Slam Format / Rules

Poetry must be the original work of the poet performing it.

Poems may be no longer than 5 minutes. If a poet goes longer than 5 minutes, they will be cut off and possibly disqualified.

Poets may not use any props (other than objects in the room available to everyone, e.g. the mic and mic stand), costumes (aside from their normal clothing), or musical backing (aside from music they make with their body while performing). Poets must perform alone -- no group pieces .

Poets may not compete with any poems they used the last time they competed with us; failing to observe this no-repeat rule will result in disqualification.

At the end of each round of the slam, audience members will secretly vote for any poets whose poem they liked so much that they'd want to hear the poem again. Audience members may vote for more than one poet. Votes will be added up. Poets with the fewest votes will be eliminated. In the final round, votes will determine first and second place for purposes of determining prize awards. The emcee will normally not vote; in instances of a tie, the emcee will vote to break the tie.

Typically, our slam will have 8 poets in the first round, 4 poets in the second round, and 2 poets in the final round (8-4-2). If we have 7 poets,  the format will be 7-5-3. If we have 6 poets, the format will be 6-5-4. If we have 5 poets, the format will be 5-4-3. If we have 4 poets, the format will be 4-3-2. If we have 4 or fewer poets signed up to slam, we may elect to cancel the slam and instead have a longer open mic.

Sign-ups open at 6:30 PM and close at 7:00 PM if the event is listed as 6:30 PM - 9:00 PM; sign-ups open at 7:30 PM and close at 8:00 PM if the event is listed as 7:30 PM - 10:00 PM.

If more than 8 poets sign up for the slam, we will randomly select 8 from those signed up.

Please direct any questions to rockland poets at gmail dot com.