Photos by Tracy Baim
C.C. Carter’s annual Black Pride Weekend Poetry Slam, sponsored by Northern Trust, was even better than 2002—if that’s possible. Twenty contestants wowed the crowd through two rounds of competition, with judges including last year’s winner T’ai Freedom Ford, Duriel E. Harris, Paula Gee, Avery and Jackie Anderson. Earlier in the week, Def Poetry on Broadway star Staceyann Chin made a special guest appearance at C.C.’s weekly Leo’s Den Pow Wow. And to top it off, C.C. released a special CD last weekend, The Best of Pow-Wow Wednesdays, featuring Chin, Ford, Harris, and many others. The surprise winner of the slam was 16-year-old Perre Shelton of Thornton Fractional North High School in south suburban Calumet City. He knocked the socks off the jam-packed audience of hundreds of poetry lovers. Second place was E. Nina Jay, bettering her fourth-place finish last year, and third was Somaya.