da weekend

after months of broken dreams, i finally made it down to Arkansas to chill with Mo-Man and Krysis. they are the twin monsters that run Poets In the Streets in Little Rock. they are trying to bring the 'word' to this community through a monthly slam and various other events.

Mo-Man and Krysis, showed a brother nothing but love...the moment i walked through the front door till the time i left. not only were those two there, my homie from Florida Cuban was in the house to feature at the slam that night....Southern Fried in
the house!! i also met a cool as poet from Denver named Ron C, the dude is good! on top of ALL of that, My aunt, who lives in the rock, came out to support...YES!

ok, before the slam, we try to drum up an audience by passing out flyers and talking with the people. we get to the venue, doors are locked. after a small panick, we learn the venue owner has gone to get refreshments...kewl. running behind, open mic start, cool....slam begins, im going fourth. i do 'pleas of piece'....did ok, flubbed up the middle...second round, x is the unknown variable (only second time reading it, first in slam), stumbled with it....bad Copa!!

didnt make the third round but was kewl with that.....the others poets brought some heat. Rob C, dope. TJ, fiyah. lovely lady with slam experience, awesome. Houston, ok, Blind Guy, aight....blind guy beats me for fifth spot. yes, i said blind guy. his pieces are on a laptop that he listens to while performing.....im kewl with that, let your passion flow brother.....now, remember i mentioned being kewl about NOT making the last round, the money round, the sho'em what ya got round? well, it turns out the 'blind guy' used someone else's piece in one of the previous rounds......what the fuck? this wasnt proven until after the slam but still...wtf!?

i wanted to get mad BUT....how would it look me getting upset with a 'blind guy'? that would REALLY make me look cool, right? im not mad for the simple fact if: 1. i had performed my pieces better. 2. had selected more audience friendly pieces, i would have been in the fifth round.

I think Mo-Man was more upset than i was,lol....i loved that dude. me, im take this as a learning experience. im going to use it to be more creative with my writing. i needed to write more, this gives me another reason to do so.

what i WAS upset about.....the train, which was suppose to leave at 11:34, was two hours late....uuuuugh. we left at 2am, i didnt get to St.Louis until 10:30 am....that gets another, uuuuuugh! i did enjoy sleeping ALL the way back....lol.

so thank you Mo-Man, Krysis, Cuban, Rob , Chee Chee and all the other poets who came to Mo Man's for the afterparty (too much drinking and poetry tag). thanks for a great time and a lesson learned.

did i mention Mo Man took Rob C and i out on the town? he took us to THE Central High School...wow. also took us to the Old Mill were they filmed part of Gone With The Wind...cool. if you get a chance, ya need to stop through, every second saturday of the month for their slam and to get some love.