Poetry SlammingWhat is it?

A Competitive Art Form

Every year the art and poetry world gets together to watch the iWPS or Individual

World Poetry Slam Competition, bringing the worlds artists together to watch 72 poets

from around the world to compete in the art of spoken word. Competitive art, you ask?

From Humble Beginnings

Yes. Slam poetry is based in competition. It all started in Chicago in 1984 as an event at the

Get Me High Lounge. The concept was quickly adopted by the New York City art scene, but

the first national poetry slam was held in San Francisco and included both teams and

individual poets. The format varies but often involves judges being chosen from the

audience to rate poets on a one to ten scale.

Individual World Slam PoetryThe iWPS is a three day competition and one of three main competitions held by Slam Poetry,

Inc. There are 72 competitors and one winner. The competition is important to the hosting city, workshops and various poetry related events are held. Some of the more obscure of

these poetry events are theme based slams like queer, women, erotic, or even nerd slams.

Poetry SlammedSlams are not immune to criticisms. Some slams are explicitly judged by audience applause while the others are indirectly judged by

audience favor. So, many critics argue, the poet is forced to conform art to please an audience like a reality show. Moreover, competition in general tends to be avoided by many artists, and poets are often the more eclectic of artists.

–John S. Hall

“...I hated it. And it made me really uncomfortable and... it was very much like a sport, and I was interested in poetry in

large part because it was like the antithesis of sports.... [I]t seemed to me like a very

macho, masculine form of poetry and not at all what I was interested in..”

Thank You