Author Archives: Oscar Bermeo

“I’ve had my share of sand”

monday recap… i won my first slam! (YEAH) using someone else’s poem (HUH?)

i had zero intention of coming to last monday’s show. no beef, it’s just you need a break every once in a while and last monday seemed a good show to catch that break but, alas, it proved not to be the case. fish, marty & rog were going to be late and that left the skeleton crew down to just a few bones so i changed my plans and headed to 13. of course, when i got there, rog & marty were there early and fish was only a bit late. no worries, i’ll just chill and enjoy the night.

the open mic was cool but not as exciting as the last few weeks, less new voices might have brought me down a bit. agent neill took off the glasses and appeared as plain ol’ rob– bad back and all, delivering a great set as only rob can.

now to the slam: it was a cover slam and prizes would be awarded to different types of poems– funny, political and academic. somewhere around the 9 o’clock hour there were only eight folks signed up so i added my name to the hat. rich had my copy of “Immigramts In Their Own Land & Selected Early Poems” by Jimmy Satiago Baca (faithful blog readers will know that JSB is one of my favorites of all time) and i found “Mexicans are taking jobs from Americans.” i really wish i had “Martin and Meditations on the South Valley” with me because there are MANY cover-able poems in that book and i could have REALLY been in character.

the slam started with mara covering “Self Improvement” by Tony Hoagland, rob coming back and doing Jeff McDaniel’s “Foxhole Manifesto.” reid harris cooper reprising some Jim Morrison, fish bringing some Pinero with “The Genesis According to Saint Miguelito” which rich really should have done but rich opted for “Mercy on the Battlefield” much to my embarrasment (excellent job rich and dont worry about the dancing parts– i cant salsa and its never stopped me from doing the poem), lynne grabbed ian the saxophonist for backup on “The Best Part of the Affair” a modern classic from Stephen Maher, more louderLOVE as cairo took us back to e(g)’s days at the door with “I’m the Doorman” (at least, i believe that is the title but i do know that it is from “Water Immitating Glass” by Eric Thomas Guerrieri) and both vandana and ed garcia got down with selections from my copy of Pablo Neruda’s “Residence on Earth” (ed went full blast and covered it ENTIRELY in spanish which freaked out the judges but had me transfixed as to the lyrical quality the work has in its natural language and thus i will continue to rip more pieces in the mother tongue) and now to the winner’s circle…

abena dropped some Langston Hughes on the crowd and when you add her vocals to “Let Americ Be America,” i was sure she had it all wrapped up

regie cabico lost his ENTIRE mind (as usual) while doing a poem from the Short Fuse Anthology. with lines like “your poem is like an ice cold finger giving me a prostate exam” and “your poem is like a bent dick” well, regie got to be regie and had everyone pissing on themselves

rog came up with an Ava Jordan poem in relation to the word “nigger,” bar fights, life experiences and acting like you should versus how they expect you to. the poem rocked and rog gave it the full bonair-agard touch and his 28.8 beat my 28.0…

but i had the power of the leafblower with me! and added some ed.garcia.ness into my delivery and had the crowd laughing furiously for JSB’s poem… at least in the beginning cuz that poem hits a turn in the middle that takes the laugh out the crowd and has them looking inward. i managed to hit the turn just right and then channeled some roger.bonair.icity into the final stretch and was able to get a great score (expecially when you consider i was fourth in the line up)

no one was more surprised than me to hear that my poem won for being the best politcal/academic/funny poem in the bunch and it was great to get the win… for a minute. i mean it is someone else’s poem and it is just a slam so, in the end, who cares? i will be going the poem a lot more and seeing if it may give me the blueprint for a good political poem of my own in the future…

and that’s why i have to always show up for mondays… you never know when lightning may hit

“808’s pumpin bang the track playa”

louderPARTY

Saturday, July 12th (9:00pm – 4:00am)

Bar Below (209 Smith Street in Brooklyn) F Train to Bergen Street

$10 Cover

It’s the OFFICIAL CD RELEASE PARTY for 5 Past 13, a hot new compilation CD of NYC’s top performance poets. From 9 p.m. to 4 a.m., celebrate, drink, shake whatever needs shaking to the sounds DJ Frank Rempe and DJ Joshua Gabriel!

AND be one of the first 50 people in the door and receive the CD for just $5! that’s HALF OFF the

regular price! so get there early and make sure to pace yourself, because you won’t want to miss the revelry and scattered poetic performances.

