2011
Slam Nuba coached by veteran Jen Rinaldi, won the 2011 National Poetry Slam Championship in Boston, Massachusetts. Performing at the Berklee School of Music in front of more than 2,500 people, Slam Nuba won the national title. Team members Dominique Ashaheed and Ayinde Russell performed a duet piece called Amandla about the resistance movement in South Africa, putting the team more than a point ahead, by incorporating South African songs and exuberant messages about fighting barbarism with beauty. In the second round, Theo "Lucifury" Wilson, performed a poem entitled Dark Jester which deals with the ways in which brilliant black performers were made into minstrels. In the third round the team sealed the victory with a complicated quintet piece about chain gangs in the south. The poem involved old work songs, choreography, and biting lines that ranged from personal commentaries that embodied the voices of the men who languished on chain gangs as well as social commentary about the ways in which Black men still negotiate similar circumstances in present day America. The last round was performed by Brando.
Also in 2011, SlamNUBA was inducted to the Denver Westword's Mastermind Class of 2011.
The 2011 SlamNUBA team consisted of Theo Wilson, Brando Chemtrails, Ayinde Russell, Jovan Mays and Dominique Ashaheed. The 2011 team were the Southwest Shootout Regional Competition champions and the Utah Arts Festival Slam Champions.
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