The night and the Results

Another great night and an even greater crowd!
Almost a good 70 people in the house doing their thing!
Menya aka FreeSoul had her book release and it was a blast. she sold a good amount of books before the night even kicked in.

Since I jumped into this, the last slam before the grand slam, I replaced myself with not one but two hosts-FreeSoul and none other than my cool and crazy son-Jordan Mabrey.
(funny and scary sidenote-My son is ten and is taller than FreeSoul)

So the two of them did emcee duties together and it was fun to watch. The open mic went by with its usual fanfare, then we moved into the feature. FreeSoul did a nice job and sold a few books during our now regular "six minutes"...if you come out then you know what that means.

On to the slam. Since we just had one last week, this was a big bonus for some of the audience members. Everyone was doing their thing, albeit to me it seemed that cats were holding back a little. Or maybe they had hit the mic hard last week and just wanted to pullback a bit.

Nonetheless, a few time penalties were tossed about and each of them really hurt the poet involved. This made for a tight race and no one was a lock in in the final round. After the dust settled, here is how it went down:
1) R.A.R.E
2) Tiffani
3) Rose Smith
4) Ed Mabrey

This was, to me, quite fitting. Rare really had the crowd in her hand, Tiffani was testing out some new work (more than likely prepping for the grand slam) and Rose and I both had time penalties. (mine was HUGE...like the 4 minute variety)

So all in all a great night. Got a few business end things that need to be tweaked, of course that's every week, but I had a blast. Especially since I had my son there to hang out with and laugh at.

More things to come, like a new vendor, a new night, a new concert, and some other neat stuff.

November 15-The night and results

What a night. Didn't expect much due to the storms that came in but the weather broke midafternoon and stayed quite nice for the rest of the night. Usually in the fall/winter months, a crowd will come together earlier and leave earlier, but for whatever reason, the BPP crowd is coming later and sticking around. Not complaining one bit though. Had over 60-70 people in attendance so to that I say thank you folks. I will keep trying to put on a good show.

Open mic list was short but filled up quick and with nice quality people. Mikelle read, which was a pleasant surprise. I love her and her husband, Phillip, to death. Shaun Barber did his thing, the mic was barely able to extend high enough for him.(he is like 6'8")
Had some underage cats come in, which was sweet. I really want to get the college and high school kids involved in this, and have plans to make it even better for them.
One of them was Andy, a very cool young man whom was recently published . He had to be one of the nicest young people I have met in a while.

The slam was great. Long (due to a three way tie for second), but great.
It was two rounds, not including the tie breaking slam-off. Only like seven or eight people in this one, which was cool. So with only one more slam to go before the big slam-off in December the placings were:
1st Place- Rose
2nd Place- John
3rd Place-Tone
4th Place-Will

Each of them got points for the GRAND SLAM in December.

Sidenote(s):
If you slam, you must realize that it is a competition, but also it is for fun. This means don't walk away mad or hurt because someone gave you a score you don't think you should have received. the score did not make you and it should not break you. Nuff said.

I have been very happy with the judges and how firm they have been in each slam. They like what they like but remain open and listen to everything the poets say. I make it quite clear that at this night, a "5" is not bad, it is average. And a "10" should be damn near impossible. they have stuck to their guns in every slam thus far and I thank all of them for that.

My "Bar seat" idea worked out great. The crowd was very attentive and tame up thru the added round for tiebreaking.

And again I must say to all poets, if you say something to anyone in the crowd, you are fair game to them. Hell, I might even get on you a bit.

Quick shout out to Matt Barnes, who came out and slammed andbrought some fun back into it. I just worked with him on the Show Art Columbus night by bringing some poetry into the event and we had a blast.

More to come...always.