Irresponsible Conjecture & Shameless Slam Gossip
Hey! All you slam trolls patrolling other people's friendslists looking for insight into what's none of your business! Take a peek behind-the-scenes in the goings-on of the Bay Area slam scene, as interpreted by a totally biased and unreliable narrator!
First of all, if you don't live here, don't even bother trying to guess who will make what team. You don't know these people. The 2007-2008 season at Berkeley has been the Year of the Rookie. As chazellik has said before, we're dealing with a much more diverse, much more unpredictable slate of poets. In 2006 and especially 2007 Finals, you could almost hear the thunder of local slam titans locking swords on stage. People could generally guess four out of the five poets who would make the team. But this year's team could be a total surprise. Here's what's changed:
1. The Women's Collective. After the sausagefest that was the 2007 Berkeley Team, some of the Bay Area woman slammers got together to help each other in bi-weekly workshops. It was stronger in the Fall, with special guest coaches and a revolving cast of poets of all experience levels. During the winter, it slowly faded away as people chose what level of commitment to Slam they actually wanted to keep. But the effects are still being felt: there's a huge improvement in the poetry, and the prizewinning, of Bay Area women.
2. The Rookies. Every season has rookies; these rookies got organized. After the pre-slam WordShop I ran stopped running for financial reasons, the most dedicated newcomers continued to meet before the slam to work on their poetry themselves, often being mediated by Stephen Meads. And the damnedest thing happened: they got good. They grew in number. And now they call themselves "Code Octopus" (a little tongue-in-cheek, of course), a club where that functions as support group, writer's group, and impromptu slam team. And just like a slam team, they applaud, yell, and generally vocally support their members during poems, and heckle everyone else. Hell, they even take road trips together like a real slam team. There are many rookies outside Code Octopus, of course, who are incredibly hungry to win. But the Octopus kids -- mainly young, performative, and black, with the exception of Dusty and Jen -- are by far the hungriest, qualified in the most venues, and they're winning.
3. The Audience. As I've often complained this year, the Berkeley audience has become almost entirely made of non-drink-buying, non-band-tipping college kids, and this has had a huge effect on what kind of poetry wins at Berkeley. Things are starting to trend back to the 21+ year-olds we're wanting, and the audience energy has been, well, youthfully exuberant, which is good. But with the lack of older audience members, I feel like the poetry that's winning has been less experimental, less nuanced.
4. The Veterans. They're not really going for it this year. I am, and Jason is, and you can probably count on Josh Walters to enter the fray. Ekabhumi himself is in the mix. There's a few serious contenders from Santa Cruz. Laura, with her buy into Finals, is hovering over everyone, waiting to be death from above. But for the most part, the vets have been either not around, consistently unlucky with the draw (we're getting 20+ poets signing up regularly), or coming in late in the game. For my part, I've been so busy with organizing and stressed out from the job/money situation that I haven't had the hunger and drive to compete with the new kids. I'm suffering from Ekabhumi's Dilemma: how can you be an outside competitor and a fixture in the scene at the same time? I'm waiting for the last-minute rush of willpower and drive to kick in for semifinals; I can't be the underdog, so I guess I'll need to be the professional. In a sport that loves underdogs, it's a role I'm not yet comfortable with.
Berkeley has only one qualifying slam left before Semis. Sacramento, thanks to the relentless promotion of GO and Lucky 7, seems to be a strong scene right now, and I expect a good team from them this year, especially with all the crossover poets between them and us. San Jose, from all accounts, has come back from hiatus with a roar. Oakland is just now coming out of hiatus; if anyone can guess what will happen there, I'd like to hear it. And San Francisco has been blessed with awesome poetry and cursed by minimal audiences lately; the talent is there (the poets are almost entirely East Bay/South Bay anyway), but can the fledgling slam pull off a big Finals event?
I can't even guess who will make what team. But I do think that this year, most Bay teams will be a mix of people from other Bay slam cities. Berkeley poets will make San Jose, Sacramento poets will make Berkeley, every team will be interwoven and cross-pollinated, and I think that will make the Bay Area Slams more powerful a force at Nationals. We may be full of resurgent slams and new poets, but that's actually the strength of the scene this year; if you've been to any slams lately, you can feel it. The fabric of the Bay has a tensile strength like spider silk woven into a bulletproof vest. But as for what else I can predict? Not much, until I'm there.
