The Oakland Poetry Slam & Open-Mic: SF BoB recap
SF BoB recap
This year the first official Battle of the Bay was in Frisco at The City Slam. There was a packed house in the voice factory and with the all ages nature of the venue the hosts invited the local youth team (Youth Speaks) to join in the fray. They also added a round, making a total of five, to accommodate the fact that most teams were comprised of five poets.
The first round is randomly drawn from a hat. San Jo pulled the dreaded "a", the town pulled "b", Berkeley "c", YS "d" and SF "e". San Jo wasted no time and got the whole team on stage to open with "3 billion heartbeats". Oakland followed with "i" who shared "skin" and established an early lead. Berkeley followed with John Mark and his "punk-rock love poem", Bryant from Youth Speaks came next with a love poem of a different sort. Denise closed out the round and sang the home to a close 2nd.
The second round starts with "c" and Berkeley sent Abe who set a high bar for the round. Youth Speaks followed with Hadeel who told us about the "red sea" but suffered a time penalty. Matt from the city followed with a piece about the town and hip-hop. Kat (SJ) shared a story of "family court" drama and Oakland closed out the round with a duet from D. Silence and Stephen telling stories about "our fathers" and eking out a narrow victory in the round.
D.dra opened the 3rd round for SF with "mommy's baby" followed by a "crazy" team piece from San Jo. Joyce managed the high score of the round with a story about the boxes wee all live in. Danny maintained for Berkeley while discussing a sensitive subject and Mike closed out the round for the youth fighting to the end.
Oakland opened the fourth round (of 5) with D. Silence preaching for the high score of the evening. Berkeley followed with Lucky 7 followed by Youth Speaks and leigh Ann from SF who resonated with the room and the judges but couldn't quite match D's score. Dave closed out the round for SJ.
In the final rotation Chas opened for SF who was staging a comeback. Isaac pinch hit for the youth keeping them in the hunt. Oakland followed with another duo from D & Stephen, still on the page and suffered scorewise and from a time penalty leaving the door open. Chris couldn't capitalize for San Jo and neither could lee for Berkeley.
Full scores to follow at some point...
The first round is randomly drawn from a hat. San Jo pulled the dreaded "a", the town pulled "b", Berkeley "c", YS "d" and SF "e". San Jo wasted no time and got the whole team on stage to open with "3 billion heartbeats". Oakland followed with "i" who shared "skin" and established an early lead. Berkeley followed with John Mark and his "punk-rock love poem", Bryant from Youth Speaks came next with a love poem of a different sort. Denise closed out the round and sang the home to a close 2nd.
The second round starts with "c" and Berkeley sent Abe who set a high bar for the round. Youth Speaks followed with Hadeel who told us about the "red sea" but suffered a time penalty. Matt from the city followed with a piece about the town and hip-hop. Kat (SJ) shared a story of "family court" drama and Oakland closed out the round with a duet from D. Silence and Stephen telling stories about "our fathers" and eking out a narrow victory in the round.
D.dra opened the 3rd round for SF with "mommy's baby" followed by a "crazy" team piece from San Jo. Joyce managed the high score of the round with a story about the boxes wee all live in. Danny maintained for Berkeley while discussing a sensitive subject and Mike closed out the round for the youth fighting to the end.
Oakland opened the fourth round (of 5) with D. Silence preaching for the high score of the evening. Berkeley followed with Lucky 7 followed by Youth Speaks and leigh Ann from SF who resonated with the room and the judges but couldn't quite match D's score. Dave closed out the round for SJ.
In the final rotation Chas opened for SF who was staging a comeback. Isaac pinch hit for the youth keeping them in the hunt. Oakland followed with another duo from D & Stephen, still on the page and suffered scorewise and from a time penalty leaving the door open. Chris couldn't capitalize for San Jo and neither could lee for Berkeley.
Full scores to follow at some point...