iWPS Finals List

The finals list is out for the Individual World Poetry Slam. After two preliminary rounds each, all the poets were ranked according to cumulative scores (or something along those lines).

Basik Knowledge, from Savannah, is one of the happy dozen to advance. I saw his first round bout, and he was simply amazing. He was part of the 2005 Atlanta team that competed in Albuquerque, and I'd say that despite the fact that he's 20 or so, he's a definite underdog to take it. He's an amazingly sincere poet who writes mature narrative pieces, often involving family themes. He's also a really nice guy, which makes it all the better.

The finalists are also pretty evenly divided along gender. Gender equality is a long-standing issue in Slam, which has always provided an intensely fruitful venue for traditionally marginalized voices. In normal-people speak, that means that women and minorities have always excelled at Slam, but typically the finals stage has been dominated by men. This year, the split is 5 women to 7 men, and the women are an eclectic mix of powerhouses and relative unknowns.

Rachel McKibben (NYC), Krissi Reeves (Austin), Andrea Gibson (Denver), Stephanie Williams (St. Louis), and top-ranked Sonya Renee (DC) will bring it tomorrow night at Charlotte's Spirit Center.

I'd list the men, but it's four in the morning and frankly I was paying more attention to those who weren't included in the final 12: Buddy Wakefield, who placed 18th after what was described to me as an excruciating bout tonight where the judges simply would not be swayed from 8.0s (Andrea Gibson and Krissy Reeves both faced the same unyielding judges, sending everyone into a panic about top-tier poets and meat grinders). In short, I can't recall at this moment a single additional name on the list, and frankly I'm pleased to be able to account for five of them.

I saw Andrea Gibson's set on the first night, when she had to do 1 minute and 4 minute poems. Both were exemplary--a one minute flurry of images about Katrina and New Orleans, and then a 4-minute poem that could cynically be called a "rape poem" (because, you know, that's what women are supposed to write about) but which was realistically so much more. That's what makes a poet extraordinary, the ability to lift a familiar theme and turn it into something so very much more. I was in tears through the piece and, as a judge in that round with a lot of experience both with Slam and Slam judging, I felt honored to give it a 10. I can't wait to see her set tomorrow night.

Randomly, as a scattered last missive before I finally try to sleep, a couple of us were talking earlier about the maturation of Slam. It's only 20 years old, but there are already clear generations of poets who have come out of the scene. Andrea Gibson bears some physical resemblance to 90s Slam wunderkind Alix Olson, but the complexity and intensity of Gibson's work is clearly different than that of Olson's, much in the same way that listening to a top-ten list from 1995 would reveal several differences when compared to a top-ten list from 2005. It's not a "this is better than that" comparison, just a reflection of the way things change over time. Slam evolves as other living things evolve, and in a similar timeframe to other pop culture activities.

Now, it's time to sleep. Oh, and Bryan Patillo and Gypsee-Yo from Atlanta both ranked well up in the standings. Gypsee received a number of 10s in her bout tonight, and if she says I can, I'll be putting some footage of her work up on the web.