This is it, guys. The final show.
Can you believe it? The school year has already come and gone. It feels like the semester was just getting warmed up last week. We've had some AMAZING shows, and I'd like to think that our ventures this semester were a complete success.
We've got one final open mic night, before we all go home and disappear into the aether all summer. I've been looking forward to this show for a long time. You could even call it a "special event." When we were booking spring semester last fall, there was a lot of chaos regarding who was going to come on what date. But one thing we stuck to, through the whole process, was a desire to bring out April Ranger as our closing performer.
To call April Ranger a "rising star" would be like calling the Space Shuttle a bottle rocket. Since I started frequenting the Cantab 18 months ago, April has risen from "open mic regular" to "local celebrity" without even blinking. She was a member of the 2008 Cantab Team (you know, the one that made it to finals stage). She was the Individual Champion at the 2009 NorthBeast Regional Slam. She's the Cantab 2009 IWPS representative. And everyone I know has a giant crush on her. I mean, just look at the picture.
And after her show, we're going to host our final, deciding NPS slam. By "deciding", I mean we will know who made the team by the end of the night. So come out, support your friends, be a judge or just cheer for your favorite poets. There's a lot at stake this year, and a lot of people pushing to be on the 2009 Hampshire College NPS Team. It's going to be brutal. The performers are going to be (in alphabetical order, by last name):
Sean Conlon
Cassandra de Alba
Georgie Delgado
Kevin Devaney
Katie Frank
Adam Gottlieb
Sophia Holtz
AJ Krebs
Andy Locke
Emily O'Neill
Charley Pope
APRIL 28TH: APRIL RANGER FEATURES @ HAMPSHIRE COLLEGE, followed by NPS TEAM FINAL SLAM!
APRIL 21ST: OZ FEATURES @ HAMPSHIRE COLLEGE, followed by NPS TEAM FINAL SLAM!
Omoisele "Oz" Okoawo can only be described as a "slam warrior." You'd never guess it if you met him outside the open mic - he's incredibly kind, friendly, a little reserved. Most people go through a transformation when they step on stage, but Oz turns from "quiet man sitting in the back" to "the Goliath of spoken word" in under three seconds flat.
Oz commands attention like no one I've ever seen. His poems have a kind of ancient resonance to them, soemthing that reverberates within you long after he's stepped away from the microphone. He's got a talent for writing something that sticks with you. "Scary" is the word I'm looking for - when his name is called, I'm filled simultaneously with fear and eager apprehension. When he begins to read, I may feel disturbed, I may not want to keep listening, but I'm compelled to. Because it's Oz. And when Oz reads, you pay attention, whether you mean to or not.
We saved Oz for the end of the year for a good reason - because he's the kind of guy that makes people want to come back for more. I've been watching Oz perform at the Cantab Lounge for over a year now, and I've never seen someone "condition a room for good poetry" more skillfully than him. Now, you may be asking, why would we want to condition the room?
Because this coming Tuesday is the first of our NPS FINAL QUALIFYING SLAMS.
After the feature, Cassandra de Alba, Kevin Devaney, Andy Locke, Sean Conlon, Katie Frank, Sophia Holtz, Charley Pope, Georgie Delgado, AJ Krebs, and Emily O'Neill will each perform two poems before a panel of judges. They'll do the same thing next week. The top cumulative scorers from both slams will make up the Hampshire College 2009 NPS Team, scheduled to compete in Palm Beach, Florida, this August.
This is a huge event, folks, and a great opportunity to come out and cheer on your favorite poets. We'll be needing impartial judges, so if you're feeling particularly judgmental, come talk to one of the Slam Collective signers (Charley Pope, Sophia Holtz, or AJ Krebs), or e-mail us at hampshireslam@gmail.com, and we'll put you down on the list.
