Congrats to Ed Mabrey, the 2007 IWPS champion!
Columbus, Ohio is very proud of you, sir–and so am I!
I know it was not an easy bout last night. It couldn’t have been with all of those awesome slam skills on stage. I wish I could’ve seen it, and seen you win, sir. I think any of the top five would make great champions.
I met Ed backstage at NPS Indie Finals, Chicago, 2003. I knew after hearing his voice that he was great. I’m glad he proved it. That’s my friend right there!
If you are not familiar with Ed, click here for his Myspace audio page.
I’m especially proud of my boy, Dan Leaman as well. He’s always been 5th place in my heart…
Looking at the final round, and I’d say it was a downright incredible and challenging slam. Please post comments on your experiences at IWPS.
2nd Place – Anis Mojgani
3rd Place – Andrea Gibson
4th Place — Jamie DeWolf
5th Place – Dan Leaman
Way to go Jamie, Anis and Andrea. You are damn fine poets and my friends. That is wonderful.
This is the only information I have, I do not know how the other finalists placed last night. If you have this information, please comment with it.
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When most people type the acronym IWPS for the Individual World Poetry Slam, why is the letter i used in a lowercase? That annoys the crap out of me. I want an explanation that makes sense. iWPS does not look right to me, and I believe that it is incorrect. Anyone?
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Word to the nerd.
This entry was written by , posted on 4 February, 2007 at 10:51 AM, filed under Personal Updates and tagged andrea gibson, anis mojgani, dan leaman, ed mabrey, individual world poetry slam, iwps, jamie dewolf, Vancouver. Bookmark the permalink. Follow any comments here with the RSS feed for this post.
Below is a link
to some ongoing IWPS blogging by Eric Darby, if you didn’t see it yet. John Powers had the link on Got Poetry. The news of last night is fairly minimal, except he says Andrea and Jamie tied. Also that is was so crowded 100 people could not get in and poets went outside to perform for them on the street. Anyway, they are probably all still asleep, unless they are in transit! Maybe real comments later.
You are in the right part of the country for pancakes. I make pretty good ones myself–YUM. Make sure you have REAL maple syrup. Actually I was just eating some savory Indian pancakes that my neighbor and best friend in my apartment building just gave me. Also, yum.
PS: I have no idea about the small “i”–are they just whispering the fact that it’s INDIVIDUAL. Weird.
http://www.poetryjam.org/
When most people type the acronym IWPS for the Individual World Poetry Slam, why is the letter i used in a lowercase? That annoys the crap out of me. I want an explanation that makes sense. iWPS does not look right to me, and I believe that it is incorrect. Anyone?
Maybe someone thought it looked cool and it just caught on. Why not all lower cause in homage to the great e e cummings?
Maybe they think it’s sponsored by Apple? iPod, iMac, iWPS?
I thought the lower case “i” was sort of a humorous jab at Poetry Slam, Incorporated’s weird acronym, PSi, but I’m not sure. To me there’s also an element of redundancy, as I see Slam as inherently an individual game. The National Poetry Slam is increasingly becoming experimental short theater, but to each her own.
get used to it friend, it’s an iWorld and we’re just iLiving in it.
I was there and it was fucking rad.
All of the poets were amazing, but I thought Andrea in particular totally shone last night. She was unbelievable, and had most of the crowd on their feet after all three of her poems.
Sonya Renee made the second round, I think, as did someone else whose name I can’t remember because I’m a jerk.
I wish you had been here.
I believe it broke down like this:
6. Sonya Renee
7. Jared Paul
8. Nicole Homer
9. Ryler Dustin
10. Buddy Wakefield
11. J.W. Baz
12. Da’Shade Moonbeam
Thanks again for the kind words.
innndiviiiiiduaaallllllll….
…
…
WRLDPOTRYSLM!
also ever noticed it kinda looks like it could be pronounced oops?
iwpsydaisy!
Report From Vancouver
Folks–
–I’m currently sitting in a coffeehouse in Seattle. It’s a lovely, overcast day, quite a bit warmer than in Vancouver. Americans seem more stressed out than Canadians. I was particularly struck by all the papers filled with headlines about Iraq. The entire time we were in Canada, no screaming headlines about the war.
–Finals last night were wonderful. I enjoyed all the new poets I saw, and all the new work from the poets I already knew. Of the poets whose work I knew, Buddy, Sonya Renee, and our own Jamie Kennedy performed daring new poems. But all the work was top-notch. There was not a pretender in the bunch.
–The format of this tournament seems to be very effective at weeding out the poets who are coasting. Which is not to say there weren’t plenty of amazing poets who did not make Finals. Our own Lee Knight Jr (Palo Alto) did an excellent job, as did Kim Johnson and Chesko. The tournament format is also very good at selecting poets who play the game well, and was very unforgiving of poets who were unable to strategize around lyrical attacks by past and present National Champions.
–The new champion is a popular favorite, Columbus’ Ed Maybre. He was mobbed by well-wishers when the scores were announced. Ed is a thoughtful poet with a deep arsonal and wide range. He’s a big man with an imposing presence and deep baritone. I’ve been begging him to feature in Berkeley for years, and perhaps now he’ll finally tour outside the Midwest. He’s been on several teams, won the haiku tournament, is strong writer and one helluva nice guy. And in a happy coincidence, he will be hosting iWPS in his home town next year!
—Anis Mojgani (2-time National Champ) finished 2nd. He earned high score of the first two rounds, and was his usual brilliant self. But his last piece was a bit more odd than usual… Jamie De Wolf and Andrea Gibson tied for 3rd. They’ve been dueling throughout the tournament, and this was just another indicator of how closely they were matched. Her work was scintillating, rich in imagery and wordplay, delivered in her signature earnest style. Jamie did a fantastic job, opening with a slammy slam favorite “Bumpin Uglies”, then launching a new poem, “Dear Susan” that ended in a whisper and sent chills through the crowd. He finished with a playful performance of “Grimm Fairytale” to lock in the rank. After comparing their cumulative scores, Andrea was awarded 3rd, and Jamie 4th. They both laughed about it.
–Poets in the Finals included several who Bay Area fans will recognize, and here’s the order they finished in. Please forgive any misspellings! Ed Maybre, Anis Mojgani, Andrea Gibson, Jamie De Wolf, Dan Leighman, Sonya Renee, Jared Paul, Wyler Dustin, Nicole Homer, Buddy Wakefield, Baz, and Da Shade.
–In other news, there was much discussion of a bid to host this event in the Bay Area in 2009…
well, according to the “Complete Idiots Guide to Slam Poetry” it’s IWPS.
Of course it is incorrect. You are absolutely right.
iWPS!
It reminds me of how, when writing an exclamation in Spanish, you have to use the upside-down exclaimation point in the beginning of the sentence.
There is no better feeling than being 5th place in someone’s wittle heart. Thanks Mike…you will always be my buttercup.
It was an awesome show. Everyone was great, but the poem sticking in my head today was the sacrifice. I need to track that track down.
is it march aleardy?
no jokes about blacks being late and no one gets their fuzzy rabbit stabbed with a syringe full of botox!
Hey Mike, my friend and compadre bar none, thanks for the love.
I have finally showered, dressed,and allowed the natural sunlight to touch my fair skin once again. I figured a little ‘howard hughes-huey p newton’ lock-in time was needed to process what happened.
then i get out and someone tells me it was all a dream. i never won, it was a testing glitch for the beta version of hotmail.
oh well.
at least i got that great ghost rider movie to see..no way that came out lame right?
hello?
crap.
Re: is it march aleardy?
the above drivel was written by none other than ed mabrey…i know this because i am he.