How To: Organize a Poetry Slam

1. Seeing is Believing. Before you do anything, go to a couple poetry slams in your area. This will give you some hints on what to do and what not to do for your own event. If you don’t have any slams nearby, you can try to rent one of the many documentaries on poetry slams. Check Slamnation or Russell Simmons’s Def Poetry HBO series.
2. Pick a Poetic Place. Choosing a place for this event is important. You want to find a place that is big enough to accommodate a lot of people, but isn’t so big that voices will get lost. Your school’s library or auditorium might work. Otherwise, you can check out local places like the community center, town hall, or a nearby cafe.
3. Go Team, Go. Get a bunch of friends or family together to help you with the event. Together, write out a long-term plan of action and designate a certain task to each person in your group. Remember to figure out who will be judging the event, what the contestants will be judged on, and what they might win as a prize. Get judges that you know won’t be biased in their decisions.
4. Hype It Up! Get people excited about the event by talking about it at school and posting flyers for it everywhere you can. Make sure you ask before you hang up posters. Make the posters big, bright and colorful. Write some rules on the posters like “Your poem must be a comment on smoking”.
5. Snack Attack. Bake some goodies to sell them during the event. Donate the profits to a charity or organization that benefits the cause you support.
6. Running Smoothly. Make a schedule of performances and allow some extra time between poets. Never let the microphone stand alone; if you are waiting for a poet, it’s up to you to get up there and entertain the audience for a couple minutes.
7. F-U-N, Fun! Have fun, enjoy yourself, make sure the crowd is energized and the poets feel comfortable.



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