The Orlando Poetry Team Slam was hosted at The Milk Bar Lounge (2424 E Robinson St, Orlando, Florida 32803.) Joe XO acted as the MC for the evening. Sign up started at 8 pm, and the Slam started at 9 pm.
There were two rounds with 3 minute poems, involving no props or costumes.
Round One had 12 teams, with the top five moving on.
Round Two had 5 teams, with the best poem winning. The winner received $50 and bragging rights. Solo pieces were not allowed. Every poem had to be a group piece. There had to be 2-3 people per team.
The Featured Poet for the evening was Jay Salazar. Salazar is a spoken word poet out of New Jersey and New York City. He writes about food, addiction, alcohol, and family. When he is not writing he is probably cooking, working out, eating, or binging some netflix show that isn’t that good. It was Jay that I decided to sketch behind the microphone. I loved that there was a simple smiley face poster on the far wall that said, “Be a good human.” I also loved that the Milk Bar’s dog was curled up on stage with the performers.