Poetry shook the Outpost Performance Space Friday as New Mexico's top performance poets battled it out for a coveted spot on the five-poet 2002 Albuquerque Slam Team.
The packed house booed judges and cheered all nine seasoned poets who sang, shouted and rapped to earn their scores. Former slam team veteran and current coach Kenn Rodr°guez organized the event, with Arizona slam guru Nick Fox playing host to the raucous event.
The scores were so close that the last round produced a third-place tie between finalists Carlos Contreras and Don McIver, with Manuel Gonzalez, a 2000 slam team member, wrapping up second place with a blast of Chicano pride and weathered Denver poet Kate Makkai putting a Colorado stake in first place. Navajo poet Colleen Gorman secured the alternate position.
Makkai, a two-time Denver Slam Team veteran and a harpist, is the 2002 Albuquerque Slam Champion - which is not something to scoff at. The competition was fierce, with poets required to place first in two Albuquerque slams to qualify for the final slam-off.
Qualifiers also included Michele Dalton, Adan Baca, So and So and Albuquerque Slam Team alumna Amy Mullin.
Gonzalez is a member of the Angry Brown Poets, a culturally diverse poetry group that also features Gorman, James M. Aranda and Carlos Mart°n. The group has become an Albuquerque staple, drawing national notice when it was invited to perform at Beloit College in Wisconsin as part of the school's Latino Week last November.
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The night was a coup for McIver, who had been unable to secure a place on the team after participating in the grand final two years in a row. McIver is a major force within the Albuquerque poetry community who organizes the Blue Dragon Coffee House's "Don McIver and Friends," a monthly reading featuring local poets. He also has a performance poetry radio show on KUNM.
Contreras made a huge splash last year when he became the youngest Albuquerque Slam Team member at 17. Now 18, Contreras slipped smoothly back onto the team. He plans on graduating from Menaul High School and plans on attending UNM in the fall. His poems bespeak a maturity that takes many poets years to develop, with a calm, resonating delivery that makes his on-stage performance sparkle.
Gorman, the only female Angry Brown Poets member, made waves with her fierce American Indian poetry.
The team heads to Minneapolis, Minn. in August to strut its stuff.
The Albuquerque Slam Team has a long and proud history, proving that New Mexico is a force to be reckoned with at each National Slam Competition.
The art of slam dates back to 1986 at its inception in Chicago, Ill., when blue-collar worker Mark Smith wanted a little poetry release. The first national slam was held in San Francisco, Calif., in 1989.
Juliette Torrez introduced Albuquerque to slam poetry after touring with Lollapalooza's third stage in 1994, which blasted off a new art form in a state famous for its artistic scene. She coordinated the Albuquerque Poetry Festival and "Poetry & Beer," which was catalyst to a new scene being birthed. The first Albuquerque Slam Team headed to nationals in 1995.
Rodr°guez and Danny Solis, both Albuquerque Slam Team alumni dating back to the team's earliest days, have been slam masters for "MAS Poetry Slam" and "Poetry & Beer." Both poets remain fiercely active within the Albuquerque community, often performing at local middle and high schools.
Solis volunteered as an in-class poet at Albuquerque High School in 1999 and has organized several New Mexico poetry projects. Solis, a phenomenal poet himself, also will coach the slam team in for nationals.
Albuquerque has been recognized as a special poetry slam community by poets visiting from all over the country, despite many of the slam hotspots being in larger cities such as Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco and Seattle.
Poets such as Seattle slam great Buddy Wakefield, San Francisco's Big Poppa E and Eitan Kadosh and several others have made more than pit stops in New Mexico.
This year's slam team has a great challenge stretching before them in Minneapolis, but the power of their culture, hearts and words will enable them to succeed. With much to prove, the team can make its mark with hard work, dedication and that whole poetry thing.
For information about Albuquerque poetry slam events and the team members , visit www.abqpoetryslam.org.
