Your Local Slam

Slam poets compete against one another, but also collectively as teams. Teams are generally organized around performance venues, their local slam homes. They compete with neighboring teams to hone their skills and sometimes compete in regional team slams for bragging rights. When they feel ready, they might step up to compete in the big top, the annual National Poetry Slam.

P4 has compiled a list of slams from information provided by Poetry Slam, Inc., the Nationals promoter, and from scouring the Internet. The information is searchable by Province or State, and City to help you find a team and its venue near you. P4 tracks all the basic information we can about each slam, but click on the link to the slam's websites for full details. 

A few notes about this list:

  • IMPORTANT:  Note that this listing contains both active and inactive slams.  If you want to search only active slams, be sure to select that option before your search.
  • Try as we might, no list of slam teams or venues can ever be complete or up-to-date. Teams form and dissolve and venues shift from place to place or go out of business, all without notice. 
  • If you see any errors or oversights in this list, please get in touch. We’ll do our best to update our list with your information. Thanks.
  • If you are an organizer with any of these venues, or know of any slams that are now listed here, definitely let us know!
Slam Name Countrysort descending Active? State/Province City Main Website
Commonwealth Slam United States Active Virginia Fredericksburg Link
Indie Slam United States Active California Santa Cruz Link
Fort Worth Poetry Slam United States Inactive Texas Fort Worth Link
Queen City Poetry Slam United States Inactive Ohio Cincinnati Link
OM Center Poetry Slam United States Inactive Nebraska Omaha Link
Creative Heat Poetry Slam United States Inactive Louisiana Lafayette Link
The Writer's Den Poetry Slam United States Active Virginia Richmond Link
The Loud Mouth Poetry Jam United States Active California Visalia Link
Houston VIP Poetry Slam United States Active Texas Houston Link
She Speaks United States Inactive Ohio Cleveland Link
Slam Free or Die United States Active New Hampshire Manchester Link
Slam New Orleans United States Active Louisiana New Orleans Link
Omaha Poetry Slam United States Active Nebraska Omaha
Denver Mercury Slam United States Active Colorado Denver Link
Write About Now United States Active Texas Houston Link
Montevallo Poetry Slam United States Active Alabama Montevallo Link
Writer's Block United States Active Ohio Columbus Link
Last Saturday Word Wars United States Active Arkansas Fayetteville Link
JC's Open Mike United States Inactive New Jersey Jersey City Link
Hampshire College Slam Collective United States Inactive Massachusetts Amherst Link

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