Slam Poetry

A poetry slam is an art competition where poets perform spoken word poetry in front of a live audience and a panel of judges. At a poetry slam, poets compete as individuals or in teams, and their performances are judged as much on excitement and style as on content. The judging is normally done by a panel of five judges, who are usually chosen from the audience. The response of the audience can sometimes be used to judge the poets.

Members of the crowd are picked by an emcee or host to serve as judges in a poetry slam. There are five judges at the national slam, although regional slams usually have three. Following each poet's performance, each judge assigns a score to each poem. The scores usually range from zero to ten. The top and lowest scores are removed, leaving each performance with a score between 0 and 30. The host will frequently introduce a "sacrificial" poet before the competition begins, whom the judges will grade to calibrate their judging.

At a typical slam, a single round comprises performances by all eligible poets. Most slams have numerous rounds, with lower-scoring poets being eliminated in succeeding rounds. A possible elimination system would be 8-4-2, with eight poets in the first round, four in the second, and two in the third. Some slams don't even exclude poets. The poet with the most points at the end of the slam is declared the winner.

Poetry slams can include a diverse range of voices, styles, cultural traditions, and writing and performance approach. Hedwig Gorski, the founder of performance poetry, credits slam poetry with preserving the poetics of ancient oral poetry written to attract attention in bars and public places.

Some poets are intimately identified with hip-hop music's vocal delivery style and rely significantly on the heritage of dub poetry, a rhythmic and politicized form native to black and particularly West Indian culture. Others use a non-rhyming narrative structure. Others may repeat a full poem in a sardonic monotone, while others employ typical theatrical methods such as shifting voices and tones. Some poets deliver poems solely through their words, while others push the format's limits by tap-dancing, beatboxing, or employing highly coordinated gestures. 

A poetry slam's goal is to dispute the authority of anyone who claims absolute authority over literary value. No poet is immune to criticism, as they all rely on the audience's kindness. Because only the poets with the highest cumulative scores continue to the night's final round, the arrangement ensures that the audience has a say in who they hear more poetry from. Furthermore, audience members become a part of each poem's presence, bridging the gap between poet/performer, critic, and audience.