[Previous entry: "nationals day 2 and 3"] [Main Index] [Next entry: "blackout"]

08/14/2003 Entry: "nationals day 4 and 5"

Ok so this is for day 4 of nationals.
So Fri the 8th. Woke up early got an omelet by myself across the street. Went to the end of the group piece workshop to get good seats for the Asian American showcase. All the Latinos in our crew came out to support Omar, Jerome and Lovella (all Filipino/a) The showcase was really well run. No time wasted or big intros, so they were able to get through a lot of poets. It was a really good showcase and Omar in typical Omar fashion was writing his piece just before he went up. It was a great piece about killing Europeans in justified wars (paraphrased). He had the whole audience uncomfortable but loving it, fantastic. Roberto Ascalon from Seattle was great, more on him later. My favorites of the showcase were Robert Karimi, Omar, Roberto, and Anida. Jerome and Lovella were great too. Really tight community.
So then we went downstairs fro the Latino showcase. It started a bit late, had too long an intro period(meaning not everyone got to read) and the segueways were too long as well, but the reading itself was phenomenal. Got to hear so many Latino poets that I had never heard before. I read My Gringo piece (ontology). Got a good reaction to it. There was also something circulating through this room that seemed to make every performance more alive and relevant. It was so hot. Got to hear this great smoking poetry piece from Jerry Mondragon and so many funny and relevant pieces as well as very heartfelt pieces about Celia Cruz and identity. I was so happy to be who I am at that moment.
After we all went to eat at Pasaditas Mexican restaurant which has three restaurants within a block of eachother. Two of them across the street. The food was delicious. Also grew our numbers as This asian american poet from the showcase named Israel joined us. From there went to the semi final bout to see Union Square get beat by .1 of a point to LA, whom they had already beat on Wednesday. Urbana didn't fare much better as they got misunderstood by the judges in a bout with Nuyorican. It sucked. Dreams of 2000 over we tried to go to Indie Finals but couldn't get in. We decided to just drive around find someplace to stop and drink (noticing a pattern) and we had a lot of fun. It was Seve, Fish, Lovella, Angelo(her boyfriend), Rich, Ray, Oscar and Maria. So many funny things got said I can't even recap them (afrodeus, and ass crack pretzels). Oscar got drunker than I have ever seen him. It was kind of my fault since I forget not everyone has my metabolism for alcohol. I will save him the embarassment and leave him out of the rest of this blog although he really deserves to be in here for all the crazy stuff that happened. Anyway after a while we ended up at a yuppie club which none of us liked so we left, except for Ray and Seve(who didn't get back until 1:30 pm). Got back to the hotel with Oscar and stuff. Found out Mike Mcgee won the Indie Finals (first funny poet to ever win indies). I was very happy. Did some poetry in room 2503 at a poetry tag thing. It was cool although I felt like the same people kept going on (isn't that always the way it is). Went to sleep around 5 am.