Slam Rules

YorkSlam Rules
posted January 2012 

1. Poems must be original work, though sampling of other poems, songs, etc. is permitted. Memorization is not mandatory, but advised. Poets can read from a sheet of paper or a notebook but published sources are not allowed.
2. No costumes, props, live instruments or recorded music of any kind are permitted.
3. Poems may be recited in any style (free verse, hip-hop, melodic, rhythmic, comedic, etc. etc. etc.).
4. Time limits will be enforced in each round of the slam. All poems have a time limit of 3 minutes.
5. There is a grace period of 10 seconds beyond the 3 minute time limit to permit a poet to wrap up their poem.
6. There will be a deduction of 0.5 points for every 10 seconds past the grace period.
7. Time starts the moment a poet engages the audience (which may or may not be the first utterance into the microphone).
8. Judging is done by five randomly selected audience members. Scores are between 0.0 and 10.0 in increments of tenths. The top and bottom scores are dropped and the three middle scores added together for a final score out of 30.0 for each performer.
9. The competition will begin with twelve poets. After Round 1 the top five poets advance to the second round. The winner of the slam is determined by adding together the scores from both rounds of slam.
10. Poets cannot repeat a poem in the same evening of competition.
11. Rankings will be kept throughout the season based upon the Frankson-Priske Ranking Method originally developed for Ottawa Capital Slam. The top 8 poets on the season will be invited to participate in the YorkSlam Finals in June 2012.
12. Any disputes during the running of the competitions will be handled by the Slammaster.

Thanks, and come ready to slam!

Greg Frankson
Cytopoetics Founder & Creative Director
YorkSlam Slammaster