Field Trip: Chicago - Pics!
(l-r: Gina, Shaun, me, Vernell, Donielle and Louise)
What a motley crew. This was my field trip crew (minus Dan Thress, who was taking the picture and has more of them at his cool journal here) outside of a Hardees, where you can buy Slammers at 2 for 1! I thought it would be nice to take a van of poets to Chicago to see the original Slam at the Green Mill, so we possed up, loaded a van with trick or treat candy and proceeded to road trip.
Shaun Barber also has some VERY cool pics (including a panoramic of the Mill interior!):
http://shaunbarber.blogspot.com/
A couple more pics...
As we got closer to Chicago, people started pulling out their poems, figuring out whether they would slam or open mic, and with what. This is Shaun and Gina going through their poems. Dan has a pic of Gina's folder of poems in his journal. It's even bigger than the one I travel with, I think.
Shaun is the cat who puts on the Jazz Slams at the Columbus Music Hall (Dec. 2 is the next one), and Gina you've read about here on occassion.
Driver's side note: The dubbed "poetry van" was SO worth the rental. Very comfy trip.
Also, this is the first time I've driven into Chicago and wasn't snagged by traffic ANYWHERE. The expressway lived up to its name, and Lake Shore Drive is as beautiful as ever, especially at dusk.
This is Donielle (who you know on LJ as doniellemonique) and Gina at the Asian restaurant across the street from the Mill, which you can see in the background because Dan is such a cool photographer. The food was great and expensive (as usual), and the cats weren't prepared for the HUGE portions. Donielle ordered an appetizer of chicken wings that could feed a church picnic. Gina had a plate of rice as bug as her head. I was smart and just had crab "rangoon".
This is us outside the Mill. Ignore the genuine Chicagoite in the background who probably thinks he's about to be a star. We figured it would be a good idea to blow into town early, chill out a little nearby, and then get into the venue about 6:00 to ensure we get seats. The Mill fills up by about 6:30 most nights, and a group this size won't find seating together if they wait until 6:30 to show up.
Dan has more pics, so keep checking there as he updates them.
I was really proud of this crew! I asked only that they represent their city well when they got on the mic ("not reading" was not an option), and they did that in spades. Five of us were in the slam, and two of us - Vernell and I - made it into the second round (which is only top 3 to begin with). Marc was great, and it was good to see him. He was very accomodating to the crew, and they were excited about being there and meeting him. I was very proud of them all. Also, got to holler at some Chicago folks I don't get to see every day: Henry Sampson, who's like a cool uncle; Dick, who's just nuts; Joel Chmara, funny as ever; Emily, who I haven't seen in FOREVER; the Mill's manager, whose name I always forget but he always remembers me; Javon, who recently moved there from Cali, and whom I got to talk about the protest stuff with for a hot minute, which was cool in a "wow, that was weird" sort of way.
I read "The Purpose of Kenny G" in the first round, and "Queen Takes Black Knight" in the second, which wasn't my first choice, but right before going on stage I thought, "I want to try to win this" and the judges were a little tight on the funny stuff. The CROWD ate it all up, but the judges were judges.
A great trip. They kept asking me where we were going next time. I mentioned Ann Arbor, but we'll see. It's good to go to other places when you don't HAVE to go, like for a feature or a bout or something akin to that. You just decide to be audience and sign up like everybody else, and you enjoy the show, no pressure. Then, you get up and go to work the next morning if you've survived it all (which, this time, I did not; I called in Monday and slept most of the afternoon, which will cost me later).