A Year in the Life

I met Shannon Leigh at the 2007 Rustbelt Regional Poetry Slam in Columbus, OH where her Atlanta-Art Amok slam team was competing with the Midwest's finest poets.  I quickly became a buddy of the Art Amok poets including Shannon, Karen G and Theresa Davis, when later that summer my Palatine, IL team, Dallas-Poetry Grind and the Atlanta kids camped in Eric Breland's living room the weekend of the Dallas Invitational slam.

After finishing in the top 3 of individual competition at the National Poetry Slam, you are naturally wanted at all of the country's spoken word events.  Shannon came to Chicago Halloween week and featured for PolyRhythmic and the Palatine Slam. Somebody ask Andi Kauth and Dennis Florrine about trick-or-treating with her in the north suburbs!  She stayed with my best friend and future fiancée, Candyce, helping solidify the foundation of a sure friendship.  Moreover, it gave me a front row seat to see this young artist & adventurer develop as a person and watching this old soul fit into brand new days.  If you see my bio, you'll note that one of my bragging points is being one of a group of poet pals- that I've become a big fan of- crisscrossing America burning up stages during the same 6-month period. These performers include Jon Sands, JW Baz, Danny Sherrard and Shannon.

This year, while in Detroit for the first Women Of the World Poetry Slam, tornados ravaged the Atlanta area.  Karen and Theresa were in the 'D" while Shannon was back in Georgia.  I swapped text messages with them all, making sure that their peoples were OK.  I talked to Shannon the next day and told her to "duck!" It was great to hear her voice not on a CD or website.

I last saw Shannon on May 3^rd  in Decatur, GA when I featured for Art Amok.  I was really looking forward to her return to Nats and seeing the chemistry of an Art Amok team with veteran, championship and new blood.  Shannon said she wasn't going to make it to Rustbelt because of work and school.  I told her to knock it out and see her in Madison in August.

I heard about the accident from Karen on Father's Day, a year to the weekend that I met Shannon in Columbus.  I knew her enough to know that she had a lot of fight in her.  Candy and I stayed in regular contact with Karen - not like we weren't, but more than a few text messages- and the internet updates of the kid's condition.  When I saw Karen's name on my call phone Monday, you could not have told me that she wasn't calling to say that Shannon regained consciousness. Ultimately, it was heartbreak on the other end.  My young friend, my homegirl, must have decided that adventure on the other side was greater than the fight here.  I hope that upon her departure she realizes how she touched people, more than as a writer and performer, but as a young woman.

Shannon Leigh Lewis - Poet, MC, instrumentalist, adventurer, friend.  Jah rest your soul.