We love Hip Hop!!!

Jambalaya Soul Slam hosted our "We love Hip Hop" slam October 16 at the Hayti Heritage Center. Perhaps we should have called it the "New voices" slam, of the ten poets who slammed 5 of them were new to Jambalaya and they all impressed us with their words & energy! We started out with an awesome feature from Eboni, Sarafine & Jackie three young ladies out of Jacksonville, FL who graced us with their talent. DJ Cotton kept us entertained between rounds with classic old shcool hip hop while Dasan & the audience played games. Congratulations to Nikki McCray for winning the "name that rhyme" game and winning tickets to the Old School concert in Chapel Hill.

Round 1

Mohammed Moussa - 25.8 Axiom- 24.5 iShine- 26.2

H2O Flo- 21.5 Jru- 20 She Seven- 25.5

Potts- 23 LB Naturally Alise- 25.8

Reese- 20

The judges were strict all through the slam which made the second round a very close one!

Round 2

iShine - 28/54.2 Naturally Alise- 23/48.8

Mohammed Moussa- 29.6/55.4 She Seven- 29.5/55.0

Axiom- 29.5/54.0

The winner of the final round was decided by only 2/10 of a point!

Round 3

Mohammed Moussa- 27.3/82.7

She Seven- 28.7/83.7

iShine- 29.3/83.5

Congratulations to She Seven for winning the October Jambalaya Soul Slam! Thank you to everybody who came out to support! Join us November 20 for our "Give Thanks" slam featuring Copasetic Soul from St. Louis, MO

Poetry Spark!

Our September slam was held in conjunction with Poetry Spark in downtown Raleigh. We had 6 poets to slam outside that night and the crowd was awesome! The poets were, G, Axiom, Kat, SLAP, Jru & Krosswordz.

Collette from the Sacrificial Poets was our opening poet and she did an excellent job getting the crowd ready for what proved to be an exciting slam.

Dasan Ahanu was the sacrificial poet for the night with a score of 25.0

Round 1

Kat - 18.6
Jru- 27.2

SLAP - 29.9
Krosswordz- 29.5

G- 29.7
Axiom- 24.8

After the first round we had to say goodbye to Kat & Axiom as Jru, G, SLAP & Krosswordz heated up the 2nd round.

Round 2

SLAP- 29.0/58.9
G- 29.3/59.0

Krosswordz- 30/ 59.5
Jru- 27.1/54.3

The third round was a head to head battle between G & Krosswordz to see who would win this year's Poetry Spark Slam!

Round 3

Krosswordz - 29.3/88.8

G- 27.8/ 86.8

And the winner is............ Krosswordz!!!

The next slam is the "We love hip hop" slam on October 16 @7pm at the Hayti Heritage Center

The 2010-2011 season of the Jambalaya Soul Slam kicked off on August 21st at the Hayti Heritage Center. The Broad Daylight Slam took place at 2pm. The time was moved due to the Bull City Slam Team's participation in the National Poetry Awards later that evening. We were excited to get the season started after an exciting summer.

There were 9 poets who competed. They were SLAP, Tavis, G, Jake, Potts, Collete, She Seven, Vespertine, and Axiom. This slam would decide the Individual World Poetry Slam (IWPS) representative for Durham.

Our feature was Xplicit. He was on tour from St. Louis, MO. He kicked off the slam with selections from his LP "Realize and Relax".


After the feature we kicked off the slam. We started with a calibration poem by host Dasan Ahanu. After the sacrifice, we began the first round.

Round 1
Tavis – 27.7 Collette 24.3
SLAP – 25.7 She Seven- 24.5
G- 26.5 Vespertine- 22.7
Jake- 27.7 Axiom- 26.5
Potts- 22.3

We had to say goodbye to 3 poets after the first round. They were Collette, Potts, and Vespertine. We took 6 poets into the second round.

Round 2
Tavis- 27.2/54.9 Jake- 26.5/54.2
G- 27.9/ 54.4 Axiom- 27.6/54.1
SLAP- 27.3/53.0 She Seven- 27.0/51.5

We took 3 poets to the final round. We said goodbye to SLAP, She Seven, and Axiom.

Round 3
Tavis- 28.2/83.1
G- 29.2/83.6
Jake- 27.1/81.3

The final round was tense as G pulled the victory from Tavis' grasp. G will be the IWPS representative. He will be traveling to Charlotte, NC in December to compete. The St. Joseph's Historic Foundation and the Jambalaya Soul Slam will sponsor his registration.


The next slam is September 18 in downtown Raleigh as a part of the Sparkcon Arts festival. www.sparkcon.com/poetryspark.

Fundraising event for BCST on 6/7/2010

The Bull City Slam Team (BCST) is fundraising to help cover expenses for summer competition. On June 7th the team will return from regional competition to tape a Live CD. Please come out and be a part of the audience and help add energy to the taping. It will be a perfect chance to hear the poems the team has been working on.

We will also be taking advance orders for the CD which will be released the week of June 14th.

