San Diego Slam Team Unveiled

written by Tomi Barnett, Shakema Martin, & Christopher Wilson

On Thursday, July 16, 2009 over one hundred and forty people attended Elevated. Elevated serves as an outlet for creative expression and is the largest open mic in San Diego. It is a place in the community where artists from all over San Diego can come and express themselves and not worry about getting booed. The show consists of two segments: the open mic and the feature. The open mic segment is open to people of all ages and topics; people come from all over San Diego to perform or to watch the performers. The audience is always deeply engaged in the show and very enthusiastic about the artist’s performances.

On this night the San Diego Slam Team featured at Elevated. The Slam Team members are Rudy Francisco, Ant Black, Deacon Blair, Jro, and Simply Kat, who couldn’t make it because she was attending the Youth National Poetry Slam. All of the artists had an outstanding performance. Rudy Francisco’s performance made the audience look deeper into life and the way that things can be prevented. He spoke to all ages; the younger audience had a chance to experience a young person talk about things in a way that they could understand, while the older audience could relate to through their own experiences. Ant Black expressed a lot of emotion while he performed. If you didn’t shed a tear, then you weren’t fully there! Deacon Blair had a different delivery than the other poets; the tone of his voice was strong and his message was hardcore. Jro’s performance was very surprising. While he used some strong language, it was very artistic. By the end of the night the team received several standing ovations.

Elevated was created to give local artist an opportunity for self-expression and unite people in the community. Through the performances at Elevated you see that life can be different and its okay to try new things. At Elevated people from all walks of life are welcome. So, don’t miss the next show on July 30th when we have the Battle for San Diego.