New Royalty Reigns on Poetry Slam Throne
Ten heavyweights duked it out in Laguna Beach. When the smoke cleared after three intense bouts, only Orange County’s top four performance poets were left standing.
The winners of last week’s Laguna Beach Poetry Slam Finals at the FACT Gallery, who range in age from 19 to 27, are Mindy Nettifee, Lizzie Wann, Buzzy Ennis and Paul Suntup.
“I’ve watched younger poets evolve over a decade and never seen an outstanding group like this,” said Lee Mallory, an instructor of English and creative writing at Santa Ana College who served as master of ceremonies.
As members of the 1999 Laguna Beach National Poetry Slam Team, the four winning poets (and alternate John Gardiner) will represent Orange County at the National Poetry Slam Finals in Chicago in August.
Last year’s Laguna Beach team, the first ever to represent Orange County at the nationals, placed 17th out of 45, with team member Derrick Brown winning second place as an individual.
An estimated crowd of 150 turned out Friday night to cheer on the 10 competing poets. They earned the right compete by winning one of five preliminary slams held at the Laguna Beach Brewing Co. in recent months.
The Slam Finals are more strenuous than the qualifying slams. Instead of two rounds and eliminations each round, the finals have three rounds and no eliminations. All poems have to be original, and each poet, who is limited to three minutes, reads a different piece each round. The poets are judged by five audience members who are chosen at random, and they use an Olympic-style rating of 0.0 to 10.0 to rank the performance and craft of each poem.
Victor D. Infante, a member of the 1998 team who co-organized the Laguna Beach Poetry Slam Finals with Gardiner, said the evening was “very intense.”
“The whole contest was neck-and-neck the entire way,” he said. “The difference between fourth place and sixth place was half a point, so there was a lot of suspense.”
Added Infante, who will coach the 1999 team: “Mindy Nettifee was pretty much a lock for the whole reading. She managed to set the tone very well for the rest of the evening, which was impressive to behold. Everyone else placed very well, though, and Paul Suntup went over amazingly well with the crowd. He’s very new; he’s just been writing a few months. He’s got a bright future ahead of him.”
With a $5 admission charge, along with passing the hat and auctioning off literary and Hollywood memorabilia, organizers raised $1,280 to help pay the estimated $4,000 it will cost to send the team to Chicago.
“That’s pretty wild for any kind of poetry setting in one evening,” said Mallory, who auctioned off such items as an autographed copy of poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti’s “Coney Island of the Mind,” copies of letters to Mallory from poet and author Charles Bukowski and an autographed picture of Robert DeNiro.
One item, an autographed copy of the anthology “Five Orange County Poets,” drew an unexpected response. Mallory started bidding at $15, but a woman in the audience held up a check for $200. She got the anthology.
Mallory said a series of upcoming poetry events featuring the 1999 team will help raise more funds for the trip to Chicago. As Infante said, the $4,000 is only the “minimum” it will cost.
“Chicago’s an expensive town,” he said. “But after Friday, with the upswell of community support, I’m very confident we’re going to reach it.”
Those who want to see Nettifee, Wann, Ennis and Suntup in action won’t have long to wait.
They’ll perform their poetry at 8 p.m. Thursday at the Laguna Beach Brewing Co., 422 S. Coast Highway, Laguna Beach.
Also coming up:
* Barbara DeMarco Barrett will interview literary agent Donald Maass at 6 p.m. today on Writers on Writing on KUCI (88.9 FM) in Irvine.
* The winning entries in a writing contest sponsored by the Tustin Area Council will be read by their authors at 7 p.m. Thursday at Barnes & Noble in the Market Place, 13712 Jamboree Road, Irvine.
* Claudia Suzanne will discuss “10 Things You Probably Don’t Know About the Book Business” at 7 p.m. Friday at Barnes & Noble in the Market Place, 13712 Jamboree Road, Irvine.
* Riley St. James will discuss and sign “In the Shadows of the Moonglade” at 7 p.m. Saturday at Borders Books and Music, 429 Associated Road, Brea.
* Howard E. Green will sign “The Tarzan Chronicles” at 1 p.m. Saturday at Book Carnival, 348 S. Tustin Ave., Orange.
* Robert Bruce Woodcox will sign “The Golf Gods Are Laughing” at noon Sunday at Barnes & Noble in Fashion Island, 953 Newport Center Drive, Newport Beach.
* John Douglas will sign “The Anatomy of Motive” at 3 p.m. Sunday at Book Carnival, 348 S. Tustin Ave., Orange.
* Sam McCarver (“The Case of Cabin 13”) and Nathan Walpow (“The Cactus Club Killings”) will read and sign at 2 p.m. Sunday in Murder in the Gallery, 115 N. Glassell St., Orange.
Send information about book-related events at least 10 days before event to: Dennis McLellan, O.C. Books & Authors, Southern California Living, The Times, 1375 Sunflower Ave., Costa Mesa, CA 92626. Or e-mail to dennis.mclellan@latimes.com.