what more can i say!?

austin was and is beautiful... life was hectic ova der! the festival was a bit err different this year. but dont let me jump ahead. i'll start from the beginning!

wed: j and i head to the airport. i had my first WHEELCHAIR ride, courtesy of this damn cast & might i say -- i was pretty much feelin' myself! oh no! not only did they push me around in that lil' piece of steel and vinyl heaven - but, we passed ALL OF THE SECURITY LINES! and what a day to do it. they were wrapped around the corner like jive's groupies! (sorry i couldn't help it!) and we were off to make the boarding! first on the plane, nice... had a nice nap all the way to texas, where reggie met us and sped us to firebirds. a nice burrito shack (understatement, trust me) and we filled on chicken and steak MONSTER burritos. i should've taken a picture of the damn thing -- it was crazy big -- like my butt! whoa!
next we headed to Ivanho's house (former poet present singer). we watched movies while J snored on the floor like a damn geezer and i watched leguizamo in a riveting role in King of The Jungle... Rosie Perez, Anabella Sciorrie and my boy Michael Rapaport was in it -- if you wanna know that story email me! we later went to feature at Neo Soul at Club Sahara and it was a nice warm and receptive crowd. one thing cant nobody tell me about is the hospitality and support you get from AUSTIN... there are one or two fake ass mutha-sucka's in the bunch, but that's life homie. Kim, my sista from another mutha was hosting with our B-Fran the man that can throw the hottest impromptu poetry party (worldwide). watched their youth slam team get down, a gang of poets -- left and got some jack in the crack (two cheesecakes, please!) and headed to B's crib...

thurs: reggie came and swooped us to registration where we looked at each other and wondered why the hell we were awwake so damn EARLY. touring artists KNOW: jetlag is so SINCEREEEEE. i tried to OD on coffee, before KIM looked out and took me to get some starbucks (i cant do that organic ish) where i partook in the White Mocha GOODNESS, one for me and one for my girl amanda! yea, i met her mom. she is so cute. we sat in a circle, agnes (my favorite UK' WOMAN POET), nii, amanda johnston (the martha stewart impersonator!), jive (who?), thomas, tim gibbard (flyest dude in the tallest shoes), mike (freebie jukebox poet) and everybody else that walked up to our COOL table and said HEY! amanda placed first in the anthology reading (go girl) and we laughed hard until rescued Jive and I. we went to dinner at LOGANS. a place where they throw peanuts on the floor -- i'm thinking "I got more home training than this!" but i tried and threw one shell on the floor just for the thrill of it! unfortunately, our waitress was a bit too popular, because the dudes next to us, tossed a peanut at her. it ricocheted off her shoulder and hit the Jive in the knee -- he then finds his NEW YORK STATE OF MIND and offers these young men a taste of his fists. subtly of course. they say, "dude, it's cool. sorry" but continue talking shyt under their breath. Kim overhears the chaos and loses her freakin' mind. she gets the manager -- who is of little help, as far as they are concerned, and then requests the regional manager's information. after this little interrogation homeboy is shivering and the fella's apologize again before finding the exit. i look at my salad - sure they are spitting in my plate of steak and catfish as we speak before asking the waitress to cancel the order. sure we will just have to snack on muffins from the coffeeshop where we will perform at in 30 minutes, but Kim insists. says they wont do nothing "or else" and we eat the food that miraculously finds its way to our table. the show that evening... dulls from the shine of this one - so flub it.

