The nearly complete story and last post about this.

[citizenwind]

Last spring, Ed Mabrey, Will Evans, Dave Nicholas, Spike and I drove down to Black Mountain, North Carolina for the Lake Eden Arts Festival (LEAF), a large money slam that attracts many regional competitors, including slammers from Columbus, DC/Baltimore, Atlanta, and the Carolinas. With a prize payout of $2.4k among the top 10, I threw my hat

Comments

[fengi]

Where you did not make insulting generalizations Gypsy Lee manages to do it to herself. She's a SPECTACULAR example of Southerners as small-minded reactionary provincials so fixed on regional identity they take any discussion of negatives as a personal affront - and are willing to lie about it.

[citizenwind]

what sucks is that I genuinely believe Gypsee-Yo thought I said these comments and is only making an infuriated comment about. but some of the things she says are wild, yeah.

anyway, this closes a chapter of drama. thanks for your cool head and advice, homie.

[citizenwind]

I don't understand how you say you're not willing to lie, and then lie in the immediately following phrase.

also, it's not exactly an "open letter to alvin lau" if you delete any voice of dissent.

[smyley]

In addition to what was said above, calling attention that a region has members that are racist, is not calling a team racist in the same way that Phoenix did not take offense because they are opposed to the same thing you are opposed to in your poem.

This reminds me so much of whenever discussions of white guilt/privilige come up in a classroom, and some of the white people will get offended or defensive even though the discussion is not and should not be taken as an affront to them if they aren't actively committing acts of oppression.

Additionally, regardless of anything said above, one of my biggest pet-peeves is when people attempt to say that you shouldn't do a poem. Regardless of strategy concerns or intent, how dare someone insinuate that you should either alter or censor your poem (that was written having nothing to do with your bouts at nats).

Apparently, Alvin has Superpowers

[fengi]

So let me see if I'm reading this correctly:

1. Alvin has a genius level triple mind-control slam skills and the write a last minute stanza which strategically slanders an entire state so harshly it could actually influence the judges against every poet from that state, AND insert it seamlessly into a poem *named after anther state* in a way that people would actually hear, remember and be influenced by it, AND ALSO was deliberately bad at freestyle in order to cover his true improvisational skills.

2. In addition Alvin was able to craft a wisecrack about Gypsy's baby being an illegal prop so strong it alter slam results AND managed to spread to every judge and much of the audience in the brief time between when she finished her poem and they wrote down their scores.

Methinks some cracker is convince y'all is a fucking poetry ninja. No wonder they don't want you in their venue, you might zombify them with your rhymes then have your way with them.

Well, at least she didn't claim that you whistled at her.

Re: Apparently, Alvin has Superpowers

[sirenoftitan1]

In defending Alvin, I told a member of the community that I am 100% sure that the poem mentioned South Carolina when performed in Chicago in May at the MG finals. That person responded with "Well, he didn't have to choose that poem to read that night".

Interesting that so many members of the community are against the no repeat rule, yet think Alvin is in the wrong. I guess they feel that poets should not need four good poems for NPS in case they make finals, but poets SHOULD need four good poems in case they happen to end up in the same bout as a person or persons who may be taken to be a member of a group discussed in the poem they were planning to perform.

Re: Apparently, Alvin has Superpowers

[citizenwind]

Dude, I'm ALVIN LAU. In addition to the above, you can also come to me to trade your eternal soul for a catalog of fine merchandise.