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 Namesort ascending Country Active? State/Province City Main Website
Chicago Four Star Poetry Club United States Active Illinois Chicago Link
Capital Slam Canada Active Ontario Ottawa Link
Calgary SLAM! Canada Active Alberta Calgary Link
Button Poetry Live United States Active Minnesota St Paul Link
Brooklyn Poetry Slam United States Active New York Brooklyn Link
Broken Speech United States Inactive Florida Orlando Link
Breath in Poetry Canada Active Alberta Edmonton Link
Brass Knuckles United States Inactive California Los Angeles Link
Bowery Slam United States Active New York New York Link
Boston Poetry Slam United States Active Massachusetts Cambridge Link
Boise Poetry Slam United States Active Idaho Boise Link
Black Pearl Poetry United States Inactive Arizona Tempe Link
Black on Black Rhyme United States Active Florida Tallahassee Link
Berkeley Poetry Slam United States Active California Berkeley Link
Beltway Poetry Slam United States Active District of Columbia Washington Link
Bayou City Poetry Slam United States Active Texas Houston Link
Battle Born Slam United States Active Nevada Las Vegas Link
BAM! Toronto Youth Poetry Slam Canada Active Ontario Toronto Link
Ballabajoomba Poetry Slam United States Active Texas Corpus Christi Link
Austin Poetry Slam United States Active Texas Austin Link

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