Wanna Know What Happened at the Opening Night and Slam Monday Night???

Well, you shoulda had your ass there! Good thing for you, we're doing it again next Monday... And it'll probably be even better, 'cause things tend to do that with time. It's hard to imagine, though... there was so much poetic goodness! Oh, and a birthday, too!

10 poets came out to slam... some were faces we hadn't seen in months and months, and in some cases YEARS! Others were faces we'd never seen before. But new or old, experienced Slam vets or not, everyone put their best foot forward and honestly, we were quite impressed. If those were the poems for the preliminary bout, what are people gonna do for Semis and Finals???

When the dust cleared, 6 poets were left standing. Tressje repped the ladies well, earning the first 10 of the night, getting the high score of the evening in the first round, and taking first place at the end of the night. Congratulations to her! Following closely behind in points was Artus Mansoir who was on the LA Slam Team a few years back. We also want to congratulate J.P Martinez, E. Amato, Paul Mabon, and Leon P. for their hard work in the slam and wish them good luck in Semis.

Speaking of Semis, there will be two seperate bouts, each with 9 poets. Semis are scheduled for May 17th and May 24th and promise to be two great nights of poetry that you should not miss. Once all of the qualifying bouts have taken place, we will post the bouts with the lists of poets for each one here, so be sure to check back.

However, in the meantime, we would like to give a big ass thanks to EVERYONE who came out to the first night and helped to make it as awesome as it was. If you're not one of those people, don't let it happen again! We wanna see your face. Monday, May 5th at 8:30 are the time and date, Kaos in Leimert Park is the place. Make it happen.

It's Only Hours Away

In just a couple short hours, Brass Knuckles will be balls deep in an opening night full of poetry, slam, and most importantly, fuckery. Of course, tonight we will mainly be trying to focus on the slam festivities... Not so much the fuckery part. But fuckery is hard to ignore.

As far as slam is concerned, some people don't know what the hell we're talking about. So, where gonna give you the run down. Basically, Slam is competitive performance poetry. In Slam, the focus is not just on writing, nor is it just on performance, but it should be a little bit of both. Poets perform original work within an alloted time period and get to be judged by selected members of the audience. Generally, most slams are open to everyone. Tonight's Slam is what we refer to as a "qualifier" which basically means that you must participate in and place in the top 5 to then be eligible to compete in the Semi Finals and so on. Think basketball. Everybody don't get to play for the Championship... Only a select few get to compete in the higher level for a shot at the title, and of course, that's based on their previous performance in preliminary games -- or as we say in Slam, "bouts". In this particular case, "The Championship" would be a spot on the 2010 Los Angeles Slam Team. Once you make the team, you get to go to Nationals and compete against other teams from all over the country, and that's basically the whole point.

Got it?

Okay, good. The rules are as follows:

-Each poem must be of the poet's own original work

-Each poet gets three minutes (plus a ten-second grace period) to read one poem. If the poet goes over time, points will be deducted from the total score.

-The poet may not use props, costumes or musical instruments, nor may they do a poem with another person or persons.

-Of the scores the poet received from five randomly selected judges, the high and low scores are dropped and the middle three are added together, giving the poet a total score of 0-30.

That's pretty much it. Judges, score cards, boisterous audience, 2 fly hosts, and some fierce poetry gets us a one way ticket to Slam-ville.

I'm excited. How about you?

Popping Our Cherry

This is our first time... posting a blog. Promise you'll be gentle. And use protection, too. We don't want any scabies, or little Brass Knuckles running around.

Today, this is what you need to know.

The slam is coming. Soon and very soon. April 26th, to be exact. That's a Monday for you people without a calendar. If you're competing, take your vitamins and do you push ups. Making sure your poems are tight would help, too. If you're judging, get ready to utilized decimal points, son! If you're just planning on watching it all go down, well see you on Monday night.

Here's where you need to be:

KAOS

4343 Leimert Blvd.

Los Angeles, CA 90008

Be there at 8 pm to sign up for the slam. We start at 8:30 SHARP. Be there on time. Don't make us hurt you.