last night was the Hunger & Full slam, which, as it was explained to me, meant you had to bring poems concerning food or appetite (for what- you decide)

the no brainer in this bad boy is to do the Ceviche poem and then (as slam has a tendency to do) ride the wave…

ah but i was feeling some extra paprika in my goulash last night and was not thinking in the conventional and, on the real, i wasnt even planning on doing the slam at all until this poem came out of hiding and emerged on to the paper

POEM FOR THE HISPANICS

WHO INSIST ON MISPRONOUNCING

THE MENU ITEMS AT THE CHINO-LATINO RESTAURANT

I don't understand

What is so hard

About asking

For #17.

and that be it folks. as i was going up the only thought going through my head, since i got the magic #5 out of 5 slammers spot was

“Either Ima win this whole suckah right here, right now

or Ima go down in a burst of flames.”

call the ladder & engine! and tell em to bring water, lots and lots of water!!

and i have a new all time slam low score to add to the mental rolodex- four point one (replacing the five point two i got when i slammed on my birthday two years ago)

for a total score of 22.5 (give or take)

my response to the judges- sounds about right!

i have not had that much in a while and it was just part of a great night were the louderCREW took very little and made it into a fun night

making the point very alive (at least for me) that the Slam is exactly what you make the Slam and you never ever let it make you (this message brought to you by the staff and friends of W.E.R.D. and affiliated peoples)

tonight- the blue ox! no poetry! only a bunch of friends getting together to celebrate the underdog and have some fun and hijinks- and guess what? i am still feeling giddy…

make it happen!

who woulda thunk it- patrick rosal has a blog!

Juan Diaz

Eliel Lucero

Matthew Charles Siegel

Jessica Torres

will be competing at this year’s New York City Regional Slam against NYC|louderARTS, NYC|Nuyorican, NYC|Urbana and a team to be determined using the 3×5 format on Thursday, July 22nd (@ the Bowery Poetry Club), Friday, July 23rd (@ the Nuyorican Poets Cafe) and Monday, July 26th (@ Bar13)

and that, party people, is all from the news desk here at W.E.R.D. radio

The last time I went to the Puerto Rican Day parade was maybe 11 years ago with Mike, Tom, Jose, John P, Angel, and the rest of the crew. We are somewhere in Central Park avoiding the main crowd and things were going well until un boracho decides to grab Tom’s snake by the head and have an encounter session-

Como estas culebrita?

I then grab said drunk’s wrist and twist it back-

Let go of the snake.

(To add context, you have to remember that for the most part, Tom has always enjoyed the company of his pets over the interaction of say 99.9% of the populace he meets up with.)

El boracho lets go of the snake and it all happens so quickly that nobody really notices the incident. We get to maybe 57th Street when the realization that I could have set off something bigger hits me. It is not crazy to imagine that this brother was rolling with a few friends and the chances that he was hanging with a deeper posse is probably closer to the truth and here I am, manhandling him, like if its all cool and sheet.

That’s when I knew that the claustrophobia that I get around large crowds was getting to me. Don’t get it twisted- I can have fun with a score of my friends or at least friends of friends but once strangers are added to the equation, it’s kinda over.

Yesterday marked my first ever foray into the fabled 116th Street Festival. Let’s just say that it was a true prelude to most of the depravity I’ve encountered on the day of the Parade.

Lowlights

-A girl handing out free condoms getting surrounded by six dudes on a corner. She looked like Richard Todd against the Raiders defense.

-Commenting on the skimpy outfits

o.b.: If I want to see these outfits, I could just really go to the beach

Caroline: Or just go online

o.b.: Werd

-Seeing some of these outfits up close. Good from far… but far from good.

-The lines of guys waiting to pounce on women walking solo

-The cops looking down on everybody

-The masses pressed against barricades

– Commentary from a young teenager as the ladies pass by: Da devil dun made that azz!

Highlights

-Hanging at Carlitos for a minute

– Commentary from a young teenager as the ladies pass by: Da devil dun made that azz! (Yes, it is a highlight AND lowlight!)

-Hector Rivera and Ray of the Welfare Poets, Flaco Navaja & Tato of Yerba Buena and crew getting down with the drums

-Rich: Where can I get a Boricua flag?

o.b.: you stoopid!

-What else- The Food! Arepas, emanadillas, arroz con pollo, arroz con damn near everything (Quote the Maven , ever more), mangoes, maduros con queso blanco(!), nectar Goya,

Sorry but I still can’t get down with this display of pride. Maybe it’s cuz I aint Potro Rok but most likely cuz I am a true introvert but I would just rather hang out at the roof of a brownstone with a grill and a set of binoculars alongside the

peeps. My real tribe. Ya know?

here is the latest weird ass key words that have brought mofos to mah lil rincon

ronald +reagan +tributes +poems +inspiration

:: yeah, whatever. the image on ronnie pimping out the bx and using it to dog out the late 70s administration has haunted me for a long f’ing time. since he helped take monies out of housing and into defense once he got there is just extra piss on the grave from me. oh yeah, other big budget cut from the 80’s: alternative fuel research. and, of course, if we were using something other than oil by now we wouldn’t give a shit what happens in the middle easty now would we?

hispanic girls lucero poems

:: it seems that grande may have some kinda of cyber stalker… sheet! i don’t even have a stalker! what’s going on here?!?

nike bo jackson

:: it took me a minute to figure out if i was reminiscing on a Tribe called Quest or if i was talking about watching the game where his hip went out but Nope! me thinks it refers back to the ‘subway rat’ incident. anywhos- Bo knows this…

thin house chicago

:: you got me. was there a party going on at nats that i should have known about? this sounds much to much like 3am code.

q&a about vince and linda mcmahon

:: the couple of weeks i took off from 13 let me enjoy wrestling again so i’ll say (being its a q&a) that there is mucho hope in the young bloods and if you cut out the dead weight of the ‘taker and bury the “renegade employee pissed at his boss and the assorted minions” storyline once and for all- then the WWE can get back into its groove. oh, BENOIT is still god

oscar the poet blog

:: uh, oh! it looks like i may just have a stalker!

Ecuadorian poem

:: thats right, babee! reppin’ the lower hemisphere to the fullest!

eric guerri??

:: i dont know how to spell it either. always go back to louderarts.com and copy&paste, tu sabes? e(g) if its you- miss ya mofo. chop, chop, squish- for life!

spiderman2 doc ock toy

:: i’m still pissed about the trailer!

eric guerrieri little girl poems

:: i am stew.pe.fried!!!

boricua anthem poems

:: try rich’s blog and dont forget to hit the special WEPA! button

and finally,

smooth spanglish poems

:: dem sheets is all copyrighted, i hope you know! any luck you get with them, at least be civil enough to email me her sisters number!!

ah! i am loving the silliness, today

i have a whole weekend off who knows what kinda trouble ima get into…