All proceeds from the night go to send Team NYC/Union Square to the National Poetry Slam in Chicago this August.

5 PAST 13 features performances by Def Poetry on Broadway’s Suheir Hammad & Staceyann Chin, HBO Def Poet’s Roger Bonair-Agard, Emanuel Xavier, Willie Perdomo, Marty McConnell, Ishle Yi Park, Dawn Saylor, loudPOETS’ Lynne Procope, Raymond Daniel Medina, GinnaKarla Nicolas, Oscar Bermeo, Edward Garcia, Peter James Conti, Stephen Maher, Elana Bell, Sabrina Hayeem-Ladani alongside Rachelle Street, Bob Holman, Patricia Smith, Cheryl Boyce Taylor and Guy LeCharles Gonzalez.

*********************************************

make no mistake people. this will be the jump off. i dont write too much about when the poets get together cuz it is always way too much fun and it feels kinda strange sharing all the cantakerousness through a report… so come on down yourselves and hang a bit. if you like a particualr poets work, this might be that great chance to tell em so (especially if ya spot em a drink– always works) it could also be a great chance to see these talented wonderful mofos in their natural enviroment just hangin back & cuttin loose.

see ya there!

“A seven nation army couldn’t hold me back.”

ya know, i should really talk about Acentos this time (my first instinct is to recap last monday)

aight, almost a month back(!) we had bonafide in the house. long story short– bon was supposed to do a louderEDGE at 13 which meant there would be a q&a afterwards, his feature was changed to a slam so– no q&A. after a great walk across 14th street and down broadway where we talked about his poetry and views, we agreed to do the q&a at the blue ox. following guy’s advice that the q&a should be personal and organic versus static & controlled, we had an incredible q&a that lasted a half-hour (it was only supposed to be 15 mins) and then fish jumped in with a question which led to the audience chiming in for another 10 mins. in all honesty, we couldve gone for an hour the way it was going, as all the questions from the audience were excellent (including one from jimmy the bartender) and kept the convo flowing forward… which is the whole point. what was really great was that it was an entirely different convo then the one bon and i had before.

unfortunately, it was a low turn out for us as i was counting on bon to bring in a whole bunch of new peeps from the bX to the blue ox and, well, he didnt. so, good open mic, excellent feature, excellent (first ever for me and Acentos) q&a… small turnout… a successful show, especially in that the q&a was all i wanted it to be, but the low turnout was buggin me.

two weeks ago we had Toro as the feature. toro is from jeh-sey (say it like if you’re from queens) so i knew he was NOT bringing in any new peeps. well, the core crowd showed up and frog prince showed up with three other cats and helped make the open mic a blast. i also had my first sort-a-kinda rabble rouser in the house as this dude from manhattan called up jimmy and asked to be on the open mic– jimmy said yeah to get him to come in and then pulls the bait and switch on him and says that i’m the one in charge of the open mic. no dis to jimmy, its his job to get people to show up and then he was right that i control the mic so the guy gets a bit pissed that he came up all this way and may not get on the mic… so pissed he starts making a fuss while someone is reading. a part of me wanted to tell him to leave and stop being a five year old but i need new blood in the place so i bent a bit backwards but still made him sweat it as i put it up to an audience vote.

back to toro who, like grisel before him, brought a mini band to back up his set. (funny aside, there were a few synonymII that had people showing up without backup when we specifically told them it was collaborative!) the set was great in that toro is NO one trick pony, his stuff ranges from hip-hop to classical to lyrical to political all while maintaining his unique perspective… and again i wish more people had come. this time around though, i wished it had been some more love from the louderCREW. not cuz we need them to be in the venue just because toro is that good and it would be great for them to catch somebody different up there. the personal recap remains the same but add that i had way too much fun as host this time– makin jokes with the crowd & buggin out on the late dude. so now i think i have hit a good stride in hosting the spot.

after the show is over i talk to gerard and noel, toro’s back up band, to invite them to louderJAM. gerard’s repsonce “can i bring my drum kit?” holy shit, we got a house band!

