The twin cities represented themselves well. I was on the St Paul team, and we had Minneapolis in our first bout, along with Seattle and Richmond. Both of our teams performed well, and took the 1 and 2 rank in the round. St Paul ended up winning both of our rounds and made it to semifinals. Minneapolis did not make it to semis, but performed well in both rounds. Our semi bout was very good, overall. We were unable to overcome our disadvantage (going first, before score creep starts) and finished just ahead of Oakland for 4th. But we all performed very well and left it all onstage, which is what we were more focused on. We felt good afterwards, and we're psyched about next year.

For those of you wondering about my individual placement, they did not hold an individual finals this year, trying out a team piece final instead (which did not go well from what I hear. My team opted not to go, since we weren't jazzed about getting yelled at for 2 hours). But, hypothetically speaking, if there was an indies this year, I likely would have made it given that I had the top score in both of our rounds. We can only wonder :)

That's really all I feel like discussing, competitively. Now I'll talk about art. There were fewer pieces overall that really moved me this year compared to last year, but there were some doozys...

-The first that comes to mind is Charlotte's voiceover team piece in finals. Wow. I would have given that a 9.8, probably. I didn't care for the last line, but that's the only problem I had with it. That was a stroke of genius.
-Chicago Mental Graffiti had a group piece from the perspective of water, and puts our relationship with the earth in a stunningly different light. Beautiful.
-The Klute had the funniest piece I've seen in a long time, about Dick Cheney once we have a new president and he is unleashed from his vice-presidential reins. Fucking hilarious. I was near tears.
-Boise had a piece about these two kids that were kidnapped and raped, but done through the myth of Hades, Demeter and Persephone. Wow.
-Boise also had a group piece about being sirens, and all of the men are dead. I need to hear that again. I think I missed half of it due to the crowd response. But it was apparently brilliant.
-The lady from Eureka (I think) did a powerful piece about being a white mother of a mixed child. Good stuff.
-Hampshire, with a rookie team, impressed me with their writing. I look forward to hearing them again.
-And basically everything I heard from Boston Cantab and NY LouderARTS. Those are some freaking writers. And the finals performance from Rachel McKibbens was top tier. Her poem was truly lived-in. Jeanann's finals piece had my favorite ending.

Now, miscellaneous things. One of my favorite moments was just watching Simone Beaubien, as she walked onto the finals stage. And as she walked off. I just felt like justice was served by getting to see her up there. And she had to follow Charlotte's incredible team piece, which scored a perfect 30. She wasn't fazed at all. She just came, performed her piece, and left. That was a huge dose of human for me. She rocks.

This homeless guy asked me to read him an inspiring poem, since the other poets outside were apparently too depressing for him. I started doing Remember the Angels, but didn't get far before he started talking to me about why poets shouldn't be so dark. We went back and forth for about 10 minutes about that and race and all sorts of stuff, then he asked for a short poem that he could go to sleep with. So I just did the last line from the piece I started earlier: "We waste so much breath bitching about the assholes, we forget to remember the angels." He shook my hand.

I am really glad I got to hug Dr. Sheila, Shannon's mom. We shared some goodness. That's all I'll say.

Just before finals, this young guy outside the theatre was trying to recruit me for some protest at the RNC, which sparked this discussion/debate about what activism should really mean. I hope he was listening when I told him he had me feeling nervous. He has that intense idealism that can easily become militant. I can see him doing some stupid shit. I told him as much. He said he wouldn't let that happen. He didn't seem as sure as he sounded.

I also had fun doing Louis Armstrong the last night at the bar with the jazz trio. The poet peeps loved it. That was fun.

It was a lot of fun this week, despite the organizational challenges. We're probably changing locations next year. I'm not sure. Eh, whatever. We had a good time. Thanks for your support.