Lit Slam

okay so i’m writing this semi thorough review cuz i didn’t know what to expect my first time there so i hope those of you reading this would find it helpful:
my friend and i went this past monday; arrived at 8:15 (the event starts at 8 it says on their website).but the first poet didn’t go up until about 8:45. the person at the door says sliding scale between $ 5 – 10 per person so my i gave $ 15 between both of us.
the venue space downstairs is quite intimate. about room for maybe 50 – 75 people. i really liked how the stage was set up, candles and dim lighting throughout the room, but not too dark where you can’t see the person next to you. stage was big and there was a bar in the back that sold soda, beer, wine. two bottled beers for $ 8. no snacks but we brought our own and they didn’t seem to mind it. the night we went probably had about 30 people, with so much room left. crowd was diverse. and by diverse. i mean whatever you think diverse means.
the poets ranged from mediocre to great. but nothing awesome. i must have heard about 15 poems. first round of 8 poets (1 minute each), second round of 5 poets? (2 minutes each) and third round of 3 poets (3 minutes each). they choose random people to be judges (editors) who wrote down scores of the poems on papers and the winner of the night would have their poem published in their book. i’ve been to a few slam poetry events, i wasn’t too impressed with the poems but kudos to those who can get up on stage and read the most intimate writings.
the event ended at about 11 pm. overall feeling of it was i’d probably go back, but not anytime soon. everyone seem to know each other and lots of inside jokes and yelling across the room. vibe was chill and laid back. the special guest poet came up stage pretty buzzed but no one cared since his readings were pretty good.
anyways, i’d recommend it to people who were looking for something different to do on a monday and to try it out at least once.

Walking the dark, frigid (ish) street of Valencia at 8pm on a Monday sounds like a lonely night for a hipster. Thankfully, I’m no hipster. I knew where I was headed, and that was to my first experience of Viracocha, beautifully hosted by Lit Slam. Now, what on Earth could Lit Slam be?! Well, I wasn’t quite sure myself, I must be honest. I thought it might have to do with poetry, but the «lit» part made me wonder if there wasn’t a bit of story quality to the event. In the end, what I found to be true was that the performances I saw blew my mind.
Lit Slam, as it turns out, is a poetry slam competition in three rounds — the grand prize being a publication in a literary journal. The competition was incredible, fierce, heart-​wrenching, and entertaining as all get out. Some poets and some poems were better than others, but the audience and the community had a high energy that kicked time into high gear, and before I knew it, the night had ended. The feature poet for the night, a man named Jamaal May (from Detroit), melted my face, just a bit. So if you see me disfigured and walking down the street a bit funny, it’s because this man damn near blew me away. You know what’s inspirational? A bunch of younger mind-​blowing adults putting together an unforgettable night that inspired me to go home and start writing. And it was only their première show! Now that’s worth every wink of sleep I missed on a school night!
I’ll definitely be back.