"Ish" is gettin’ personal. Already tonight's slam "sacrifice" (each competition starts with one) has spilled her guts all over a beauty supply store, in front of the mirror.
Lance Newman, "Captain" of the Loohavull Lip and host of the Slant Culture Theatre Fest's "Unraveling Our Navels So We May Ingest the Sun" slam poetry event, has had a gun to his head; the finger on the trigger = old debt.
Brandon Harrison, Newman's co-host, talks love. Compares it to a mathematical equation. Says he needs PEMDAS to figure it out. Says, “always show your work.”
Personal is good. Newman says the poem is personal and the stage (in this case, the alt-space at Walden Theatre, a homey black box) is a place of release. Says good spoken word shocks and awes. Says there’s no such thing as bad poetry, only bad presentation. Harrison says, “Community is what poetry does.”
Though some poem topics are heavy, the whole thing is light. Newman tells jokes between performances. Audience members yell. The energy is bright in this dark little room.
After the slam demonstration: The Haiku Death Match. It’s cut-throat. It’s the olympics. Newman says great haikus have three images. Each audience member was handed a “goldenrod”-colored slip upon entering to jot down haikus on. The brave pair up and compete on stage, battling for the best of best. Prize of pride. The haikus cover Batman to clocks to Mitch McConnell. Everyone one-hand claps. (Like clapping the air.)
And sooner than the navel’s undone, time’s up, and we’ve all ingested the sun.
*The Loohavull Lip will host Sweet Peaches Poetry Slam at 1800 Muhammad Ali on Dec. 9th at 7pm and a slam at Tim Faulkner Gallery on Dec. 20th at 8pm. Both events are $5.
Now, some haikus:
The sun wasn’t out
so I ingested the moon.
She got me slam drunk.
Better to flirt skirt
than go straight for the tube top.
Have some manners, man.
Where’s the creme filling?
Lawd knows it ain’t at Kroger.
Your pantry? Panties?
(*Must have been feeling frisky...?)
Keep it light, mother
goose. Mama, loosen your noose.
Forget those old rhymes.
Photo from Loohavull Lip's Facebook page