Come out on Monday 6/7...

WOW presents the BCST Live Taping & Fundraiser
Night Life Comedy Club & Lounge
5504 Durham Chapel Hill Rd
Durham, NC
8:30pm

Hosted by Church da Poet

Brought to you by The St. Joseph's Historic Foundaton/Hayti Heritage Center, Black Poetry Theatre, Best Kept Spoken, and Words of Wisdom Open Mic


The Bull City Slam Team (BCST) is the Triangle's regional and national competiting poetry slam team. The BCST has represented the Triangle in competition for the last 5 years. The 2010 team was chosen on April 24th and is preparing for it's 6th summer of competition. The team will be traveling to Knoxville, TN for the Southern Fried Southeastern Regional Poetry Slam June 3-6 (http://www.southernfried2010.com/). The BSCT finished second in this competition last summer when it was held in Durham. The team will be traveling to St. Paul, MN for the National Poetry Slam August 3-7 (http://nps2010.com/).

The cost of traveling to and participating in these competitions can be costly. We need the community's support in making this happen. We are putting in place a fundraising campaign. We are asking for donations to help us cover our expenses for these two trips.

http://bullcityslamteam.eventbrite.com/ to make a donation online

1st Annual Jambalaya Soul Slam Challenge Slam

We had our first ever challenge slam on May 15th. It was held at the Whiting Criminal Justice Building on the campus of North Carolina Central University. This was a new event from the mind of Jambalaya founder and Bull City Slam Team coach Dasan Ahanu.

The event had three rounds with three distinct challenges.

Round one was the "Spit that Heat" round. Each poet performs a poem of their choice. The challenge in this round was not only to win the round but score higher than Bull City Slam Team member Will. If done, the poet would receive $20.

Round two was the "Haiku" round. Each poet shares one haiku. The poet who gets the highest score will then go head to head with Elliot Axiom in a best out of 5 competition. If the poet beats Axiom, then they get $20.

Round three was the "Picture Pages" round. This was a special challenge that wasn't revealed until the poets arrived at the slam.

There was a good turnout for the event including Mr. Tucker from I Define Me (IDM) clothing (http://www.idmwear.com/) there with his family. We had 4 poets participate in the slam. The poets were Zak, Jake, Joye, and Alise.

Zak was the highest scoring poet in the first round, but was outscored by Will. Zak got a 27.1 and Will received a 30.0.

Joye had the highest scoring haiku in the second round. She didn't have enough haikus left to go against Axiom so she enlisted the help of Alise who finished second in the round. They were able to defeat Axiom and split the money.

The third round saw Jake wow the audience and receive perfect 30.0. The challenge was to write a 4 line poem during the feature performance and then represent that poem in a series of images. Each poet was given 4 pieces of poster paper to draw the images for each line. Jake was able to defeat Dasan who received a 28.4 for his picture pages.

Jake finished with the highest cumalative score overall. He is our new Challenge Slam Grand Champion.



We also want to thank our feature DNoble. He put on an amazing performance. The audience was engaged as DNoble edutained them with eloquence and intensity.

2010 Bull City Slam Team is...............

(left to right) G, Dasan Ahanu, NovaKane, Axiom and Will

Special thanks to our amazing feature artist....

Mekkah!!

If you missed the Bull City Slam Finals then you missed an amazing show! Mekkah opened up with an energetic feature performance setting the stage for an exciting slam!

Here is how the competition went...

Round 1

G- 27.9
Trina Thoughtz- 27.4
D-Live- 28.5

Will- 28.3
El'Ja- 28.2
Potts- 25.3
Yogii- 27.1
Zak- 29.2
Axiom- 28.5
Lizh- 27.0
NovaKane- 30
Naturally Alise- 27.4

Round 2

NovaKane- 30 (60)
Zak- 28.2 (57.4)
D-Live- 28.7 (57.2)

Axiom- 29.3 (57.8)
Will- 29.6 (57.9)
El'Ja- 28.3 (56.5)
G-29.9(57.8)

Round 3

NovaKane- 30 (90)
Will- 29.8 (87.7)
Axiom- 29.5 (87.3)

G- 29.8 (87.6)
Zak- 29.6 (87.0)
D-Live- 29.6 (86.8)

Our 2010 Grand Slam Finals champion....

Novakane

**special thanks to Inkera Oshun for taking such beautiful pictures of the slam! **

http://bullcitypoetryslam.com/slamacademy.html

We are happy to announce another segment of the Slam Academy series. This is the 3rd installment of a series of writing and performance workshops for anyone who wants to improve their writing and learn to bring those words to life on stage. These workshops are supported by the St. Joseph's Historic Foundation Hayti Heritage Center and are an initiative of the Jambalaya Soul Slam. The Hayti is home to the Jambalaya Soul Slam which occurs monthly and produces the Bull City Slam Team, the triangles adult regional and national competing poetry slam team.

