Posted 8:14 AM by Bonnie

Open Mic for February 15, 2007: Can you say fun? Can you say energized? Can you say exciting? I’m not going to go into individual performances this time because everyone was dynamic! I will post pictures, of course. The first half of the night was open mic and for awhile I thought we were going to be short on poets, but they trickled in and in the end we had a great turnout. Develon Douglas returned to regale and entertain us with his exciting and enlightening poetry. I’m not one for PDA but when I turned around and saw him my first reaction was to give him a big hug! LOL! When I get him and Colette Jones there on the same night I know it’s going to be dynamic! And yes, Colette was there.

It’s also great to find out we are inspiring others to try their hand at original poetry. Linda Rowe, who will generally share a song or poem she found on the internet, shared an original work she had written about King Arthur and Guinnevere. She said she was just sitting at the computer one night and the poem just sort of wrote itself. I think we have a new poet in the horizon. Her husband, Tom, unfortunately had to work, so we didn’t get to hear part three of his epic poem. And I think this brings the poem to it’s conclusion.

Beth Langley brought her guitar and sang the song she spoke last month. Also, joining us was Hyacinth Kinley and Marie (Lyric) Grady. I’m happy to say we also had two new poets join us – LaKeyshuh Carolina and Aaron Johnson. Aaron is one of my husbands students, at Morris College. He brought his adorable two year old son with him and for a few minutes we all forgot about the poetry while oohing and aahing over this precious child.




And then on to the Slam! I was excited! Happy! Amazed! Seven people were brave enough to enter the slam. Okay, so it was unofficial, but still they were being judged and there were some prizes involved.

Dr. Michelle Reese came to watch and since my Slam participants were a bit nervous she volunteered to go up and do one, not as a participant, but to get the first one out of the way so the judges could practice scoring and the other particpants could have someone to follow and not have to be the first. What a big heart and it really did help.



Our Slam Participants were:
Michelle, LaKeyshuh, Develon, Marie, Beth, Aaron, Montresia Loyd, and Colette.
Our finalists for first, second, and third place were. Drum roll!

Develon Douglas – First Place
Montresia Loyd – Second Place
Colette Jones – Third place

There was only one point difference between each place winner and in the end we actually had a three way tie for third place – Colette, Aaron and Marie. Even adding back in the high and low it was still a tie so I let the audience decide with their applause.

To say it was fun is an understatement. I may try a slam again for another special occasion, but for next month things will be back to normal. Thanks to all of you wonderful poets who make this night so exciting and such a success.

And I leave you with one final picture. A shocker! Get ready.....

Yes, I am actually wearing a skirt!