Congrats to Bobby Gibbs, Adam Stone, Ryk McIntyre, Trevor Byrne-Smith and alternate Erin Jackson. They represented Worcester at the 2008 National Poetry Slam in Madison, WI.

NPS wrap-up... Congratulations to SlamCharlotte for winning the 2008 National Poetry Slam. For the second year in a row the team from Charlotte, NC took the top spot at NPS.

The final results from the qualifying rounds have been listed on the nps2008.com website. The hometown team, Worcester, finished in 30th place. They performed excellent work on stage and were featured in a showcase before one of the semi-final bouts.

Updates during the week in Madision can be found in the Poets' Asylum Blog. Everyone is home now and resting up for the next great poetic thing. Thanks to everyone for their well wishes and support. We couldn't have done it without you!

So what's this Slam thing anyway?

We're glad you asked that... Slam poetry can be moving, funny and deadly serious, sometimes all in the same poem. Each round participants perform their own original work for the audience. Five randomly chosen judges from the audience give each poem a score between 0.0 to 10.0, with 10 being the highest possible score. The high and the low scores are dropped, and the three remaining scores are added. There is a time limit of three minutes per poem, with a 10-second grace period. After the grace period is passed, points will be deducted from the poet's score.

Most slams consist of two rounds, though team semi-final and final consist of more rounds. The winner is the poet with the highest combined score at the end of the slam.

Sound like fun? The Poets' Asylum holds both just-for-fun themed slams and open slams. Check out the Sunday schedule for the dates of upcoming slams.

Looking for more info? Head on over to the PSI FAQ page for all the info you need.

2008 Slam Structure

Here's the structure for the 2007/2008 season:

1. Eight open qualifying slams will be held between September 2007 and April 2008. Each slam will be 2 3-minutes rounds and will allow 8 poets to compete. Open Slams will follow the standard format outlined in the MC spiel, which is shown below.

   Slam dates for the 2008 season
   September 16, 2007		January 13, 2008
   October 14, 2007		February 17, 2008
   November 11, 2007		March 2, 2008
   December 16, 2007		April 6, 2008
   Winter Semi-final December 23, 2007		Spring Semi-final May 4, 2008
   2008 Team Finals - May 25, 2008
   * 2008 slam dates subject to change

2. The two competitors with the highest cumulative score after two rounds each slam will advance to one of two semi-final bouts - the Winter Semi-Final in December and the Spring Semi-Final in May.

   Each Semi-Final will be a two 3-minute round slam. The top 4 finishers will move on to finals (May '08).

3. The top four finishers in each semi-final slam will move on to the 2008 Worcester Slam Team Final in May 2008.

   Finals will be three 3-minute rounds. The top 5 finishers will become the 2008 Worcester Slam Team with the 5th place finisher acting as the alternate. All 5 will travel to Nationals.

4. There is a no-repeat rule in effect between rounds. The 2 poems each person qualified with can not be used in semis or finals. The 2 poems used in semis can not be used in finals.

   In essence this means that each poet will need at least 7 slam poems to successfully compete all the way through finals.

5. Poets going to finals must commit to being on the Worcester team (should they win a spot) at the close of semi-finals or withdraw. If they withdraw the next poet in the semi-final bout will compete in finals.

6. All competitors must complete a contact & poems used card when they slam, regardless of whether they move during the qualifier or not. These cards will be used to track what poems are used in conjunction with the no-repeat rule.

   The host is responsible for making sure this info is requested of the slammers. The slammers are responsible for returning the cards with their contact info before the slam begins. The cards will be used to draw the order.

   After the order is drawn the cards will be returned to the competitors. Following the slam the competitors need to fill in the title of the poems used (or the first line of the poem if the poem is untitled) and return them to the host. If the cards are not returned then the slammer is disqualified from that slam and is not eligible to move on to the next round.

7. In the event that a poet drops out of semi-finals we will replace them with the next finisher from their qualifier in the order of finish. For example, if the second place poet in the October qualifier drops out of the Winter semis then the third place poet will take their place. If the third place poet has already qualified in another open slam then the fourth place poet would move up and so on.

8. Following finals should a team member drop off the team the alternate would replace them. If a second person had to drop out then the next finisher from finals would join the team. Should it be necessary to replace more than 4 poets (thus exhausting finishers 4-8 from finals) we will hold a "last chance slam" to replace the missing team member.

As with all competitions there are rules to follow. Worcester follows the rules as laid out by PSI with respect to time penalties, etc. The basics are covered in the MC spiel, a variation of which follows.

What you are about to witness is a poetry slam. The competitors, of whom there are 8, will perform their own original work, 3 minutes in time length or less. They will use no props, no animal acts and no musical accompaniment.

The judges, of whom there are 5, will take those hard wrought words and score them, Olympic style, zero to ten. Zero... the worst poem ever written. So bad that the poet should be forced to play in traffic so we never have to hear it again. Ten... the perfect poem. World peace and spontaneous orgasms throughout the room. We'll drop the high, we'll drop the low, add them together and poof, we have a score. The poet with the highest combined score after two rounds is declared the winner. Judges, please use one decimal point as it helps avoid ties.

Poets who go over 3 minutes are taken out back and shot. Either that or we give them a ten second grace period and then start deducting half a point for every 10 seconds they go over after that. Judges, don't worry about the time, we'll take care of it after you give your scores.

That just about covers the structure and rules. One last thought... Worcester has always tried to stay true to the spirit of Slam. We look at Slam as a friendly competition that is meant to be fun. We try not to take ourselves, or the competition, too seriously. You'll find great poets and poetry at the Slams run by the Asylum. We hope you enjoy the show.

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2008 Slam Scores

This is the place to check out the winners of the latest slam, qualifying or otherwise.

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2008 Indy World Poetry Slam

The 2008 Individual World Poetry Slam championships will be held in Columbus, OH. For 2008 iWPS will move from the previous mid-Winter time frame to October. This makes way for the Women of the World Poetry Slam to be held in March, which is National Women's Month.

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2008 Women of the World PoetrySlam

The Women of the World Poetry Slam (WOWps) is an all-woman PSI event create by women for women poetry slam competitors. Poets who live their lives as women will be eligible to participate in WOWps. 18 poets will be invited as legacy poets who have been a part of the National Poetry Slam in the past (before 2000 NPS) to bring those voices back to the audiences.

The first Women of the World Poetry Slam was held March 13-15, 2008 in Detroit, MI. The host hotel was the Omni Detroit Hotel at River Place. The website is womenspoetryslam.com.

After consulting with slammers in the Poets' Asylum community we have elected to not participate in this event this year. Good luck to all those involved.

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2008 National Poetry Slam

The next National Poetry Slam will be held in Madison, WI August 4-10, 2008.The official website is nps2008.com.

The host hotel is the Madison Concourse Hotel.

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Archived Info

Information on the past six years in Worcester Slam can be found in the links below.

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