8.06.2008

national slam day 2


it was nearly 2am here in WI when we got back to the hotel and a sista is drag down tired. we won our first bout against cincinnati, Detroit, and Philadelphia. henzbo went up in round 1 with “shake the world,” a piece about turning world leaders and the status quo topsy turvy for the greater good.

bryan came in round 2 with “spiritual band,” a piece about a sick with it band whose players just happen to be jesus, Buddha, and Muhammad, to name a few. gypsee yo and I did my poem “Margaret” as a group piece, which is an ode to judy blume’s book are you there God it’s me Margaret and all the womanhood lessons that came along with it. and gypsee yo closed out the bout with ema’s poem, a dedication to her young daughter, telling the story of motherhood, and the hope of raising a child in the way she should go.

Detroit gave us a run for our money, they came in second to us by only tenths of a point, following by Philadelphia, and Cincinnati. we went and had celebratory pizza and most of all a sista enjoyed some celebratory sleep. ☺

next up…our next prelim bout is Thursday. I won’t be here for that one because I’ll be scooting down to Jacksonville, fl for the lit conference. but as promised the blogging won’t stop. I’ll keep you posted on the goings on in WI and you’ll get to follow me down to FL as I meet with kim p, steve fee, and a bunch of high school students at lit.

slam nationals is like a relay race where you play your part and hand off the baton to someone on your team to make sure the job gets done and that it gets done right. winning this first bout was like the first leg of the race for us, but of course the ultimate goal is to win the whole shebang.

I’m gonna go catch the last of this continental breakfast and get ready to run through some pieces. ttys

Check here for constant bout updates!

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

What a great moment of reading blogs.

amena bee said...

hey lotto, thanks for reading.

Anonymous said...

Welcome to madison! I hope you have a great time here. This is an exciting week for us.
Paul Baker
WSUM FM

amena bee said...

hey paul! thanks for commenting! have you had a chance to check out any of the slam? where can we get some good wisconsin cuisine. a waitress told us about squeaky cheese. where we can some of that? :)

Anonymous said...

Try the House of Wisconsin Cheese at
107 State Street!

Unknown said...

i'm so glad that nationals happened for you this year! i remember your disappointment from last year (i think a scheduling conflict kept you away??)

as a side note, you know i used to live in Madison, right? sure, i was only six, but i remember that friendly little town... the corner store guy gave me free sweets! (that's all that needs to happen for a kid to like a place, right?)