Quick Hit: Patricia Smith's BLOOD DAZZLER and other business

I'm sitting at the bar of the Bowery Poetry Club waiting for the third of three New York City regional poetry slams to begin. Every year before the National Poetry Slam, the three (or four, sometimes five) NYC slam teams get together to practice, fundraise, and compete for bragging rights in three of the slam thingies I've grown so ambivalent towards. Well. It's still a lot of fun, and tonight, perhaps against my better judgment, I'm "livetweeting" the event. If you feel like checking it out without logging into Twitter, you can check out the nifty tracking tool to the right of this page. Or, if you feel like diving into the maelstrom (even Barbara Jane dived into the wreck!) then get your own account and follow me: www.twitter.com/elprofe316

Quickie shout: Big ups to Patricia Smith, Paloma MacGregor (choreographer), Patricia MacGregor (director), and a crew of crazyamazing dancers and actors for bringing Smith's BLOOD DAZZLER to life in front of a hella impressive turnout on the Lower East Side's Classic Stage Company last night. There is a lot to say about it, much of it leading naturally from my previous post. If there is a performance poetry, methinks it's poets like Patricia, Sekou Sundiata, Ntozake Shange, and poets of this ilk that have truly shown us what physical enactment does for both the eye, ear, and heart of the audience listening in. Much much more to say about this work-in-progress, but for now, it's time for jackassery of the highest degree. ;-)

Ah, technology, ye devil!