#northbeast

[sxrgripp]

ill have you know my poetry album

is available on CD and for digital download

Volume 4 – CD – Like an Actual Physical Disk

The first poetry album from SXR GRIPP, Volume 4 is a collection of emotive stories confronting gender, race, love, loss, and the overlap bet

with even more poems

cop that

[bostonpoetryslam]

The NorthBEAST poetry community is hosting a marathon poetry reading on YouTube today to raise money for the Fang Collective’s bail fund! Check out the readings here and donate to their GoFundMe here. 

[packsurvivcs-a]

@northbeast liked this for a starter from Arya

“Nymeria” she breathed as she reached forward to attempt to touch the wolf once more. She hadn’t expected to see her again, not since the last time, then again this made sense. She was heading in the right direction this time, and maybe this time she’d actually be around more than a mere moment. 

[sxrgripp]

This is not a drill! My poems are streaming now!!!

stream + like + reblog + share + support

[bostonpoetryslam]

Tonight at the Cantab, it’s a NorthBEAST Regional Slam: come on out and see a 4x4 slam featuring teams from Providence Poetry Slam, Northampton Poetry Slam, House Slam and your very own home team! A special $5 cover helps send the team to Nationals in August.

[bostonpoetryslam]

Tonight at the Cantab, it’s the last of the summer’s NorthBEAST Regional 4x4 Team Slams! Competing tonight in a Nationals-style bout are: our Mass Ave neighbors Lizard Lounge Poetry Jam, Lowell’s own Mill City Slam, Slam Free or Die, and your very own home team. A special $5 cover helps send them to Denver this August!

[bostonpoetryslam]

Tonight at the Cantab, it’s another NorthBEAST Regional 4x4 Team Slam! Competing tonight in a Nationals-style bout are: New Hampshire’s Slam Free or Die, Boston’s House Slam, Connecticut’s Verbal Slap, and your very own home team. A special $5 cover helps send them to Denver this August!

[salamanderinspace]

So I went to this big poetry slam festival in Boston, two long ten hour days. It was incredible but I'm good on people shouting their trauma directly at me for ... awhile. Like after 8 hours of people saying their worst traumas in their most emotional, dramatic tones, I started to feel a little messed up. Any thoughts or feelings I have for the next few days will be attributed to the Forbidden Realm and otherwise dismissed, hopefully.

It was worthwhile, though. I think I want to compete next year, if I can win local qualifiers and get on the team.

My body held up ... ok. The first day was pretty much fine. I ate every couple hours, drank water, and had a hot chocolate around 4 that left me perky and awake long into the night. Around 9 or 10pm I started to get weird acid reflux / esophageal spasm but sleeping solved the problem. The second day I woke up at 5am and couldn't get back to sleep, so it was a longer day and a bit harder. I had a weird experience trying to get dinner, so by 6 or 7 I was totally wiped, and then I had to go watch finals. I thought about trying to sit it out but I knew people would ask me to weigh in on the poems from that bout. The finals were in this completely packed, dark theater where you really couldn't leave your seat and then expect to come back to it--plenty of people were standing. I was very, very tired but I'm glad I stuck it out.

Today my left side is all twisted and messed up, which is normal, but I do think it's a bit worse than normal. My shoulder and hip feel fully out of place. My left pinky toe is tingling with a weird little neuropathy.

I did read a poem about costochondritis at the open mic, though.

Our city sent two teams to the event and both were good. Impressive. I feel like I could be that good with feedback and support. Every city's team had a pretty different vibe, so there was a pretty diverse offering.

There was a strong bias, from both the audience and the judges, towards loud angry political poetry. Basically saying "children are being murdered in gaza" guaranteed you a standing ovation and a handful of 10s. I don't know how I feel about this. There is a long tradition of poetry slams being political spaces in this way. I just have a strong preference for work that is more ... technical, metaphorical, crafted, academic. I would say "personal" but I kind of have the same problem with personal poetry that's like. Not saying anything new. If you're going to write in detail about your sexual assault, find a new and unique and nuanced way to express your feelings, and in surprise and awe I will find empathy that I couldn't access otherwise. I support people who are using poetry for therapy or as a soapbox but sometimes it rings hollow. Like, I get why this is something you have to say, but why are you saying this to me, now? What places has your fear and anguish taken you, and why would you like to take me there, now?