Ryan Brown wins the July Sedona Poetry Slam; money sends Flagstaff team to NPS

Results from the July 30th Sedona Poetry Slam

FlagSlam SlamMaster and three-time team alumnus Ryan
Brown won the July Sedona Poetry Slam on July 30.

Ryan Brown won the Sedona Poetry Slam, held Saturday, July 30, 2011, at Studio Live in Sedona, Arizona, 7:30 p.m.

The first round started a little rough, but all the poets got into the groove by the second round.

In the end, we raised a couple hundred dollars for the four Flagstaff National Poetry Slam Team members with an additional $40 donated by sound tech Mike Burdick and $50 from Jerry Buley, Ph.D.

Round 1
Random Draw

Calibration: Christopher Fox Graham of Sedona, "Open Letter to Dave Matthews"


nodalone†, aka Shaun Srivastava, of Flagstaff, "LeBron James," 27.0
Taylor Marie Kayonnie-Erlich†, of Flagstaff, "Call Me Wildfire, ‡" 27.3
Mikel Weisser, of Kingman, "My hair is here to be dangerous ...*," 26.4
Maple Dewleaf†, of Flagstaff, "Time Bomb, ‡" 25.5
Valence, of Flagstaff†, "Ordinary as Mountaintops, ‡" 27.3
Ryan Brown, of Flagstaff, "I've wanted to blend together with you ...*," 28.2

Sorbet: Christopher Fox Graham of Sedona, "Staring at the Milky Way with One Eye Closed"

Round 2
Reverse Order

Ryan Brown, of Flagstaff, "When we were first introduced ...*," 27.6, 55.8
Valence, of Flagstaff, "This is an open letter to the dissidents of my generation ...*," 27.7, 55.0
Maple Dewleaf, of Flagstaff, "Walking ‡," 28.1, 53.6
Mikel Weisser, of Kingman, "These Words," 28.5, 54.9
Taylor Marie Kayonnie-Erlich, of Flagstaff, "My Flock ‡," 28.7, 56.0
nodalone, of Flagstaff, "Rhetoric ‡," 27.6, 54.6

Clearing: Christopher Fox Graham of Sedona, "There is a Girl in Your County"

Round 3
High to Low

Sorbet: Christopher Fox Graham of Sedona, "Orion"

Taylor Marie Kayonnie-Erlich, of Flagstaff, "Today, he woke up with visions of the future ...*," 27.9, 83.9
Ryan Brown, of Flagstaff, "Goodbye (It takes guts to say it / to let that word drip from your lips ...*),"29.0, 84.8
Valence, of Flagstaff, "Fever Dreams ‡,"27.4, 82.4
Mikel Weisser, of Kingman, "A 1,000 Best Days," 27.8, 82.7
nodalone, of Flagstaff, "Line in the Sands ‡," 29.1, 83.7
Maple Dewleaf, of Flagstaff, "Dear Wildflower ‡," of Flagstaff, 27.8, 81.4

Special poem ('cause my mom was there): Christopher Fox Graham of Sedona, "The Peach is a Damn Sexy Fruit"

Photos courtesy of Tara Graeber

The Flagstaff National Poetry Slam Team, Taylor Marie

Kayonnie-Ehrlich, from left, nodalone, Valence and Maple

Dewleaf, will represent Northern Arizona at NPS in Boston
from Aug. 8 to 14.

Final scores
1st: Ryan Brown, of Flagstaff, $50

2nd: Taylor Marie Kayonnie-Erlich†, of Flagstaff, 83.9

3rd: nodalone†, of Flagstaff, 83.7

4th: Mikel Weisser, of Kingman, 82.7
5th: Valence†, of Flagstaff, 82.4
6th: Maple Dewleaf†, of Flagstaff, 81.4

Slam staff

Host, Scorekeeper and Timekeeper: Christopher Fox Graham
Organizers: April Payne of Studio Live and Christopher Fox Graham of Sedona 510 Poetry
Sound: Mike Burdick of Studio Live

Next Sedona Poetry Slam: GumptionFest VI, Saturday, Sept. 17, 2011, Studio Live, Sedona

* First line of poem; I don't know the title.
† Member of the 2011 Flagstaff National Poetry Slam Team
‡ Published in "Gossamer Outrage," the Flagstaff National Poetry Slam Team chapbook. Contact a team member to buy a copy.