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Review: Best in San Diego Slam
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Members of the San Diego Slam Team (from left to right): Simply Kat, Deacon Blair, Chris Wilson, Ant Black, Jro, Rudy Francisco
Last Thursday, July 30th, Collective Purpose held a very special event. Typically, the poetry troupe hosts Elevated!, an open mic night for poets and musicians, every first and third Thursday. Instead, the San Diego slam
team challenged the Point Loma slam team and Chino’s Empire Mindstate team to see which team would take San Diego by storm.
The night began in a typical Elevated! fashion with several open mic poets. There were some new faces, but many were no strangers to the mic. Several performers repeated crowd favorites to thunderous applause.
The DJ turned the crowd out with old school hip-hop and R&B favorites while the open mic environment quickly transformed into a battleground. Slam master Christopher Wilson addressed the crowd with love and directness. Although slam poetry is competitive, it is never at the expense of art or the poets. “If you boo the poets, we’re throwing you out,” said Chris. He then chose five judges to score each poem.
Typical slam rules applied. Each judge must give a score between zero and ten up to one decimal point. Decimal scores are encouraged because they help to eliminate ties. Out of the fives scores, the highest score and the lowest score are dropped. Therefore, a perfect score is thirty.
The slam began with two sacrificial poets: Succint and Sonya Renee. Both of them are strong, female poets that moved the crowd with their words.
Then, the slam truly began.
In the first of four rounds, Empire Mindstate wowed the crowd with “Ain’t No Sunshine,” a moving commentary on relations between African- and Hispanic-Americans. Julia from Point Loma did a touching poem about celibacy and San Diego’s own Rudy Francisco and Deacon Blair did a hilarious piece about road rage.
In round two, Dane from Point Loma gave his own interpretation of Adam and Eve. Rudy Francisco and Simply Kat performed the powerful “Emotionless,” while Empire Mindstate’s Max Adio discussed overcoming homelessness in Texas.
Jro from the San Diego team kicked off round three with a poem about blue blood bureaucracy, while Point Loma wowed the audience with “High Heel Shoes.” Anthony Sims from Empire Mindstate performed a poem titled “Broken.”
In the final round, the three teams performed in order based on their cumulative scores from highest to lowest. Simply Kat and Ant Black delivered a poem that earned a perfect thirty. Empire Mindstate performed “Awkward,” a humorous poem that listed off uncomfortable situation followed by a high-pitched “awkward!” Judea Israel from Point Loma closed out the show with “Undefiable.”
In the end, Team San Diego defended its champion status with a winning score of 119.4 out of the possible 120.
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