poetry and slams and me

I like this guy:


Very intense, but good.

If you didn't know, I have been doing poetry slams lately, they happen once a month in Boise. Well there are some other smaller ones that I haven't been to, but there is one big one a month. So anyway, I have been doing that for a little while now, about 5 or 6 months I guess. A poetry slam is a competition where poets recite original poems in front of an audience and 5 pre-selected audience members serve as judges. Each poem is judged from 0.1 to 10, the high and low scores are dropped, and the three middle scores added together are your score. If you are in the top half score-wise after every poet has gone, then you advance into the second round. The first and second round scores are then added together to determine the winner. Every time you place (1st, 2nd, 3rd) you accumulate points. (3pts, 2pts, and 1pt respectively) Then come August, if you are in the top 8 points-wise out of all the poets who compete in Boise, then you qualify for Finals. Finals is a poetry slam with all the highest point getting poets, where the winner qualifies to represent Boise in the Individual World Poetry Slam: a prestigious poetry slam that features 72 of the top poets from around the world. If you win that, I'm not sure what you get, possibly eternal glory. Anyway, August is upon us and I'm currently 4th in the points rankings in Boise, so on August 17th I will be competing to represent Boise at IWPS. It would definitely be a long-shot for me to win, as there are some pretty talented people I'm competing against. However, you never know. Anyway if you're in the area August 17th, over 21, and interested in seeing some of Boise's top slam poets, come on down to the Neurolux and have a good time with me.

**update: Well I actually won the Boise Finals! So I'll be competing in Berkley at IWPS October 8-10. So wish me luck!