Date: July 22, 2014
So, 20 years ago, Trinidad Sanchez Jr., Matthew John Conley, Jim Stewart, Bob Wilson, and Kenn Rodriguez all piled in a vehicle (Eric Bodwell's I believe) and made the trek to Ann Arbor for the National Poetry Slam (NPS). Since that time, ABQ has sent a team to NPS every year, and this year, 2014, marks the 20th time we will pile in a vehicle (rented now) and head out. This year, NPS is in Oakland and the tournament is much bigger than it was back then.
Albuquerque has a long, storied history with trips to NPS. From near fights in airports to national championships, from overnight drives to luxury flights, from personal vehicles to rental vehicles, from crashing on couches to staying in host hotels, ABQ makes it work from year to year. And this year is no different. On August 3rd, the 2014 team (Damien Flores, Aaron Cuffee, Rich Boucher, Mercedez Holtry, and Eva Crespin) will pile in a car and make our way west.
NPS 2014-San Francisco
Date: Thursday, August 7, 2014
In the summer of 2007, I coached and helped organize the National Poetry Slam in Austin, Texas. It was fun, but I felt a bit pulled in several directions and my team, ABQ, didn't do as well as we could've. By November of that year, I'd pulled back from slam and pretty much resigned myself to just writing.
So it was with a slight bit of hesitation that I agreed, some 7 years later, to coach this year's team. The real life concerns that precipitated me stepping back seemed to abate and I had a summer that I could devote to slamming. For the better part of the last 3 months, I've worked with this year's team: Rich Boucher, Eva Crespin, Aaron Cuffee, Damien Flores, and Mercedez Holtry. A mixture of a lot of experience and relative newcomers, this year's team is nothing if not ambitious.
After arriving Monday afternoon, we took the BART to O Coliseum to take in an A's game. I serenaded the team with my drunken rendition of "Take Me Out to the Ball Game," and poured our tired bodies into our beds. Last night, we had our first bout in Oakland.
Oakland is a gritty city that is gentrifying. It feels like a working class city and next to the newly built downtown grocery stores you'll find cheap Chinese food by the plateful. I like Oakland.
And, judging by our results the first night, Oakland likes us too. Tomorrow, I'll check in about our off-day in San Francisco.
NPS 2014-San Francisco
Date: Thursday, August 7, 2014
Traveling with 5 other people with various levels of education and travel experience is all about compromise. Yesterday was no different. It was our off-day, so we took the BART into San Francisco. The tentative plan was to get to Fisherman's Wharf, but one person wanted to take a picture of the Catholic church in the Mission. If asked, I would've said, "Let's go to North Beach-the City Lights Bookstore and the Haight," but we had limited time and I'd seen it.
So we navigated there and the leader of the walk was also the same one who wanted to see the church. So it was up Columbus and suddenly I'm looking around. I'd been here before. I hadn't planned on visiting the bookstore so I really didn't know where it was. Yet there it was; somehow we walked right by it. And we stopped.
Then we went up and over. Somehow without really planning we walked by the Transamerica Building, the Coit Tower, City Lights Bookstore, the Mission church, and even Lombard Street. The catch was that the people who hadn't been to San Francisco didn't even know we'd passed significant landmarks. And finally the wharf and bread bowls and Sea Lions. Street artists and pictures...and walking, walking, walking.
San Francisco...the only sight I missed was the Haight.
Tonight is our 2nd bout.
NPS 2014-Semi-finals
Date: Friday, August 8, 2014
All but the formality of the tournament meeting, but we made it to semi-finals. If we win our bout tonight, we'll be on final stage.
We're happy, tired, and I'm getting up too early, too often and staying up late, late, late. And we finally managed to eat something other than Chinese.
I know part of traveling is trying new things, but we're poor poets, so new things is trying to find the cheapest food to keep us going. Up until last night, that was a place called "Yummy Guide" and we'd show up late at night and get cheap Chinese. But last night, we found the pizza place.
As I said, earlier, Oakland reminds me of Albuquerque. Another way it is similar is the mix of development. There are a lot of empty store fronts; a strange hybrid of slow gentrification creeps over the downtown like a fog. There are lots of homeless people and strange hidden crannies of desperation. Oakland is very much a city; a city without the tourist trappings of San Francisco mind you but a city.
Tonight we continue our quest to get to Finals stage.
NPS - the Day After
Date: Friday, August 9, 2014
It's not news, as the news spread through social media and landed the information into everyone's homes almost the minute the semi-final was over. Though we were optimistic and made a good run, we won't be competing at the Finals stage. From our first bout on Tuesday, we read, collectively, twelve poems.
For the better part of the summer, I've dedicated most of my free time pulling five poets into a team for this moment. And now, all except for the ride home, it’s over. A let down? Sort of. Did we perform the poems well? Yes. And after being on all sides of this game, I know that at the end of the day, the five judges just didn't reward us enough to move on.
So here I sit tapping the keys and trying to sum up what this tournament, after a seven year hiatus means. Was it worth it? Yes, it was fun and we saw many of our friends move on to success. What is the national poetry slam exactly anyway? That's a question I keep trying to answer.
August 12, 2014