On Sept. 12 at Wells Park Tractor Brewing Company, the 22nd annual Albuquerque Slam Poetry Championship was held. Ten poets competed for the right to go to the Individual World Poetry Slam in San Diego, CA. This is a festival and competition of the greatest poets across the country and world who compete for the title of best poet.
The ten poets competing were — Lydia Andrews, Cathy Cook, Reina Davis, Adam Gutierrez, Jessica Lopez, Sophia Nuanez, Cat Reece, Bianca Sanchez, Jack Tapestry and Brooke Von Blomberg.
Five judges were picked at random from the audience present. These judges critiqued the poets on several categories, then individually give them a numerical value on a scale from one to ten.
Each round score would be determined by dropping the highest and lowest values, then adding up the remaining three. Poets were to compete in the four minute and one minute rounds, then four were eliminated. The remaining six moved on to the last two rounds consisting of two and three minute time limits.
Each poet delivered a wide range of topics through their poetry on stage. Emotional pieces about body image, objectification and loss were shared, as well as more comical topics such as fast food, wanting a beard and feminine products.
“Sometimes the poems get really political or confessional,” said Lydia Andrews, one of the competitors.
After the final round of poems, the scores were tallied and a winner was decided — Cathy Cook. The runner up was Bianca Sanchez and close behind her in third was Cat Reece.
Each poem spoken held their own on stage even with thirty-two poems in total presented Cook will travel to San Diego, CA on Oct. 10 to compete at the Individual World Poetry Slam.
“I think Cathy is going to do very well, she’s a role model of mine,” Andrews said.
If you are interested in next year's competition, you can check out the University of New Mexico’s slam poetry group— Lobo Slam on facebook. Their first event is on Sept. 19 at Winning Coffee from 7 p.m. - 9 p.m.
You can also go to the Poetry and Beer events at Wells Park Tractor Brewing Company. You must be drinking age or above, unless accompanied by a parent or guardian. The first event will be on Oct. 3 from 7 p.m. - 9 p.m.
“Competition is definitely present, it makes it kind of difficult for people who want to connect with and tell a clear message to the audience, like me,” Andrews said., “Though I feel I was a bit more comfortable and able to connect with everyone tonight, so slam poetry is still great with the competition component.”
Get content from The Daily Lobo delivered to your inbox
Tiffani Watteyne is a freelance reporter for the Daily Lobo. She can be contacted by email at culture@dailylobo.com or on Twitter @tiffanirosew.