friday: we have a radio interview with reggie to promote the mitchie's show and a slam that evening. jive is the feature, since he's the winner of last year's title -- so it's up to me to do my thug thizzle. first prize (man and woman highest ranking receive) three hunnet and fiddy dollas... taalam is also the feature (as he and jive tied) so the opening raises the bar of poetry by a freeekn mile! i aint mad though. relentless takes care of me - pure southern hospitality. mike henry, videographer of the upcoming flick "SLAM PLANET" and austin slammaster (i think) hosts the jumpoff and joaquin and akua take first, me second and tito from corpus cripus takes 3rd... nice afterwards, we make our way to waterloo for chicken wings, cramping our bodies into Mike Guinn's mustang (baller) just to be greeted with an "KITCHEN CLOSED" sign! boooooo taalam then suggests Baby A's a spot with great drinks and questionable food... too bad we found out after all 15 of us were seated. Akua, Izm Dark & King Savior (phoenix), Vocab, Joe, Jamela (Aqua's peoplez) and several others sat with Jive, Mike and myself feenin' for chips and salsa. akua and i got buck -- i can't front. i could've lit a match with that hotazz stuff. but i was starving - so hell! jive's plate of food was purely DISGUSTING. so we returned that. paid the bill and found our way back to B-Fran's crib.

sat: i don't wanna wake up. neither did j. but we had several shows, including my favorite MITCHIEs. Reggie was picking us up to drop us off. but i wasnt feeln that so much. so i acted like a diva. stayed in my PJ's and talked to KA and B downstairs while Tweet cooked breakfast. Jo, B's wife to be, hooked up the starbucks after giving me some really cute coffee-like capuccino! i love her. she has the best love poems. i call her the julia roberts of poetry... ya know, you fall in love when listening to her poems and really want her to fall in love too (i.e., pretty woman: ho meets trick -- fall in love, pleez. my best friend's wedding: friend wants to take friend from fiancee, dammit ho! fall in love pleez! and mona lisa's smile: teacher teaches ladies not to just be a ho, but falls out of love in the process DAMMIT!). anyway - we eat beef sausages, and Tweet (a man that had a heart attack on thursday and recovered by saturday) offers to cook a brisket for our going away dinner. this is when B-Fran promises a poetic after party to close out the festival. did you hear that? i think i heard the angels singing! laaaaaaaaaa
we eat, head to our designated features, jive at the coffeeshop and me at mitchies (all day) for the next 8 hours. that's right people. poetry ALL DAY! the first reading was real light (less than 20 people) but i met some nice ladies from Panama and a new poet (as of the night before after being inspired by the slam). the next reading, J and Jo show up with her son Youngstar (a powerhouse) and her lil' momma AUBREY! das my girl we played UH OH for about 30 minutes...i swear
the urban slam then pops off and we have over 20 poets hit the mic. Joe kills it with SPRUNG, Jive rips it with Once Upon A Date Rape, Vocab and Sassy have an incredible group piece and several other honorable mentions -- but did you hear me say over 20 poets? damn.

right after that -- we have another showcase called the urban showcase as a part of the festival and taalam, jive, KA, Knowtorius 13, Izm, myself, Mike Guinn and Youngstar. we did it like a theatrical production and it was phenomenal. an outstanding way to end the festival - i must say! we had a poetry auction (which was so fun) and it was between god's gift and a systa i nicknamed "camisole" (because of her shirt!) and afterwards we cleaned up. i shopped: scoring a book entitled the american directory of uncle tom's. joyce gave amari two books and two beautiful picture frames for her christmas photoz, before we headed to B's for the poetry party. there we were greeted with dominoes, spades, chess, pool and boisterous laughter. the brisket was BANGIN', the macaroni salad was DOPE - B was stressing and i was taking advantage of the moment! relentless and i shared the dominoes table but lost by a full house. i just found a seat to devour the remainder of my cheesecake, took pictures (will put em up soon) and laughed until my stomach hurt. taalam made jokes on the sly. KA let me make fun of him, alot! and at 1am, we stopped all other activity and commenced to having our OWN DAMN POETRY SHOW! didn't chu hear me when i said HEY? for the next 3 hours, we heard poetry from everyone in the room (as they were all poets) and i didn't go to sleep until near 4am.

less than 4 hours later, reggie takes J, and I to the airport... where we will sleep on an over-filled aircraft with memories of the best poetry community in the country. word up

bak n bklyn