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 Country Active?sort ascending State/Province City Main Website
Silver City Slam United States Inactive New Mexico Silver City Link
San Jose Poetry Slam United States Inactive California San Jose Link
Urban Echo Poetry Slam United States Inactive Michigan Detroit Link
Lincoln United States Inactive Nebraska Lincoln Link
Queen City Poetry Slam United States Inactive Ohio Cincinnati Link
Creative Heat Poetry Slam United States Inactive Louisiana Lafayette Link
Kalamazoo Poetry Slam United States Inactive Michigan Kalamazoo Link
OM Center Poetry Slam United States Inactive Nebraska Omaha Link
She Speaks United States Inactive Ohio Cleveland Link
Life Sentence United States Inactive California Fairfield Link
Dallas Poetry Grind United States Inactive Texas Dallas Link
Hampshire College Slam Collective United States Inactive Massachusetts Amherst Link
Soap Boxing Poetry Slam United States Inactive Minnesota St Paul Link
Lincoln College Slam United States Inactive Nebraska Lincoln
JC's Open Mike United States Inactive New Jersey Jersey City Link
Punch Out Poetry Slam United States Inactive Minnesota St. Paul Link
Ozark Poetry Slam United States Inactive Arkansas Fayetteville Link
Brass Knuckles United States Inactive California Los Angeles Link
Orange City Poetry Slam United States Inactive Iowa Orange City Link
Word Iz Bond Canada Inactive Nova Scotia Halifax Link

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