Phoenix Takes 9th Place, Highest for AZ Team Ever
Submitted by Ed Mabrey of Black Pearl Productions LLC
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla.—The Downtown Phoenix Slam team claimed victory Friday night for Arizona poets by ranking ninth in the nation and put Arizona’s poetry community on the map.
The four-member squad participated in the 20th National Poetry Slam competition, Aug. 4-8 in West Palm Beach, Fla., and saw the spoils of three months of hard work when they beat out 61 other teams in the nation. There were 68 total.
“The audiences absolutely loved us,” Ed Mabrey, the slam team’s coach, said. “Their engaging energy toward our performances made this a great experience.”
A poetry slam is a competitive spoken word performance, in which participants have three minutes on the mic to prove themselves to five judges who have just been randomly selected from the audience. They are judged on their poem’s content as well as its delivery.
The team members, Mabrey, Bernard “Klute” Schober, Myrlin Hepworth and Aaron Johnson, battled their way into the top 10 in the nation with dynamic, crowd-engaging poetry verses focused on race relations, degenerative diseases, “cookie” politics and “super villainy.”
“I am really proud of every guy on the team for stepping out of their comfort zone with their writing and performance skill and style,” Mabrey, also founder and president of Black Pearl Productions, said. “We all hope that this type of success continues for Arizona poets.”
Other participating Arizona poetry slam teams included Flagstaff, Mesa and Tucson.
The 20th National Poetry Slam, hosted by Poetry Slam, Inc., a nonprofit which oversees all international and national slam competitions, is an annual event that celebrates the literary power of spoken word.
For media files and interviews featuring the team, contact Ed Mabrey at edmabrey@gmail.com or 614-623-0687.
Check out samples of poetry slam features by Ed Mabrey:
About Black Pearl Productions
Black Pearl Productions LLC is a privately-held company for Black Pearl Poetry and Black Pearl Management. The company hosts poetry slams, workshops and features.
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