So I went to Dallas Texas and competed against some of the best female poets in the 🌎 at Women of the World Poetry Slam 2018. I was nervous AF, heart racing every night with belief that maybe my story had no place on stage. That maybe a southern state wasn’t ready for this Jersey tongue. Only God knows how happy I am to have been sooo wrong!

They let me talk my shit and listened to me. The poets there spilled out so many emotions on stage and yet still had enough love to share every single night. First time ive ever cheered for my competition as if the weren't going up against me lol. ❤❤❤❤

I earned 3rd place in the world… SO JERSEY EARNED 3RD PLACE IN THE WORLD.

Last round, finals stage, 2018 Women of the World Poetry Slam - I chose to do this poem even though I was scared. Why? Well because I'd done it in preliminaries as my 4 minute round poem as in..it's really long when it's done at the speed and build up that feels most comfortable for the piece (finals is 3 rounds of 3 minute poems with a 20 second grace period). I had a plan to have my partner who was in the audience indicate when time was getting near, but the venue was so large and bright I couldn't see a damn thing in the audience.

So I had to wing it.

I had to find a speed that worked for me and for the time constraints. And I was DAMN close to getting a time penalty. DAMN CLOSE. But I didn't. And let me tell you, I've lost slams before on time penalties. More than once. I have been my own worst enemy in slam before being careless about time, but I'm sure you can tell towards the end of the video I was moving like a speedrail cuz I could feel the time getting short (when you do enough slams, you start to know how 3 minutes feels without counting). I chose to just yell over everyone in the audience cuz I couldn't wait for it to quiet down and cut out a line at the end. And it paid off. I won my first individual slam title outside of New Orleans at the 2018 Women of the World Poetry Slam hosted by Poetry Slam, Inc. who also released this video in partnership with Slamfind