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Okay so I have a lot to spill because I haven’t updated in a week or two. And before you quit reading, may I tell you that there’s some juice in this update. Big stuff that I’ll talk about later. So don’t quit reading. I don’t even know where to start but here it goes. Last week I went up to Chico to slam in their Summer Time Invitational with 14 other hand selected slam poets from across California.
Well before I get into the slam, I’ll tell you the mess I got myself into with Katelyn. I promised Katelyn and Teresa I’d take them to Chico. The whole story with this is, for a while now I’ve kinda had a thing for Katelyn. I was perusing her last year but I totally screwed things up by not staying focused on her and being the typical me of flirting with every other girl and it was a total turn off to her. So we just became friends. Well a couple months ago I told her I was still into her and wanted to try things out again if she’d give me a chance. So I offered to take her out to dinner since it was her birthday. Well we never got that going right away so then a couple weeks go by and she says “Hey Shawn, you should take me and Teresa out to Indian food for our birthdays.” Okay don’t get me wrong, I’m a generous guy, but I was too dang broke to take all three of us out to dinner. I love Teresa and she’s a great girl, but I just couldn’t do it. So I of course lagged on dinner and then Chico comes around and I ask Katelyn if she’d go with me. And then she says “yeah sure can Teresa come?” So then I was like ohhhhhhhhh got it. Like I said, I like Teresa, she’s a great friend and I love spending time with her. But I kind of wanted to have some one on one time with Katelyn ya know? So then my buddy Rob tells me He’s going up to Chico to go watch. Rob is from Clovis which is basically Fresno. That would be a 5 hour drive for him. So I was thinking, I’ll just have Rob drive up to Modesto, and I’ll take him the rest of the way. So I thought, if Katelyn and Teresa come it’ll be just as friends and they don’t even have a passion for poetry they just want to go just to go. Rob on the other hand, has a passion for poetry and if I’m going to go with somebody as friends, better be him. So, I totally took Rob instead of Katelyn and Teresa. I’m a douche bag.
So Rob gets to my house and we take off to Chico Thursday around 3:30. It was only the second time him and I hung out. The first time was at an open mic when he drove all the way up to Modesto to read. The dude has mad talent. He still has stage fright and he’s still nervous to get on stage, but that’s something that will go away over time. But as far as being able to write poetry, he’s a rare breed. The drive up was totally chill. He’s an awesome dude to hangout and talk with.
So we get to the slam and I meet a bunch of people and it was packed to the brim. Over 100 people in this little restaurant and the vibe was awesome. I leaned something that night. I leaned about this game called slam poetry. See slam poetry and poetry are worlds apart. I learned why the best poets don’t win poetry slams and I learned that I now hate slam poetry and everything that it is, but I still have to do it in this journey of mine. See, in order to win a poetry slam, you have to work the crowed. Its all a psychology game. See, you cant just go up there and recite the most beautiful, most amazing poem of all time and make people cry and make their hearts stop and win, because then someone else will come up and make them laugh and get higher scores than you. Taz, the dude who runs the Chico slam taught me that you have to have STRATEGY. And each round you have to figure out what kind of poem will work the crowed in your favor. He told me that in 2003, Anis Mojgani got knocked out of the first round at Nationals because he hadn’t learned how to slam yet. He didn’t have the whole game figured out yet, he was just going up there doing poetry. And for those of you who don’t know, Anis Mojgani is on of the greatest poets alive. He had to LEARN how to SLAM. And now he’s a 2 time National Champion and world champion. So what’s next for me? I have to learn how to slam. And I’ve got this. I hate the idea of slam poetry because it ruins the whole genuine passion for sharing poetry with a crowed in my opinion. You have to shape your performance to score points instead of souls. But its something I have to learn how to do regardless and honestly, it will make me better I think.
I didn’t win Chico but that was the biggest lesson I learned. I’ll get it. Andrea Gibson was the feature that night and she’s FREAKIN AMAZING!!! After the slam, Rob and I didn’t have a place to crash so Taz let us stay at his place. We went out for pizza after and we stayed and talked for a couple hours. A little background on Taz, his full name is Tazuo Yamaguchi. He’s a two time national Hauku champion and a well respected dude in the slam world. He’s a big deal. He’s the official film guy for National and World Championships every year. He has videos of poets from every year since 1995 that have never been released and books from a countless number of poets. He’s toured all over and me and rob we chillin with him. We stayed up until 4am talking about poetry and stories of poets and it was amazing. We took him out to breakfast the next day and talked some more before we finally left.
Okay so here’s the juice. You ready? I haven’t told anyone this yet except one or two people. I don’t want to say anything until it’s all official but here I go anyways. Taz has huge connections. As in there’s a few multi million dollar grants out there being offered to start this project called Youth Voice Live. www.youthvoicelive.com . Basically, they want to hire 8 youth poets and make them into professional poets. They would have our own publishing company, books, cds, dvds, and a national tour at Universities and poetry venues all over. Kind of like Write Bloody but a different company and different projection. They would promote youth poets. They would do multi media production as well. It’s a two year project and after the two years, we run it basically and keep it going. Taz wants me to be one of the 8 poets and we find out by the end of this month if the grants go through. This basically means that by the end of tis month my life can change really fast. That’s all I’m saying.
That Saturday was my good friend Theo’s going away party and Kristin’s art show at the BFD which is a house. They had live music from some local bands and a vegan potluck. It was a lot of fun. Theo is riding his bike up to Portland. I mended things with Katelyn and we’re both on the same page now as far as just being friends. Teresa wasn’t mad at all. That was good.
I spent $95 to get 50 copies of my chap book. I’m selling tem for $5 each. So I only have to sell 20 copies to make up what I spent. Tomorrow night is the Modesto slam and I still don’t have strategy but what ever. I’m more worried about selling my book. Wish me luck.