The Nahuatl VCU slam team, consisting of poets Rob Gibson, Kristine Hadeed, Saidu Tejan-Thomas, Kyle Raiche, and Breonca Trofort, made quite a splash on the national stage in their first year of competition at CUPSI (College Union Poetry Slam Invitational). After earning the scholarship to to California by winning the ACUI regional in Blacksburg, the VCU Nahuatl team took the CUPSI national competition by storm their first night in California, and placed themselves atop the standings, number 1 overall after the first preliminary bout. Everyone immediately took notice of the VCU rookie team from there on out, and they ended up making semi-finals, finishing in a tie for 8th place in the nation. Coach Hamilton Graziano said, “I couldn’t be more proud of this team of young poets. They came into an extremely tough competition as a first year team, and not only blew me away with their performances, but also with the way they carried themselves in their interactions with other teams. The class that they showed in competition, and the positive energy they brought with them everywhere really made a great impression for their school and city.” Videos of VCU’s CUPSI performances can be found in our video section.
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With our Ram Slam competitions at Shafer St. Playhouse, Nahuatl formed VCU’s first ever CUPSI slam team. The four members of Nahuatl’s VCU team have been practicing hard under the guidance of coach Hamilton Graziano and recently returned home to Richmond as the champions of the ACUI region 5 competition, which was held in Blacksburg. Their prize is a scholarship out to Laverne, California in April for the National Competition. The young poets’ success has brought a new spark and energy to the Nahuatl poetry community, and the Ram Slam team will continue to work hard to prepare for their trip in April.
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“Is this Heaven?” “No, it’s Iowa” by Daniel José Custódio
April 16, 2009, Gallery 5 – And so Ray Kinsella (Kevin Costner) answers his father in “Field of Dreams,” by far one of my favorite films of all time. In many ways I can relate to Ray Kinsella, the “crazy” man who risked everything in order to build a farm all because he heard a haunting whisper, “If you build it he will come.” He didn’t know what this meant, but he had faith and turned his farm land into a “useless” baseball field.
In 2007, I founded Slam Nahuatl with Vladimir Rodriguez. At the time, I was financially successful and lived what most would consider a comfortable life. I remember my good friend asking me why I would want the added burden of starting something that would involve a lot of energy and provide little return, especially in a society where poetry isn’t often valued. I didn’t have a good answer for him back then. I guess you can say I heard that same haunting whisper Ray Kinsella heard.
And as the movie goes, Ray was not alone. He journeyed to Boston to convince a former writer, Terrence Mann (James Earl Jones), to join him; former because he wanted to just be left alone and didn’t want the pressures of being the voice of a generation. He also picked up Archibald “Moonlight” Graham (Burt Lancaster), a retired baseball player turned doctor who never got the chance to get an at bat. And so I came across Rasul “The Knowbody” Elder, a former slam poet who was banished from the Richmond slam community and never had the chance of touching final stage at Nationals and, later, Chances R Good, an amazing poet who didn’t want the pressures of being in a slam. And these individuals were joined by many, many more.
In our first year, I remember pushing our team hard with countless practices that went past midnight. We all sacrificed all of our free time and, personally, I put my marriage through strain it was not ready to handle. In the end, Slam Nahuatl became the second ranked team in the nation in group piece competition. Like Ray, we thought the mission was accomplished. But like Ray, we would soon come to find out that it was not. There were more whispers, “Go the distance.”
Shanté Young, single mother of two children (photo by Inkera)
And Slam Nahuatl did exactly that with the End Hunger Slam Series. The goal was simple yet lofty: raise one year’s worth of groceries for a family in need. On April 16, 2009 Slam Nahuatl did just that, presenting Shanté Watkins, single mother of two children, with an entire year’s worth of groceries. We built it and you, the Richmond community, came. We went the distance together and it was beautiful to see how when people in a community come together miracles can be accomplished; how a place like Gallery 5 became heaven this year.