On Saturday April 24th, we will have two great workshops. At 10am the Sacrificial Poets, the triangle's international youth poetry slam organization, will conduct a youth writing and performance workshop. The workshop will be for youth 13 to 19 years of age. Then at 1pm there will be a writing and performance workshop for adults facilitated by Jambalaya Soul Slam founder and Bull City Slam Team coach Dasan Ahanu. The adult workshop will also be co-facilitated by national touring poet, writer, actress, and producer Mekkah. Mekkah will be the guest feature at the Jambalaya Soul Slam Grand Slam Finals later that night.

Slam Academy
April 24th
@ The Hayti Heritage Center
804 Old Fayetteville St
Durham, NC

10:00 am - Youth Workshop with the Sacrificial Poets
*ages 13 to 19 welcome

1:00 pm - Adult Workshop with Dasan Ahanu and Mekkah
*works in progress are welcome

Bring whatever you use to write and whatever you write in and come enjoy the fun! New, budding, or seasoned writers are welcome.

Contact Dasan Ahanu at 919-295-0176 or email at dasan67@live.com

For more information on the Hayti go to www.hayti.org or contact Janella Sellars at 919-683-1709 ext. 28

Jambalaya Soul Slam Presents....Grand Slam Finals 2010

We are extremely excited to bring you our Grand Slam Finals on April 24th at the Hayti Heritage Center. The following 12 incredible poets are prepared to wow you with their performances: G, Zak Kane Corsi, Axiom, Kane, Lizh, Trina Thoughtz, Will McInerney, El'Ja, Jru, Yogii, Potts and Naturally Alise. Poets will be competing for a spot on the 2010 Bull City Slam team, a cash prize and the title of Grand Slam Champion. As a member of the 2010 Bull City Slam Team the poets will get to compete in the Southern Fried Regional competition in Knoxville, Tennessee June 2-6, 2010 and the National Poetry Slam in St. Paul, MN August 3-7, 2010.

As if this line up isn't exciting enough we have an amazing feature from Charlotte by way of Brooklyn, NY Kendrea Griffith aka Mekkah. Her literary and visual art are living scrap books of an urban-gypsy documenting the beauty in uncommon things. She was dubbed the “First Lady of Charlotte Slam” by Sotac Magazine as the only female member of Charlotte, North Carolina’s 1st Poetry Slam team. She has been a member of 3 SlamCharlotte national slam teams, is a Southern Fried Poetry Slam Champion and National Poetry Slam Finalist. Mekkah was ranked 5th in the world at the 2005 Individual World Poetry Slam and was the only woman to grace the final stage that year.
Beyond the world of slam poetry Mekkah has recorded two spoken word albums featuring collaborations with bands and producers in every genre from reggae to rock. Her album "The ButtaFly Effect"(2004) and other recordings are available at http://www.mekkahthepoet.com/.

In collaboration with the Concrete Generation arts collective she wrote "Miles and Coltrane Blue(.)" – an interdisciplinary work combining passionate poetry, live music, visual art and choreography. It has been presented Off-Broadway and to sell out crowds at the 2009 Edinburgh Fringe Arts Festival (Edinburgh, Scotland). She wows crowds everywhere she goes and we are extremely excited to present her to you at our Grand Slam Finals, you will not want to miss this!

Top 20 Poets from the 2009-2010 Slam Season

below is a list of the top 20 scoring poets from the 2009-2010 Slam Season. 12 of the poets listed below will be invited back to participate in the Grand Slam Finals on April 24th.

Slam winners
G --195.7
Jru--136.4
Trina -- 89.2
Potts ---117
Kane ---145

top scores after the slam winners:
El'Ja --- 225.9
Elliot ---202
Yogii --- 192.8
Alise ----148.9
Zak-----132.8
Lizh ----127.6
Will ----- 89.3
Tradell ------ 89.2
Tavis----- 88.8
Donovan ---- 88.8
Mekkah ------ 88.0
SLAP --------- 81.3
Church ------- 80.6
Chase ------- 78.9
Latasha ------ 54.7
Kel ------------ 54.3
Trace -------- 28.1

Final Round Scores from the 2009-2010 season

September 25

G - 84.0
Zak- 81.5
Church- 80.6
Chase- 78.9

October 26

Collette- 89.3
Alicia - 89.3
Jru- 89.1

November 14

G- 84.9
SLAP-81.3
El'Ja- 81.1
Yogii- 80.6


January 23

Trina- 89.2
Tavis- 88.8
Mekkah- 88.0
El'Ja- 86.2

Feburary 19

Potts- 89.5
Tradell- 89.2
Axiom - 86.9

March 20

Kane - 90
Axiom - 89.5
Will - 89.3
Donovan - 88.8

Welcome

Welcome to the Jambalaya Soul Slam Blog! This is where we will post all the details. Come here to get recaps of the slams and the scores. Also any updates will be posted here. You'll find the list of the poets invited to the Grand Slam Finals. You'll also get updates on regional and national competition.

In addition, there will be information on Slam Academy, the monthly writing & performance workshop series held at the Hayti Heritage Center.

Check back often for updates.