Wagga Slam Heat, NSW
The Wagga heat was held on Friday, 17th September at the Home Tavern Hotel. It was the best turnout they've ever had with 16 poets competing and a large audience!
Derek Motion was the host for the night and was very pleased with the poets' performances and with the success of the event. Here's what he had to say:
"I’ve attended the Wagga heat of the National Poetry Slam for the last three years running. The first year I ended up being one of the randomly determined judges. The second year I put in some preparation and entered, and I was lucky enough to win a place in the NSW state final (despite my poem going over the 2 minute time limit). This year, I was asked to host the event. I gratefully accepted.
This year the event was held on a Friday night at the Home Hotel. The pub atmosphere suited the poetry slam style, and I was pleased to see we were treated to a huge range of performers and material. There were poets who read their material from the page in the traditional manner, and there were also many performance-oriented hip hop performers, getting up and doing their stuff without any musical backing. And of course there were performers whose style was somewhere in the middle, or quite undefinable. After a long and tense battle of poets (tense only for the poets themselves - the crowd enjoyed themselves immensely) we were left with an extremely close finish.
Peter Matthews finished 3rd. His poem about the ‘old Pete’ versus the young Pete was both funny and truthful. In 2nd place was Booranga President David Gilbey. His poem about the humour that can arise when attempting to communicate in a second language was also funny but true. Most importantly though these poems demonstrated what is essential to a good slam performance - good written material, and confident delivery. And finally, the 1st place winner was one of the younger entrants, Ben Wallace. His piece was (in his own words) a ‘third-person perspective on suicide’. It was moving, clearly articulated and included subtle rhymes. He was a deserving winner.
Overall, it was a fantastic evening and I look forward to being involved again next year. Our top two scorers Ben Wallace and David Gilbey are now allocated a place in the NSW state final for 2010 (to be held in late November), and I wish them the best of luck."
Wagga host, Derek Motion holds up a 'very specific' score card!
Winner, Ben Wallace
