About

What is Poetry Slam?

‘Poetry Slam’ is the competitive art of performance poetry

It’s like the Olympics - for poetry.

Individual poets as well as ‘Slam teams’ compete locally, regionally, nationally and internationally throughout the year.

Locally, poets compete during the regular season (September thru April) to earn enough points to qualify them for the “Grand Slam” in May. The Grand Slam winners make up the Soap Boxing Slam team that will go to the National Poetry Slam (NPS), where they will compete against 79 other teams from around the US, Canada and Europe. NPS is the biggest Slam event of the year.

Poetry Slam was started in 1986 by a Chicago construction worker/poet named Mark Smith (so what), because he wanted to see more people experiencing this great artform.

In general, Poetry Slams are merely a way to get audiences interested in and involved in spoken word. The competitive element is not to be taken seriously. The scores are all arbitrary; merely the opinions of the five random judges selected. This is about art and fun.

The motto of PSI is: The points are not the point, poetry is the point.

Slam has grown steadily and is now a worldwide phenomenon, with major Slams occurring in hundreds of venues on five continents.

Slam has been the subject of numerous documentaries and movies, spawned HBO’s ‘Def Poetry Jam’ and is responsible for starting the careers of such stars as Sage Francis, Saul Williams, Shane Koyczan and many more.

See the "Rules" page for more details on Slam.

Or visit the PSI Official website:

www.poetryslam.com