Photos by Chris Garay
Lawn Gnome Publishing held its Phoenix Poetry Slam Championship Saturday evening to determine the four poets who will represent Lawn Gnome in state, regional and national slam competitions.
The event was held at the Phoenix Center for the Arts and featured 10 poets presenting original compositions over the course of three rounds. Each poet had three minutes to perform and was awarded up to 10 points by each of the five judges. The lowest and highest judge scores in each round were dropped for a maximum of 30 possible points.
Poet Eirean Bradley won first place, scoring 88.5 points over the course of the three rounds. He was followed by Frankie Marchi in second place, Lawn Gnome owner Aaron Hopkins-Johnson in third and Jeremiah Blue in fourth. Tristan Marshell, who placed fifth, was named the team’s alternate.
The team will compete at the 2014 National Poetry Slam held in August in Oakland, Calif.
The judges were selected to eliminate biases, according to host Hattie Jean Hayes. In order for a person to be a judge, he or she could not have attended a previous poetry slam and could not have any personal connection to the poets.
Phoenix Center for the Arts facility coordinator Liliana Gomez reached out to Lawn Gnome when she heard they needed a space for the event.
“(Hopkins-Johnson) wanted a bigger space,” she said. “I said, ‘Well we have a theater at the center, have you been in there before?’ and he said, ‘Yeah, actually. I’ve been in there and it’s really nice.’”
For Gomez, the event fit perfectly with the mission of the center.
“The center is really trying to create a space for the community and Lawn Gnome, being a bookstore downtown and five minutes away from us, needing a space, that’s what we are trying to cater to,” she said. “We’re trying to create the space into more of a community space that people can use.”
Marchi said he prepared for the slam by going through the poems he had written and selecting the ones that received the best audience responses in the past. He said he experienced both tension and clarity while performing on stage.
“There were a few moments when I became hypercritical and realized I was saying everything wrong and that I needed to say it more perfect and that’s when I would burst with more energy and go crazy gunning for it,” he said. “And then there was definitely a moment that I loved when I could actually see the audience members. You have this moment of clarity where you could see everyone sitting here.”
Hopkins-Johnson said he was pleased with the event attendance and excited for the poetry slam team’s prospects.
“I’m organizing the Individual World Poetry Slam, so I might be too busy to compete,” he said. “I’ll know by the end of this week if I’ll be able to participate on the team or not.”
Despite being uncertain about his ability to participate, Hopkins-Johnson is confident about the quality of the team.
“I have full confidence that Tristan is going to be great if I can’t go. Any of the people that performed tonight could easily be on a team and do really well,” Hopkins-Johnson said. “Last year in the National Poetry Slam, we took seventh in the nation out of 80 and it was only our second year. I can only imagine better things this year from our team.”
Lawn Gnome, which hosts poetry slams every week, was robbed just a day before the championship on Valentine’s Day. Hopkins-Johnson said stolen items included electronics and employee paychecks.
In response to the burglary, community members formed events to raise money to help recover some of the damages. S&M Comedy raised more than $200 during a comedy event Friday at Space 55 and community members have organized a cash mob set for Tuesday. Lawn Gnome is also accepting donations on its website.
Editor’s Note: Host Hattie Jean Hayes is a former Downtown Devil contributing reporter. She did not contribute to the reporting or editing of this story.
Contact the reporter at travis.arbon@asu.edu
