line getting in to theter earlier: http://brightkite.com/00Zkg

9:05	Back from dance break intermission. rochester coming up

9:06	Single poet. Poem about finding herself.

9:10	Everyone was glued to her words. She was in tears. 9.8, 9.8, 10, 10

9:11	ChiTown to the stage. 2 poets speaking.

9:12	One poet reciting names of kids killed in school violence as the two speak

9:15	Standing O from the crowd. “When will they call this a genocide”. All 10s!

9:18	Philly team is up with 3 poets for the final round

9:24	“We dance to keep our feet on the floor” in ref to lynchings. All 10s from the judges. Deserved.

9:24	Team Hawaii bringing three this round.

9:29	Nice piece on the environment and oil greed. Nice change of pace. 9.5, 9.9, 10, 10

9:31	Rochester, NY going with 1 poet this round. Thanks all poets for the love this week.

9:32	Funny piece on lost love.

9:35	Brilliant. Crowd chanting: “Poetry…Poetry…” 9.8, rest 10s.

9:36	Chicago bringing one poet. Crowd showing her much love.

9:37	“Ode to a female MC”

9:41	Yeah…she tore it up. All 10s!!!

9:42	Last team of the night: NYC

9:43	One poet on crutches. Her team mates gathered behind her, arms raised.

9:44	Poem about struggles of disability.

9:45	Crowd starting to raise arms in support around the building.

9:47	“I don’t need to fall to break”

9:48	Another standing O from all of us

9:49	This was a beautiful night of potery. So much love in here.

9:49	We all know what the scores will be.

9:50	Hesitation. Thanking judges.

9:51	Judge spokesman tearing up as reminiscing about the week.

9:52	All 10s as expected.

9:53	Host: This can’t end. Crowd: Let’s go to the White House!

9:54	Mark Barmuti (sp?) about to share a poem. Is this the Barak poem?

9:59	“Here we are the artistic frontline of those left behind”

10:00

Poetry chants one again fill the room.

10:01

All the teams taking the stage.

10:03

They’re still tabulating the score.

10:04

All the poets are singing “This Little Light of Mine” crowd clapping and singing along.

10:05

Now it’s a big dance party as the poets hug and congratulate each other.

10:06

Poets are thanking the judges.

10:08

Poet Sonya Sanchez among the judges. She is speaking now.

10:11

“Sometimes we have to step away to have another day”

10:11

Here we go:

10:12

5th place: Philly

10:13

Roch 4th, Chi 3rd

10:13

NYC 2nd

10:13

Hawaii 2008 champs!!!!

10:21

All poets on stage chanting “BNV ain’t nothin’ to fu** with” Photo http://brightkite.com/00Zkg

10:23

That’ll do it. Thanks for reading. Be sure to subscribe for future updates. Enter your email in the enews box on the front page. Goodnight!!!

10:23

This weeks poetry podcast features the poetry of:

Mozart Guerrier - “For Little Boys Who Sometimes Fall Through the Cracks ”

Jon Clare - “Joys of Youth” (courtesy LibriVox.org)

Outro song:

Peter, Bjorn, and John: “Young Folks”

Let me know your thoughts on these poems and if you have any ideas for upcoming shows.  All input is greatly appreciated!

*UPDATE* I’ve started to add some video here.

Listen here or download:

Thanks for listening!

Will

I’ll be attending next week’s “Brave New Voices 2008“, the 11th Annual International Poetry Slam Festival, here in Washington, DC July 15-19th 2008. Over 450 poets from around the country and world will be converging on the nation’s capital to compete.

The festivities will include workshops, discussions on the environment,  the competitions throughout the week, and the Grand Slam at the Kennedy Center Lincoln Theater on Saturday night. The Grand Slam will be taped to be later featured on HBO’s documentary on Brave New Voices!

This is a great event for the participating youth.  I hope to get the opportunity to talk to and interview some of these students.

Let me know if you’re coming. I would love to meet up with you at one of the events. You can find more information, including the bout schedule, at the Brave New Voices 2008 web site.

1. Community is important
2. Studying and practicing forms help build a better toolbox
3. Reading poetry regularly helps build a better toolbox
4. The importance of observing your surroundings
5. When you don’t have a topic to write about, meditate 5 minutes to open up your mind

These are not the only things I learned, but a few of the key takeaways. In fact, listen in for a bonus #6.

I would love to hear lessons learned from anyone else who participated in this challenge or any other similar challenge. Just leave a comment, fill out the contact form, send and email, or call in to the voicemail line.

Special thanks to James Berkowitz for sharing his poem “New York City Streets”!

Please go to his website to check out his many other projects and poetry.

Katie interviewed a bunch of Association of Poetry Podcasting (APP) members back in September 2007 for an article in the Philadelphia Inquirer, so I decided to interview her to find out a little bit about here.

We had a great conversation about poetry and she shared three poems of her own.

Also mentioned in this show:

Katie Haegele’s website, The La-La Theory

Copy of article Katie wrote about the APP

NaPoWriMo (Go here to find links to some of the folks who participated)

APP (sign up in the forums!)

eMail Our Military (promo)

Outro song: “Sun vs Moon” by Codaphonic (courtesy the Podsafe Music Network)

Please share your thoughts in the comments below!

I first heard about it through a post by Shanna Compton, which then led me to a post by Maureen Thorson, so I joined her blogroll.

The goal is not to create the perfect poem every day, but to get people to write poetry. A few of your poems will be amazing, a few of your poems will be literary garbage, but they all will be your creation and the experience will be one to remember.

Maureen writes:

Those who accept the NaPoWriMo challenge must commit themselves to writing a poem every day for the entirety of April. Those who accept this challenge may choose to post those poems on blogs, keep them in their notebooks, or hire underemployed skywriters to decorate urban cloudscapes with their output.
I have been doing this for around five years, and many have followed in my wake! If you plan to participate, go forth and do so! NaPoWriMo is free, requires no license, and wants you to propagate it in new and foreign soils.

I would love to have some Cloudy Day Art listeners and readers join me in this. If you agree to participate I will put a link to your blog on the Cloudy Day Art NaPoWriMo page, so others can follow along. I’ll post my poems on my poetry blog if you would like to follow along.

Contact me if you’re in! Oh, if you read this after April 1st, you can still join in. I won’t tell.

Check it out here: Cloudy Day Art #42

Flashback Friday is a new regular feature that I’m adding to the site, because there are many great interviews and shows that many of you have never heard and these poets deserve to be heard again!

Let me know what you think in the comments!

It always brings a smile to my face when I hear about teachers finding unique ways to bring technology into the classroom and the learning process. This time I am smiling ear-to-ear when I heard about a teacher doing it using two of my favorite passions: Poetry and Podcasting!

The school is Glenbrook Elementary of Euclid, OH. The teacher is Mrs. Mahoney.

Apparently the kids are quite fond of the poem “Booger Love” by Brod Bagert. A few of them recite it for their individual readings. My favorite recitation is by a student named “Kobie”. HERE is his reading.

Glenbrook Elementary Poetry Podcast

Does anyone know of any other schools doing something similar? Let me know in the comments.