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
Button Poetry Live United States Active Minnesota St Paul Link
Smokin' Slam United States Inactive New Mexico Rio Rancho Link
Rain City Slam United States Active Washington Seattle Link
The Ann Arbor Poetry Slam United States Active Michigan Ann Arbor Link
Dayton Poetry Slam United States Active Ohio Dayton Link
Art Amok! Atlanta Slam United States Active Georgia Decatur Link
Hear, Here! United States Active Colorado Colorado Springs Link
Lobo Slam United States Active New Mexico Albequerque Link
Silver City Slam United States Inactive New Mexico Silver City Link
Seattle Poetry Slam United States Active Washington Seattle Link
Fresh Water Wordsmiths United States Active Michigan Detroit Link
Root-N-Slam Poetry Series United States Inactive Ohio Lakewood Link
Java Monkey Slam United States Active Georgia Decatur Link
Full Moon Poets United States Active California Encinitas Link
The Drunken Retort United States Active Michigan Grand Rapids Link
Battle Born Slam United States Active Nevada Las Vegas Link
Spokane Poetry Slam United States Active Washington Spokane Link
Urban Echo Poetry Slam United States Inactive Michigan Detroit Link
Red Dirt Poetry Slam United States Active Oklahoma Oklahoma City Link
Hawaii Slam United States Active Hawaii Honolulu Link

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