We have a monthly poetry slam the first Saturday of each month at X House in Nyack.

What’s a poetry slam? It’s a performance poetry competition judged by the audience. We use anonymous whole-room voting, so everybody in the audience gets to decide how the slam goes.

If you want to complete in the slam, bring at least 3 original poems, each of duration 5 minutes or less. If you want to read in the open mic, bring up to 5 minutes of whatever you feel like sharing.

We are now requiring masks to show our immune compromised or otherwise high risk friends that we care about them and we want them to included. N95 and KN95 masks will be freely available at the door, with both ear loop and head strap options.

Workshop (6:30 – 7:28)

Bryan, one of our organizers, is leading a free editing workshop before the slam. If you have a piece you want feedback on, bring it.

Sign-ups (7:30 – 8:03)

Sign-ups for both the open mic and the slam will be open from 7:30 PM – 8:00 PM. Admission is $10 general; $5 for students, seniors, and anyone who can’t afford $10 right now.

Open Mic and Slam (8:03 – 10:00)

The event starts with a short open mic. Up to 4 people can sign up to share five minutes of whatever they feel like sharing.

After the open mic is our poetry slam. Up to 8 people can sign up for it. The slam is 3 rounds. Poets will perform 1 original poem, 5 minutes or shorter, each round.

The whole audience will anonymously vote at the end of each round. Poets with the fewest votes will be eliminated. Poets with the most votes will advance to the next round.

The poet that has the most votes after the third round wins the slam and $75. Second place wins $50. Third place wins $25.

CART captioning is available with sufficient advance notice.

You can contact us with any questions at rocklandpoets@gmail.com

Slam format/rules at https://www.rocklandpoets.org/slam-format-rules