First of all, if you don't live here, don't even bother trying to guess who will make what team. You don't know these people. The 2007-2008 season at Berkeley has been the Year of the Rookie. As chazellik has said before, we're dealing with a much more diverse, much more unpredictable slate of poets. In 2006 and especially 2007 Finals, you could almost hear the thunder of local slam titans locking swords on stage. People could generally guess four out of the five poets who would make the team. But this year's team could be a total surprise. Here's what's changed:
1. The Women's Collective. After the sausagefest that was the 2007 Berkeley Team, some of the Bay Area woman slammers got together to help each other in bi-weekly workshops. It was stronger in the Fall, with special guest coaches and a revolving cast of poets of all experience levels. During the winter, it slowly faded away as people chose what level of commitment to Slam they actually wanted to keep. But the effects are still being felt: there's a huge improvement in the poetry, and the prizewinning, of Bay Area women.
2. The Rookies. Every season has rookies; these rookies got organized. After the pre-slam WordShop I ran stopped running for financial reasons, the most dedicated newcomers continued to meet before the slam to work on their poetry themselves, often being mediated by Stephen Meads. And the damnedest thing happened: they got good. They grew in number. And now they call themselves "Code Octopus" (a little tongue-in-cheek, of course), a club where that functions as support group, writer's group, and impromptu slam team. And just like a slam team, they applaud, yell, and generally vocally support their members during poems, and heckle everyone else. Hell, they even take road trips together like a real slam team. There are many rookies outside Code Octopus, of course, who are incredibly hungry to win. But the Octopus kids -- mainly young, performative, and black, with the exception of Dusty and Jen -- are by far the hungriest, qualified in the most venues, and they're winning.
3. The Audience. As I've often complained this year, the Berkeley audience has become almost entirely made of non-drink-buying, non-band-tipping college kids, and this has had a huge effect on what kind of poetry wins at Berkeley. Things are starting to trend back to the 21+ year-olds we're wanting, and the audience energy has been, well, youthfully exuberant, which is good. But with the lack of older audience members, I feel like the poetry that's winning has been less experimental, less nuanced.
4. The Veterans. They're not really going for it this year. I am, and Jason is, and you can probably count on Josh Walters to enter the fray. Ekabhumi himself is in the mix. There's a few serious contenders from Santa Cruz. Laura, with her buy into Finals, is hovering over everyone, waiting to be death from above. But for the most part, the vets have been either not around, consistently unlucky with the draw (we're getting 20+ poets signing up regularly), or coming in late in the game. For my part, I've been so busy with organizing and stressed out from the job/money situation that I haven't had the hunger and drive to compete with the new kids. I'm suffering from Ekabhumi's Dilemma: how can you be an outside competitor and a fixture in the scene at the same time? I'm waiting for the last-minute rush of willpower and drive to kick in for semifinals; I can't be the underdog, so I guess I'll need to be the professional. In a sport that loves underdogs, it's a role I'm not yet comfortable with.
Berkeley has only one qualifying slam left before Semis. Sacramento, thanks to the relentless promotion of GO and Lucky 7, seems to be a strong scene right now, and I expect a good team from them this year, especially with all the crossover poets between them and us. San Jose, from all accounts, has come back from hiatus with a roar. Oakland is just now coming out of hiatus; if anyone can guess what will happen there, I'd like to hear it. And San Francisco has been blessed with awesome poetry and cursed by minimal audiences lately; the talent is there (the poets are almost entirely East Bay/South Bay anyway), but can the fledgling slam pull off a big Finals event?
I can't even guess who will make what team. But I do think that this year, most Bay teams will be a mix of people from other Bay slam cities. Berkeley poets will make San Jose, Sacramento poets will make Berkeley, every team will be interwoven and cross-pollinated, and I think that will make the Bay Area Slams more powerful a force at Nationals. We may be full of resurgent slams and new poets, but that's actually the strength of the scene this year; if you've been to any slams lately, you can feel it. The fabric of the Bay has a tensile strength like spider silk woven into a bulletproof vest. But as for what else I can predict? Not much, until I'm there.