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After two decades of living in this town, some of my fellow citizens provided me something I never thought I’d enjoy: a poetry slam. I agreed to go to Chelsea’s Monday night with fellow blogger Sarah Young, on the condition that we could eat dinner there first. (Green beans!) My expectations weren’t high, since most of the poetry slams I’ve seen on TV and in movies portray odd poets. I had briefly attended some in the past, but wasn’t able to really get a feel for performance poetry.

No sooner had we taken our seats, we were tabbed to be volunteer judges. Apprehensively, we agreed. Yes, the girl who knows nothing about poetry and wasn’t sure what to expect was asked to help judge. (We only played the stingy Russian judge once, and were booed for it.) To my sheer delight, the poets in the contest were amazing. Topics included just about everything, and each performance was incredibly engaging. And what a diverse crowd. Seriously, diversity in Baton Rouge—it really can happen. The winners from the competition will be moving on to next week’s finals, along with six others, to compete for four spots in the national competition in Austin. The competition was followed with an open mic set, introduced by local favorite Xero Skidmore, who began with a reading by George Bilgere , reminding the crowd how much of the performance is “rooted in writing.”

Before judging how lacking our culture is, check out a poetry slam. You can attend the Teen Poetry Slam Festival this Friday and Saturday at Manship Theatre, or Chelsea’s on Monday night to hear the finalists. You have absolutely no excuse not to at least experience this outpouring of emotion once in your life. And if they’re spilling their emotions, wouldn’t you want to be there to listen?

So, thank you Donnie, Leslie D., Xero, Tasha, Chiantia, Zayne and all the open mic pets for introducing me to something new. It was certainly the coolest Monday night I’ve spent in a very long time.