yep, for a free ticket, gerard brought his drum kit, noel his electic guitar and ray had pete come in on percussion, andy on bass, omri on guitar and ray inserted himself as the chief of musica on the 505. louderJAM was a blast and the full house band was da bomb. afterwards, there was talk of how the band made it all come together in a way that e(g) said was “what louderJAM was always meant to be” but the real glue is raymond daniel. we had a JAM back in september and ray made that bad boy come alive and this one was no exception. louderJAM and synonymUS will only work if you have someone that has a keen left ear for poetry and right ear for music, ray is not the only person that can do it but he is the only person in louder that can do it. our other musically inclined members are more in the singing part of the spectrum and there is nothing fancy or new about adding a vocal onto a poem and no one should act as such… but adding a six piece piece band that has never played together before and making them instantly vibe with a poem… that’s some shit. it would be great if someone else could step up and give ray a hand but i only see one candidate on the horizon… louder can keep thinking all it needs is a well rehearsed band but if that band doesnt know how to adapt to the changing emotional spectrum in a persons poem then you might as well play a cd behind the poet cuz it aint gonna happen.

quick recap– jai rocked, this new poet (jazz) kicked it something fierce up there working with music for the first time, ditto for this dude from oneonta with a fun sex poem, onome and farbeon both excelled in that they both have a great lyrical flow and they both messed up at then end and just freestyled out. toro rocked! the corporation arrested lynne in a great fun moment. fish tried out his bronx ode with chance, alexa and myself… the best was the five minute romp that ray led the band through after fish finished. i can pick up when ray is giving the band signals and i knew this was going to be a ‘rock out wit ya cokc out’ moment. blair kicked ass as a feature doing his requisite aria to his father and following up with new work and some musical stuff with the band. all i can say is this, any poet who could be booked for a slamTHIS!, louderEDGE or louderJAM is head and shoulders above the rest. blair also happens to be a wonderful human being and i was lucky enough to catch up with him the week before at urbana and talk for a few which was really cool.

tuesday was the faith project which i was late for and missed the first 15 minutes. i did enjoy what i did catch but felt that the cast was not used to their fullest potential. there were seven people on stage and only three were really showcased. shawn was making nice drop-in appearances adding commentary to the poems and songs that was a great break moment but may have been better used as an ensemble moment. all in all, i enjoyed the show and was happy to see mara, sabrina and elana onstage.

here is the funny part– one hour show at the bowery/three hour after party at cafe orlin!

thursday finds me back at urbana as part of taylor mali’s corporation and the dark future slam. much too much fun as i busted out my suit and tie and was in character the whole night. taylor has WAY too much time on his hands as he planned out everything and had surprise after surprise up his sleeve.

ok, enough for now. i’ll try to keep up more in that i have some more thoughts on the fiath project and the dark future slam but am just way too blogged out right now. if you read this and care at all about my emotional well being, come to Acentos on tuesday to see mariposa and enjoy the good poetry.

i’m heading back to wichita!

“The consequences that I’ve rendered”

let’s start with the last two mondays…

last week was an interesting version of louderJAM with ray holding it down and hauling his equipment to help out again. i only mention this because i have helped him haul HALF the stuff around a couple of times and know that it is a bitch of a task and the fact that he does it sometimes to help people out for just one(!) poem is really amazing. elana did a fantastic job hosting the open mic and kept all the energy flowing in all the right spots. i busted out “Djembe” ver 3.0 with ray on the 505, ivan on drums and jai

helping out with vocals. using ray was a lil bit of overkill but he needed a guinea pig for sound check purposes and so i gave in… otherwise, the piece went pretty well and it also marked my first time on the 13 open mic in almost three months and that shit is

not going to continue… more latah. heidi young busted out an energetic set maybe too energetic as she was put on late and her always in high gear style left some folks (that were shifting down to second) put off and thus she got back almost no love. a real shame since she always puts a ton of work into her performances and that is something that i can not always say for many ‘top name’ features that i have seen come through

this week was womanEDGE and we had another first time host, syreeta, who also did a fantastic job up there. some think there is no science to hosting but after seeing some bad hosts and me, myself, having done a few bad jobs; i would disagree and say that

hosting is a crazy mix of your proper energy melding with the correct audience and right tone of poets… the science is in keeping it all together when those factors are off. i have hosted the last two Acentos with CRAZY shit on my mind and have had

more than one person who is privy to my personal life comment on how well i looked up there… and that my homies is the science.

the open mic at 13, as of late, has been flush with new peeps and that is always the biggest plus i can put on a night… this one girl dropped the most dopest piece about a ship in a bottle then brought it to strangers sharing a bottle then whipped it to this relationship becoming a sinking ship in the bottle… bananas!

