Dream Con Poetry Slam Remixes Tradition

Dream Con Poetry Slam Remixes Tradition I done seen a lot of things at a cons, but the thing that will always surprise me more than detailed cosplays is seeing people gather to hear poetry. I attended thinking it would be a small gathering, but I stood in a line that wrapped through the Que room then spilled outside and around the corner. Mind you, this was a Saturday too, but I shouldn’t have been surprised. Dream Con was taking place in Houston, Texas, which always had a strong poetry scene. Back when the National Poetry Slam was still around, Houston would always send a slam team. Over the years, I’d often see them compete in bouts at NPS and thought that organization is gone, to this day, Houston still sends teams to take part in the Southern Fried Poetry Slam. For those that don’t know, a poetry slam is hosted by a Master of Ceremonies (Emcee if you nasty). Poets come up to read a poem under a certain time limit. After the poet is finished, the Emcee will ask the five judges to give their scores ranging from 0-10 (decimals are optional). The lowest and highest score are dropped, the remaining three are added together to get the poet’s final score. This is traditionally how a poetry slam operates. There are some variations, but the function remains the same. You could almost call it a tradition. Which is why I found it a surprise that there wasn’t a host. I’ve been competing in lam since 2003. I ain’t ever seen that before. Then, I was struck by another curve ball. There …