Slam Guidelines for Poets

1. Each poet will have three minutes to perform one poem of their own construction. Believe it or not, three minutes is really a very long, long time when you’re on stage. By official slam rules, you actually have 3 minutes and 10 seconds to give your poem. Once you go past 3:10 you will incur some deductions from your performance score (official point deductions are listed below. They are the same values used at National Poetry Slam events).

2. No props, costumes, or musical accompaniment are allowed.

3. Each poem will be scored by our panel of five judges which we have chosen from the audience. We have instructed the judges to be consistent in the scoring and to give a poem the score they feel is appropriate without influence from the audience or other judges. We'll drop the high and low scores and add the middle three together. As we move from round to round, scores will accumulate. The three highest scoring poets after the second round will advance to the final round.

4. A tip for giving your performance is to speak clearly into the microphone. Stand very close to the mic, about 2 inches away is good. The further you stand from microphone the harder it will be for the audience to hear you.

5. Above all else, HAVE FUN TONIGHT! These people are here to listen to you.

Time Penalty
3:10 and under no penalty
3:10.01 - 3:20 -0.5
3:20.01 - 3:30 -1.0
3:30.01 - 3:40 -1.5
3:40.01 - 3:50 -2.0
and so on [-0.5 for every 10 seconds over 3:10]