Absolutely one of the most fun nights we've had, and there wasn't an empty seat in the house. Lots of new faces braved the arctic Cleveland climes to heat up their evening with some fine spoken word. The open mic sizzled with veterans of the scene including Kathy Walker, Russ Vidrik, Terry Provost, and the haiku duet from Brian Taylor and Vladimir Swirynsky. Our featured poet was Nick Fox from Florida/Arizona/Chicago, who lit the stage with alternating machine gun fire delivery and lyrical wonderment. The Slam itself (a competition scored Olympic style by audience members) was the tightest we've ever seen; though the judging was all over the place, the dust finally cleared and we had a tie. Shouts from the audience for a haiku death match were honored, and the two last standing poets Tariq from Columbus and Beth Ann from Kent had 5 minutes to compose a haiku for the stand-off. Beth Ann squeaked out the win and scored the 20 American dollar prize and a chance to compete in finals to represent Cleveland at the national poetry slam happening this year in St. Louis. Special thanks goes out to our judge from Toledo whose consistent low scores kept the audience screaming for his head.

From Cool Cleveland contributor and Slam Master Michael Salinger http://www.clevelandpoetryslam.com

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