there was something oddly hypnotic about her voice as well which added to the surrealism of the piece. after telling her how tight her poem was i then asked if she could e-mail me a copy. she did one better and gave me the paper she read from with an inscription to me and told me that my compliment was much appreciated since she really likes my work.

well, it’s moments like that that validate all the work that goes into this craziness.

jayme did well with a new poem but then walked off-stage like if she did something wrong. strange since off-mic j is one of the coolest peeps i know and lets lil faze her. told her after that she needs to bring some more of that with her especially when she

approaches and leaves the mic… when i started out good, funny intros were the only thing saving my ass.

mara’s feature was hell-a-dope and she keeps getting stronger up in the spotlight. her uppercase last year had her practically hiding behind the stand and her nuyo feature had her much looser but with some hints of trepidation that were clear to the casual observer… this set had her bust out a musical freestyle to start which took some crazy guts and then she never looked back. i missed most of the interview that GK did cuz i was getting the judges together for the slam with lynne and dawn.

the head to head was pretty one-sided with lynne taking the bout four rounds to one. in my head i has dawn taking the ‘coke classic’ & ‘family poem’ rounds and lynne takin’ the ‘freestyle’ (fuh real), ‘sexy poem’ and ‘anything goes’ rounds.

checked out the Asian American Writers Workshop again this month and i just love that i am such a nobody there. jeanie knows me and the organizers, harry & marc, make a nice fuss and say that they are happy to have someone with some experience up there but the crowd don’t know me for shit and it feels good to win people over on just your words… i have busted out the oldies and goodies up there but next time will try something brand new and see how it goes.

on the poetry front that is about it… on the personal front there is much more going on but i have always kept that this bad boy be a running journal of my poetic experiences and also want it to be something that DRAWS people into the word scene and doesnt make them think its all a big soap opera… which it is but so is your job and your family and your special somebody and your local candy store… so if it is a big soap opera it should be YOUR soap opera and not just one person’s perspective of it all… no matter how connected he appears.

“I’m that cat by the bar toasting to the good life”

Monday– After a week off it was good to see 13 fill up quick and

early. Mondays are all about momentum and even the one week lay off could

severely fuck with attendance. My internet usage is down and that meant

that I couldn’t get the loudNOTES out as fast as aI wanted too and I

was afraid that might fuck things up as well. Good Open Mic with a ton

of new voices. Bonafide had a really tight and well thought set which

only means good things for his feature this Tuesday at Acentos.

The 1-2-3 Slam was aight with most people trying to cram a two minute

poem into a minute (a mistake I did last year) and time penalties

galore. The best part of the whole thing was seeing Jai & Rich Villar

getting a chance to shine. Jai has been a rising star for the last few

months at 13 and with his musical and singing talents coming out at the

recent synonymUS jams, Rich came in second in his very first Slam at 13, a

feat that took me almost 18 months to achieve, and he had quite a few

folks pulling for him to pull out the victory. Best part is that Rich

is really happy with his finish and will probably use it as a great

stepping stone once the Slam season officially kicks in.

Tuesday– My muthafuckin’ brithday! A day I generally let go by

without great fanfare though last year I made a bit of a production about it

and invited everyone to come to 13 for the 1-2-3 Slam, my how the

coincidences line up. Everybody that showed up had a good time and it was

cool introducing my new louder friends to the rest of my homies. Made

it to the second round of that Slam which marked the first time I ever

survived a first round in any Slam but then e(g) asked me to be the

in-between poet for the next round and that marked the first time I ever

felt any extra special love from the louder crew. Back to this year,

after a lazy day off I went with Fish to check out the Open House for the

new Bronx Academy of Letters. Then proceeded to get into a

disagreement with Fish over my lack of speaking time. Fish is hysterical in that

whatever goes wrong is never a big deal, that’s great when things are

small annoyance but frustrating when they are persistent lapses in

judgment. Of course, I think everything is a big deal so we can see mucho

clash developing.

After that we check out DEMOcrazzzy, a VIA production that includes

Lynne & Rog. The show was pretty dope and a great blueprint for what

synonymUS could be one day. I was taking notes like a muthafucka (a habit

I’ve picked up from Lynne & Marty) A good number of NYC poets sent me

some good wishes and a bunch showed up at DEMO couple that with a

cupcake & candle (courtesy of Maria) and mah friends and the VIA folks

singing me ‘Happy Birthday’ and I was one happy mofo.

