Imagine if you could travel another
dimension where it felt like a rhythmical creation of beauty in words outlining
the walls, and with every breath of air you inhaled experience and everyone
around you exhaled poetry. Guess what? You don’t have to travel far. That
dimension happens to be called The Pure Ink Poetry Slamstastic Slam, which
takes place in Buffalo, NY at the Gypsy Parlor. Not to mention that this event
is monthly because you are sure to come back after your first experience. You
may not be a poet, but you just might be the poem. What a way to kick off
National Poetry month.
Getting off the route three bus on Grant Street
on a snowy evening, I spotted the red sign reading Gypsy Parlor immediately.
Upon entering, an identifiable waft of sweet potatoes fries and alcoholic
beverages floated in the air. he bar stools were filled and
the back of the parlor resembled the poetry juke joint in the film Love Jones. Sounds of Talib Kweli’s ‘The Blast’ flowed out of the speakers. The
atmosphere was relaxed and the audience was diverse in not only race but age. A
group of college students poured into the parlor, but there were also older
couples and single adults seated in the audience. The DJ played a mix of oldies
and new music, from Tribe Called Quest, Erykah Badu,
Notorious B.I.G, and Jay-Z to Rich Homie Quan, Big Sean and Drake records.
Bianca
L. McGraw, who hosted the event, kicked off the night by letting it be known “I
am not a poet.” McGraw explained the slam to be a competition for the love of
the audience and the love of the judges. She explained the three minute rule
the poets had to abide by. Soon enough, the crowd started shouting “BLOOD!” Being a first-timer, I was
confused until McGraw informed the crowd that they have “sacrificial poets”
before the poets compete and also during the intermission between the three
rounds.
An exciting factor during the competition
is that the audience got to boo or clap each grade the poet was received by
five judges on a 1 to 10 scale. By the way, “tens are almost mythical,” said
McGraw. After the audience expressed their feedback, McGraw would say “Applaud the poet not the points.” It was
truly a fun and engaging event. Three rounds of neck-and-neck competition went
on throughout the night. Each round, the order was different.
Tom
Dreitlein was the first poet to grace the stage in the first round with a
slamming opening performance. “To the
girl who would not break, I’m here” is a line that stuck with me. Ten
Thousand, a poet who won an earlier competition previously personally did best in
my opinion in the third round, performing a poem about his weight. Apparently,
the judges agreed because he received two 10s, which was the first time this
happened that night. Brandon Williamson, the creator of Pure Ink Poetry, was next.
This was a favorite of mine which consisted of him comparing relationships to
the game of Spades. “If you renege, you
should’ve stuck to solitaire,” said Williamson.
Ben Brindise is one of the most heavily
lyrical poets I’ve ever witnessed in my life. In fact, I think it took me a
while to comprehend everything. His last poem, Hash Browns stuck out to me, bringing
forth a play on words with the title but was actually about a complex
relationship. “I want a single bedroom
home, you want a-part-ment complexes.” After that line was complete
greatness. Izzy X’s performances were eye-openers. I enjoyed his first round, where
he performed a poem touching on trans-misogyny.
“To me slam competitions are a lot of fun
and a bonding experience. It's something that I will reminisce about with the
other poets for a long time. But, I also think it's an important way to learn
how we all work with a crowd, and what some of our strengths and weaknesses
might be as a team, so we can start working to better those weaknesses” said
Dreitlein.
What is Brindise's personal goal? “My
goal is two parts. The first is to do justice to the piece, to try to perform
it as optimally as possible. You want each listener to get your best every
time. The second part is resonance. I want the audience to remember me. Even if
they forget the piece or the words I want them to remember how I made them feel,
how I shook them, if only for a moment.”
Personally,
rap music is poetry with a beat. When asked whether rap was considered
poetry, Dreitlein said, “Rap is without a doubt a form of poetry to me, in my
opinion it isn't really even up for discussion. That being said, all songs are
poems to me, poems put to music. I think rap is more often equated to poetry
though because of the emphasis rappers put on lyricism and meaning in their
work.”
Brindise somewhat agrees, saying, “Under the umbrella of poetry falls lyric, so yes,
anything with lyrics can technically be called poetry. However, when
considering the quality of the poetry I think we can agree ‘That's why we seize
the moment/ try freeze it and own/ squeeze it and hold it/ cause we consider
these minutes golden’ is a bit more poetic than "Two chains, but I
probably got a few on".
In the end, Dreitlein won
first place with a whopping 86.9 points and was given a championship belt.
Williamson followed closely behind by two points with 86.7 points. Brindise came in third place. Ten Thousand came in fourth and Izzy X took fifth place. I
was moved by every poem and I left feeling inspired. I watched these poets
genuinely commend each other after each performance. Local poets got to flex
their literary muscles and it was a lyrical exercise for our brains as well. Competitions such as the Pure Ink Poetry Slamtastic Slam have
put Buffalo on the map, being the only monthly running poetry slam here. Wish
them luck on the road to compete in the Poetry Slam Incorporated National Slam
Competition.