First Draft - Haiku Deathmatch!
We've had Haiku Deatmatchs at the Writers' Block numerous times over the years, but the one we had last night at First Draft was one of the top two matches I've seen. It was an epic battle, and funny? Dude: I was bent over with laughter for half of the show. And when the entire premise of the show is that you can only do work that has never been performed before - open mic, feature, slam...whatever - when the poetry hits its mark? It's an awesome poetic experience. A room set to SRO don't hurt either.
Logic drove down from Michigan to get out of the cold (which was more or less jumping out of the freezer and into the crisper) and did a set comprised almost entirely of haikus, with a book to match. And when I say the book matched? I mean his bio, his copyright info, the title...all haiku. Intense, son. And his feature was AWESOME. He's a good, soulful, fun cat and he takes a pleasure in performing a lot of poets have burned out of themselves if they ever had it. Watching him is fun because he's having fun, and his work earnest and his own. He gets a lot of love in Columbus, but the good cats usually do. He's another one we'll have to convince to move to Ohio. I implore our audiences to learn something from any and every feature that comes through any of the Writers' Block shows, and if you had to take only one thinig away from Logic's set it was "have fun with it." *
The Haiku Deathmatch was truly a sight to behold, not just because the haikus were engaging, but because of the spectrum of poets that were utilized. Poets were drawn from every corner of the Columbus poetry scene, with no less than 4 non-WB shows represented in the line-up. It really was a watershed moment, and an awesome way to kick off the year as a scene. Also, we had our record for "Youngest Poet To Perform" broken by Louise's son, Andrew (6), who did a rousing original entitled (I assume), "No, Cat". We're breeding poets here, son! Donielle's son does freestyles, so if we get him up sometime in the near future, he's likely to be our legacy record holder at a whopping 4 years old. We'll see!
There are WAY too many moments to recount en toto, but I will point out one or two that were specific ro my vantage point:
1) I was the butt of a number of haikus.
2) I wrote rebuttal haikus and read them at the end of the night. One was about Dave's fake afro (if your'e white it's not an afro; it's just Brady), one was for Sayuri and her "Baby Daddy" haiku (wherein I make an observation so blatantly racist I'm surprsied she didn't jump up out of her high-chair and karate chop my ankles...or whatever her people do when they've been slightesd), and two were for Donielle, who drank a whole gallon of Haterade when it came to my hair and my ethnicity (to which I fired back about her napless kitchen and her Bin Laden nose).
3) You cannot put Logic and I in the back of a poetry reading. We will heckle your show until it can't stand anymore, and I heckle like I write poems: fast and furious.
4) The way the list kept expanding as the show rolled on.
You know, a list is supposed to go down as you bring poets up. Every time Joanna turned around, someone else was signing up because they had been inspired by some aspect of the show. Hot action off the presses, son!
The consistently rousing Andy Anderson won the slam, and did so with the most perplexing, surreal, accidentally hilarious set of haikus I've ever heard in one place at one time. The guy is an automaton. He won with a haiku about hamster farts. Done, son.
Afterwards there was much hilarity at Roosters and a few rounds of Keno (I think the waitress made off with our winnings!).
A good night had by all.
* - The First Draft show doesn't let you perform your standards or even stuff you may have locked down well. It's refreshing, it's honest, and it really tests how far the craft may be embedded in you. If you're a cat who's still running around doing sets that are two, three or more years old, I encourage you to try a set of all-new stuff once in a while. I did it at First Draft in December and I couldn't cram enough poetry into it once I broke the dam. (Chapbook forthcoming.)
Logic drove down from Michigan to get out of the cold (which was more or less jumping out of the freezer and into the crisper) and did a set comprised almost entirely of haikus, with a book to match. And when I say the book matched? I mean his bio, his copyright info, the title...all haiku. Intense, son. And his feature was AWESOME. He's a good, soulful, fun cat and he takes a pleasure in performing a lot of poets have burned out of themselves if they ever had it. Watching him is fun because he's having fun, and his work earnest and his own. He gets a lot of love in Columbus, but the good cats usually do. He's another one we'll have to convince to move to Ohio. I implore our audiences to learn something from any and every feature that comes through any of the Writers' Block shows, and if you had to take only one thinig away from Logic's set it was "have fun with it." *
The Haiku Deathmatch was truly a sight to behold, not just because the haikus were engaging, but because of the spectrum of poets that were utilized. Poets were drawn from every corner of the Columbus poetry scene, with no less than 4 non-WB shows represented in the line-up. It really was a watershed moment, and an awesome way to kick off the year as a scene. Also, we had our record for "Youngest Poet To Perform" broken by Louise's son, Andrew (6), who did a rousing original entitled (I assume), "No, Cat". We're breeding poets here, son! Donielle's son does freestyles, so if we get him up sometime in the near future, he's likely to be our legacy record holder at a whopping 4 years old. We'll see!
There are WAY too many moments to recount en toto, but I will point out one or two that were specific ro my vantage point:
1) I was the butt of a number of haikus.
2) I wrote rebuttal haikus and read them at the end of the night. One was about Dave's fake afro (if your'e white it's not an afro; it's just Brady), one was for Sayuri and her "Baby Daddy" haiku (wherein I make an observation so blatantly racist I'm surprsied she didn't jump up out of her high-chair and karate chop my ankles...or whatever her people do when they've been slightesd), and two were for Donielle, who drank a whole gallon of Haterade when it came to my hair and my ethnicity (to which I fired back about her napless kitchen and her Bin Laden nose).
3) You cannot put Logic and I in the back of a poetry reading. We will heckle your show until it can't stand anymore, and I heckle like I write poems: fast and furious.
4) The way the list kept expanding as the show rolled on.
You know, a list is supposed to go down as you bring poets up. Every time Joanna turned around, someone else was signing up because they had been inspired by some aspect of the show. Hot action off the presses, son!
The consistently rousing Andy Anderson won the slam, and did so with the most perplexing, surreal, accidentally hilarious set of haikus I've ever heard in one place at one time. The guy is an automaton. He won with a haiku about hamster farts. Done, son.
Afterwards there was much hilarity at Roosters and a few rounds of Keno (I think the waitress made off with our winnings!).
A good night had by all.
* - The First Draft show doesn't let you perform your standards or even stuff you may have locked down well. It's refreshing, it's honest, and it really tests how far the craft may be embedded in you. If you're a cat who's still running around doing sets that are two, three or more years old, I encourage you to try a set of all-new stuff once in a while. I did it at First Draft in December and I couldn't cram enough poetry into it once I broke the dam. (Chapbook forthcoming.)