Monday Nights at the Bowery Poetry Club!

  As you may remember from my coverage of the opening night event, Mondays nights have been quite eventful at The Bowery Poetry Club in the LES as they host a weekly slam. Bringing back the culture of performance poetry in a competitive setting to one of the pioneer venues of the arts movement in NYC.

   This Monday I was the featured performer. Like most poetry slams there is a 15-20 minute feature spot showcasing a particular poet or performer, this artist is often who brings in the crowd and sets the mood. At Bowery that performer goes on after the first 2 of 3 rounds during the slam. The space does a bit of a turn around at 8:30 as the weekly open mic wraps up and guests shift frequent the bar, mingle, as the DJ sets up and people attending the slam fill up the space. The host is none other than Ashley August, just 4 months short of 1 year hosting at the bowery every Monday. She always has great energy and  a welcoming spirit.

  Six people competed in the slam, in the first 2 rounds and after the feature(that's me) 3 of the poets advanced to the last round and ultimately 2 of the final 3 advanced to semi-finals. Monday's slam was bit different than others The Bowery has hosted. This slam was the first of six prelim slams as part of the chapbook slam. A chapbook is a small collection of poetry, usually consisting of 15-20 poems often printed in a small pamphlet like book. The top two from each of the first there prelims advance to the first semifinals and the top poets from that slam advance to finals. The same goes for the second set of prelim slams. Ultimately there is one winner, at finals, and that winner gets their own chapbook published by the Bowery Poetry Club along with a cash prize. Pretty much if you missed this slam, there are plenty more to come. You can find @BowerySlam on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook for more info on upcoming events !

Photos taken by Shiyah Trotman (@NaiveShy)