Finals always is crazy.

Highlights included Jack Rusks round one poem about building a house that turned into a metaphor for building a community and a life. Round one also brought us one of my favorite John Staedler poems… and the judges hated on the funny. Why judges? Why can’t poets be funny. Round two highlights included Dusty Rose’s stellar performance of a classic.  In round three the poets were: Dusty Rose (who won round one, round two, and scored a perfect 30 in round three); Lee Knight Jr. (who brought the experience and passion of classic work); Lyrical I (who ripped a poem about love dedicated to his grandmother that had passed away the very day); and Al Moyer (reading the most moving performance of his poem ‘blood stains’ that I have ever seen).

What a night to remember.

Al and Lee Knight TIED in the third round, yes, this meant that the final round would be a three poets deep.

In the final round Dusty delivered it strong, and for some reason the judges decided they weren’t feelin’ it enough to give her the 29.8 that she needed to lock the other poets out (we do cumilative 3rd and 4th rounds). Lee Knight tore up the stage, getting the dirty high score, but had a TIME PENALTY in the 4 min round. BOOO. Al didn’t flinch, didn’t stumble, and Santa Cruz has its IWPS representative. Let’s give it up to all of the poets who read and made the night happen. To all of the audience members who came out (the slam covered IWPS registration!). And to the organizers that make this thing happen.

the poets don’t take their craft lightly.
The indie slam had all of the poets in the first round throwing it down for their spot in the second. Possibly the best second round this slam has seen – John Staedler’s poem featured long sections of him… buzzing. Just buzzing. Tessa went off mic and into the audience to “read our bones.” Both Bekka and Lyrical I brought it raw and personal. New poet Drew gave a unique and confidant performance that landed him, along with John, Tessa and Lyrical in the fourth round. Head to head final round had both John and Tessa ripping their standards like a polaroid picture of an ex. In the end, Tessa took the crown with “Helen of Troy.”
We thought we were getting Kat Dietrech as our feature… but, it turned out to be an entire San Jose NPS team and their coach Jen Genius too!!! Kat and Chris’ daughter poem pulled on our heart strings, Jen and Dave’s enacted a cereal killer romance on stage, Kristina brought a dark love poem with metaphors between bruises and beauty marks.
Santa Cruz is heating up.

it may have looked as though

pirates inbred with Walt Whitman

were selling their bodies on stage last night

but no, it was merely a poetry slam.

As we get closer to Indie finals the poets are… starting to care?
And you can see it in their stage performances.
Lisa Straehley opened the competition strong, cementing a spot in the second round.
Chris Harbster pulled the high score of the first round with a schizophrenic love poem.
In the second round slam regular Lyrical I and new poet Keith both ripped it, however, they met elimination.
The third round saw Lewis and Clark poet Tessa asking Helen of Troy if anybody has ever “taken her to lunch.” Straehley read a new poem about unicorns in Afghanistan scoring a resounding 27 even . . . which tied the poet who read before her Chris Harbster.
This meant that Lisa and Chris would go into the head to head fourth round with even scores.
In the fourth round, I had to ask myself is their a mental patient on the loose? A blind seer? No wait, it’s Chris Harbster taking first place!

Outside of the competition, the audience couldn’t get enough of our feature Lucky 7.
Lucky decided to do extended versions of many of her poems while also finding moments in each of them to personalize them to the audience. She read her Henney Penney poem directly to/about Santa Cruz weed. During Sock the Pickle she called out a number of audience members, including the nights MC Kevin Holmes.

QUICKLY – CLIMB TO THE ROOFTOPS THERE IS A FOREST THERE

oh wait, no, that was just a surreal slam poem

am I the only one that mistakes Jack Rusk’s poetry for an acid tripe

tonight we had a tough list of competitors.
In the first round we had such bay area slam regulars as
Jen G, John Staedler, and David Perez – yet local poet
Chris Harbster was able to pull the high score of the round
with an over the top love poem. In the second round
Jen G. took high score with the darkness
of the devil. Third round was a close bout
between Jack Rusk (two time UCSC grand slam champion)
Jen G, Chris Harbster, and Lyrical I (a Santa Cruz street
poet native).
Jack and Jen eliminated their competitors to go into the
head to head fourth round with very opposite styles of writing and
performance.

only to…

only to…

TIE and settle the score with a sudden death Haiku.

In the end, Jack Rusk took home the glory.
Big shout outs to the first time poets that read.
Also, big pat on my own back for getting the highest score
of the night in the third round sacrifice spot with
my new poem “Up.”

The feature, Kim Johnston
brought the house down. Her line “picking
forget-me-nots out of voodoo dolls” is still
echoing through my head.

And HER dirty haiku’s scared my unborn children’s unborn children.

WAS THAT A SITAR HERO COMPETITION or an OPENING NIGHT?

Maybe both?

We had a packed sign up list and had to turn poets away .
Their was a mix of experienced Santa Cruz local poets, Bay Area commuting Slam Poets, and new faces. The first two rounds of competition were close with poets like Dana barely missing the third round, where we hand out our points for Indie finals. Devon emerged as a clear champion by winning *every single round.* Newcomer Asha knocked out both John Staedler and poet I to take the second place with her strong lyrical voice.
The feature, a Mr. Ekhabumi, started off by stage walking and showing poets and audience members alike how to use a large space to performative advantage.
My personal favorite moment of the evening was when I (abused) the power of MC and asked if anybody in the audience wanted to buy me a drink… a nice many in the back obliged. Score one for the poets.