All those slams and word jams and working empty and full rooms alike have paid off. The Suffern Poetry slam team, really a representation of poets from across Rockland County, is on the road to the National Poetry Slam in Decatur, Georgia, Monday, August 1 through Saturday, August 6.

Suffern Poetry, and the whole Rockland slam scene, has been harnessed by the hard work of George F. Baker High School science teacher Bryan Roessel. A poetry aficionado himself, Roessel has been promoting performance poetry throughout Rockland since starting Suffern Poetry and the Suffern Slam Society some five years back.

The weeklong festival in Decatur will see edgy wordsmiths from across the country descend for contests, gatherings and late night street corner riffing, all culminating in the team slam finals in the Georgia World Congress Center’s Sydney Marcus Auditorium. Events at the national competition include Nerd Slam, the Haiku Death Match, Grief and Remembrance Readings, and Stand Up Comedy competitions.

Put together over the course of this past year’s open mic shows and slams, regularly held at Nyack’s Casa del Sol, the Suffern/Rockland team includes poets Nick Nappo, Benedicto Figueroa, Wendy Baquerizo, Joseph Quiroz, and coach/promoter, Roessel.