Wednesday– Unable to secure a new space in time led to the

cancellation of synonymUS’ June show. A real let down but at least it let some

of the crew head to the Blue Ox for Ray’s feature with the BCA. John

Rodriguez was the other featured poet and his set was damn good. Then

the louderCREW was on… Elana doing ‘My Lover’ to CD perfection, GK

with ‘Burst’, Marty reprising ‘Homeland’ (Elana on backup) and then I hit

‘Mery on the Battelfield’ complete with Ray on the 505. The place

freaked the fuck out for all our shit and ‘MotB’ had the crowd already to

start dancing as Ray dropped his set. When he first showed me his list

of poems I was sure it was way too many but Ray went with his instincts

and was right.

Leslie of BCA was extremely happy and plans on continuing the shows

even without funding through the summer. The biggest thing was watching

the louder folks in the corner as Ray’s set was going on. Everybody was

just so damn supportive and it made me real happy to be a part of the

crew and knowing that I have that kinda support as well.

Thursday– Fish says ‘We’re hanging out… just me & you… no

poetry… no distractions’ That shoulda been my first clue in that there are no

more conversations without poetry anymore but I didn’t. He picks me up

after work and as we head towards the Triborough I guess that we are

hitting Salinas, home of the ‘Ceviche’ poem. Hittin the on-ramp to the

BQE I start thinking that this would be a great chance for a surprise

party with all the peeps there but I don’t say anything. We pull up and

there is Guy’s car and I know I’m right as five seconds later…

“Surprise!” Salinas has never been as full as that night with Guy, Salome,

India, Isaac, e(g), Cheryl Boyce, Youlanda, Rich, Maria, Jayme, D-Roy,

Elana, Marty, Seve, Rog, GK, Mara, Lynne, Bonafide, Helen, Ed, Jeannie,

Rachelle, Taylor, Dawn and my Vision crew of Jay, Keith, Miguel and his

new bride Angela all at a big ass table that I have to bust out the

cell for to call Fish. There was ceviche, churasco, Tropical, Manzana,

Inca, platanos, menestra y pescado all over the place and then Eric shows

up. Man, I almost cried right there. A poem by Ray and Gk helped

liven up the event and then the most amazing cake ever (dos besos Maria)

appeared complete with some of my poems written on it!

I have been on a Star Trek type mood with only even number years being

good birthdays and the odd number ones being kinda flat. This year

looked to follow the same pattern but that shit went out the window with

this jam. Maria tells me that at one point she looked around the table

and said ‘Damn, there is so much talent here. It’s just amazing…’ I

agreed, of course ‘… and all here for you.’

I am officially the luckiest leafblower on the planet.

Friday– Back to Rikers but this time with the louder crew. I know, it

seems I cant do shit without them. After losing Ray in Queensboro

Plaza (long story) it boils down to me, Fish, GK, Helen, Lynne, Ed and

Bonafide giving the guys a special showcase. We gave them a great show and

they left there utterly fascinated with the diversity of all our work

and style of performance and also with the ‘perfect poem’ myth

shattered. Poetry is what you make it was the morale of the story and they

fully accepted that lesson. Throw in the two chapbooks that each guy got

and the free books we gave a C.O. who also expressed a ton of interest

and it was mission accomplished for the louderARTS. “We saved some

lives today,” is what I tell Rog later and it’s true… as corny as it

sounds, it’s true. If we pointed just one of them towards writing then we

did a ton of good and that’s what its all about.

A great convo with Bonafide followed as we basically had the louderEDGE

interview he was looking forward to having Monday as we discussed his

work and motivations. I was comfortable enough to share with him what

I did NOT like about his poems and some of my trepidation as a writer

who is much younger in literary experience. The resulting answers and

introspection got us to agree to do it Tuesday for Acentos, which is

really the crowd that should be hearing how a 25 year old Boricua from the

Bronx gets his own book and lands spots on two national slam teams.

What a fuckin week! Mind you, I aint tellin ya about last week’s

synonymUS jam with Mara, Elana, Jai, Ray, Bonafide, Michele, Pete, Matt,

Youlanda & Seve or this week’s jam wich had Lynne rockin out to the

fullest.

Love ya like I baked ya mahself with fresh raspberries, canoli cream,

yellow sponge, homemade buttercream and a marzipan pen on top!