Information about Poetry Slam
- What is poetry slam? Well, it's like spoken word poetry with a competitive edge. It's performed live at an event. Poems of around 2-3 minutes long are read or recited to an audience with randomly selected judges scoring each poem to determine a winner.
- Is it like a rap battle? No, not really. The poets slam their poems, and the audience gets slammed by poetry, but the poets don't want to slam each other.
- Where can I slam poetry? The Australian Poetry Slam competition heats take place annually around winter/spring time. Other indie events and school performances also provide spaces to slam. You can "speak, scream, howl, whisper or even sing your poems" as "stories, lyrics or monologues" (from the APS website, 2015).
- How long have poets been slamming for? Slam started back in 1988 at the Nuyorican Poet's Cafe. It's a specific format for presenting spoken word and performance poetry, which have of course been going on for a much longer time.
Become a slam poet in five steps
A short lesson on writing your first slam poem, by Gayle Danley for TED Ed:
Aussie Slam Poets
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Other sick slams and spoken words...
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