The below series of photos are from the first day of the National Poetry Slam. These photos and quotes are from the bout featuring Atlanta, Detroit BP, Philly, and Cincinnati. Final results: Atlanta 107.3, Detroit BP 106.5, Philly 105.8, Cincinnati 101.1

Tuesday 10 p.m. at the MMoCA Round 1

1. Cincinnati – 4 Eleven
“She sat me down and said ‘listen’”

2. Atlanta – Heinz-Bo
“I want to see the world topsy-turvy, a world where Dick Cheney gets scurvy”

3. Detroit – Dee
“Rest assured, whoever I am...I am”

4. Philadelphia – Miss Wise
“I figure I’d go raw one more time”

Round 2

5. Atlanta – Brian Pattillo
“I’m gonna have Jesus Christ on guitar. On bass, I’ll have Buddha”

6. Detroit – Phenom
“I could’ve come here in a U-Haul with seventy five illegal immigrants listening to George Bush speeches”

7. Philadelphia
“We look like outer space, but not the moon”

8. Cincinnati – Tre 8
“Everyone stand up for the movement”

Round 3

9. Detroit – Blair
“Cast over low-income housing pieced together with walls made in Berlin”

10. Philadelphia – Jake
“And a hip hop prophet came through the static and spoke to me”

11. Cincinnati – The Silent Poet
“Just hold me for no reason at all”

12. Atlanta – Gypsee Yo & Amena Brown
“All I’m really trying to be is my own best me”

Round 4

13. Philadelphia – Leslie McIntosh
“This is how you kill someone, make them die silently”

14. Cincinnati
“Ba da ba baa baaah – I’m Thuggin’ It”

15. Atlanta – Gypsee Yo
“For my daughter” - “Your father and I went to bed early and we sparked”

16. Detroit – Jamal vs. May
“I’m 26 and I thought by now my music would save the world”