Brave New Voices 2010

This HBO special presents the finals from 2010's Brave New Voices poetry slam competition. Actress Rosario Dawson and actor/rapper Common host the Los Angeles event, with teams hailing from Denver, New York, Albuquerque, and the Bay Area. Whether solo or in groups, their performances take center stage as coaches and the four judges—comedian Penn Jillette, actress Sanaa Lathan, and poets Mayda Del Valle and Beau Sia—offer commentary before and after each poem. From the start, it's clear that this isn't your average literary competition, since the garb includes jeans, shorts, and T-shirts; and the audience, which consists of peers, is a tough one, responding to any score less than a 9.0 (out of 10) with a chorus of boos. Numbers aside, the personal material makes the biggest impact. An unintentionally cutesy metaphor from two foster children (“Foster Bears”), for instance, still packs more punch than the pieces about the Iraq War (“Walls of Baghdad”) and the environment (“Avatar”). The individual performers are also particularly strong, especially 18-year-old Erica McMath, who finds humor, horror, and pleasure in food. The Denver group deserves credit for building the piece “Give Us a 7” around the overly generous scores associated with the contest (judges never dispense anything lower than 8). DVD extras include a featurette on the finals and some runner-up performances. Recommended. Aud: C, P. (K. Fennessy)