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About the MYTH & DC Slam
as told by Nicki Miller & Delrica Andrews
So every now and again, we get questioned as to how MYTH (now DC Slam) started and all of that good stuff. The first part of the story begins with Nicki Miller. The last part is still being created weekly by Delrica Andrews. This is our story...
In the beginning...
MYTH was the product of another series, which began in February 1997 in Braddock Heights, MD at a carriage house on Maryland Avenue. Toby DeBarr and myself leased the carriage house for a year and a few months for $650 a month out of our own pockets ... and hosted BYOB potluck dinners with convivial readings on a monthly basis on Saturday nights, which were incredibly popular -- often more than 60 to 80 people would cram in, but it was so much fun ... we began asking out-of-town poets to come and do short features in 1998 ... and put them up in the loft of the carriage house. We remained there until August 1998, then moved to Other Words Studio in downtown Frederick by their invitation. We remained there doing the monthly series on the 4th Saturday of the month until May of 1999.
The first slam, in October 1997, was so large we had to rent out the Braddock Heights Community Center behind the carriage house for the more than 150 people that showed up to listen to the 20 slammers! People came from all over: Virginia, PA, MD, WV, DC .... we were stunned to find how word of mouth had travelled so far so fast!
We teamed up with Sam Hurst's group, Poets Anonymous, for a series of slams which competed by VENUE ... other poetry venues would bring their house poets and we slammed in several events which raised money for various charities at Red, Hot, and Blue in Fairfax, VA a couple of times a year on early Sunday afternoons. It was decided after those events we would field a slam team to send to 1999 Nationals in Chicago from the venue slams we had ... and the finals were back at the Braddock Heights Community Center in late March 1999. Over 200 people jammed the place, and we had 15 finalists. The first DC team since 1994 was Toby DeBarr, Edith Graciela-Sanabria, Jonathan Vaile, and Sam Hurst.
Also in March of 1999, we were contacted by MYTH (formerly Cafe' Myth in Georgetown, which has since closed) through a publicist who had heard of us and asked us if we wanted to run a slam in DC .... and we were off on a national level of competition .. we already had the reputation in hand. Our first event at MYTH was the first Sunday evening in May 1999, with Stazja McFadyen flying up from Austin to be our first feature in the new venue, which shifted us to a weekly series.
Toby attended the Slammasters meeting in April 1999 on our behalf in Chicago, where they officially made him a slammaster while I hosted our usual monthly event at the Other Words Studio in Frederick that same weekend. We decided who would go to Chicago by flipping a coin!
And the story continues...
A good friend of mine, Denise Johnson, was a regular at MYTH and had brought me with her in the winter of 1999 to hear her read. I immediately fell in love with MYTH, Toby, Sally and Nicki. They were all awesome. Every reader I heard that night blew me away. After just about every other poem, Toby would get on the mic and say, "I wrote that," to which the crowd always responded with contagious laughter. Needless to say, I became a fan for life. I came to MYTH weekly to watch and absorb the words of these phenominal poets, who either read in open mics, featured or competed in the slam. At the time Denise was one of the competitors for the 2000 team. Every week, MYTH just got bigger. If it wasn't more poets coming out to be heard, then it was spectators coming to watch the slam. It was all amazing and addictive. I found myself needing to have my weekly fix and could not bear to miss it. The end of the season approached and I bore witness to finals, which was such an intense deal! These poets stepped to the mic with such a fierce intensity and determination, one couldn't help but be spellbound as you watched poet after poet and score after score go up.
That year, Denise along with Twain Dooley, Scott KirkPatrick, Tonya "Ja Hipster" Matthews and David Lankford, made the team. It was breathtaking to witness. That year, during the summer, we lost our venue and moved to Julio's on 16th St. NW (now a Starbucks). At the same time, we lost Toby, who had decided to leave the series. Nicki, who was not only our door goddess, but the Slam Master as well, then took on the role of hostess. At the time, I was just starting to get into web design, so I offered to help out any way I could. I then became the door chic and the webmaster for Myth. When we went to purchase our domain name, Myth was already taken, but since we were the only official slam in DC...we decided to name the site, dcslam.com. Every week, Nicki would host and put out the newsletter. I helped by building and updating our site and taking the door. We ended up parting ways with Julio's over the tail end of that summer, only to find an even better home at Teaism.
Patricia Smith was our very first feature at Teaism in September 2000. After a few weeks, we had settled into our new digs rather nicely and Teaism has been our home ever since. Nicki continued hosting and bringing in all of these wonderful features, and I really just felt lucky to be able to watch and learn from this phenominal lady. Fast forward two years later...
In September 2002, Nicki decided to step down from hosting to address more private matters. For several months, we had guest hosts like Twain Dooley, David Lankford, Denise Johnson, Brandon D. Johnson, and countless others. One day, we didn't have a guest host...so...I decided to host that particular evening. That evening of hosting eventually led to me hosting regularly. Nicki came by several times and hosted, but for most of the season, we were without our fearless leader's presence on the mic. This past season (2002-2003) brought about a lot of changes with MYTH. Not only did we have new faces hosting, but we had some very fresh and new competitors willing to step up to the plate in order to make the team. This past summer, we took a four man team (first timers Droopy Anderson and Chris August, as well as slam veterans Twain Dooley and Patrick Washington), to the National Poetry Slam Compeitition in Chicago. Unfortunately, Nicki could not attend. Instead, she sent me as the proxy slam master to represent her (which I will go on record as saying is a very tough job, ya'll ... a very tough job) and our venue. Chicago was an experience that I will never forget. Our team came in 27th in the country out of 63 teams. We met some phenominal people (and poets too) and came home with oodles of stories to tell. Fast forward 4 months...
In January 2004, Nicki Miller stepped down as the DC & Baltimore Slam Master and turned the slam over to me. I was saying goodbye to my mentor and long time friend. When Nicki decided to step down as slam master, she took with her the MYTH legacy, as well as the name. We've since changed the name of the series to DC Slam to match our website, and affirm who are and what we represent. We are DC Slam, the only official track in DC for poets to come represent DC & Baltimore at the National Poetry Slam Competition, held annually.
We've changed home quite a few times since the change, but have always strived to bring you quality features and an opportunity to represent the DC/Baltimore slam team on a finals stage at the National Poetry Slam.
In 2006, we did just that. The 2006 DC/Baltimore slam team (consisting of Chris August, Gayle Danley, Twain Dooley, Joanna Hoffman and Rhonda L. Taylor) not only made it to finals, but came in as the 4th highest ranked team in the world. Maybe this year, we'll bring home the trophy, who knows?
What I do know is that no matter what, we're in for one hell of a ride and would love nothing more than to have you join us...see you soon!
DC Slam is Washington, DC's ONLY PSI certified poetry slam venue and the official track to the National Poetry Slam.
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