Poetic Justice

As the rain soaked Downtown Albuquerque on Saturday night, the 2005 National Poetry Slam finals were under way inside the Kiva Auditorium.

After three days of intense competition, the 75 teams that traveled from all over North America, as well as one team from Paris, sat down to watch the championship bout.

And when it was all over, the team from Albuquerque emerged victorious.

The poems are judged by five members of the audience on a 1 to 10 scale with the highest and lowest scores dropped, thus, a 30 is considered a perfect score. To ensure fairness, the judges are not allowed to have any connection with the performers.

Six poets made up Saturday's finalists. The two highest-rated poets, Anis Mojgani and Janean Livingston, suddenly found themselves competing for the first place spot. Mojgani, whose poems ranged on the humorously spiritual side of things, spouted lines such as "This is for the 2-year-olds who speak half English and half God," which drew gasps from the audience and many standing ovations.

Livingston's poetry dealt with the suicide of her friend and abortion, and in her final poem she explained the metamorphosis she goes through when performing.

"I don't perform. I transform into the poem. I am living proof that there is nothing greater than spoken word," she said.

The judges awarded both poets a 29.9 for their final poem and the two poets decided to share the award.

Next came the team competition, in which four teams fought for the top spot. The local boys walked away as first place winners over the Charlotte, N.C., team. The team's cumulative score was 118.6. The teams from Fort Worth, Texas, and Hollywood, Calif., tied for third place.

Each of the Albuquerque team's poems touched on the subject of racial confusion.

Aaron Cuffee's individual piece about growing up with a white mom and a black dad covered this topic.

"I could never understand black and white," he began, "I only saw shades of pink and brown."

In an America in which the defining lines of race and color are blurred a little more every day, the Albuquerque team made this the focal point of their show.