Youth Speaks Slam Series INFORMATION and RULES!
Robin Park 박수형
our annual slam series kicks off THIS FRIDAY 12/18! below is a list of rules (boo rules! but...we got them). the slams can be confusing, so if you have any questions please don't hesitate to email us! in...@youthspeaksseattle.org
i've also attached the e-flyers, hope to see you soon
robin
From: Chris Zweigle <kar...@comcast.net>
Date: Sun, Dec 13, 2009 at 6:59 PM
Subject: Youth Speaks Slam Series INFORMATION and RULES!
To: youthspeaks-sea <youthsp...@googlegroups.com>, youthspeaksseattle <youthspea...@googlegroups.com>, yss-grown <yss-...@googlegroups.com>
The 2009-2010 Youth Poetry Slam series is upon us! Our first prelim slam is next Friday Dec.18th at the Electric Tea Garden.
Pasted below, and attached as a .PDF file is the information for our 3 preliminary slams, our 1 wildcard slam, and the finals at the Moore Theatre in March!
Also included is detailed information and rules. We go out of our way to de-emphasize the slam in our show, but we do have clear rules to make sure that the slam is as fair as possible. Everyone who intends to slam this year, please read through the rules in advance so you know the deal.
Please forward this information widely for anyone interested in attending or slamming!
Have a blast!
-Chris Zweigle
Youth Speaks Seattle
Youth Speaks Seattle 2009-2010 Poetry Slam Series
Prelim #1:
Friday December 18th
The Electric Tea Garden
(across the street from Chop Suey on Capital Hill, above the artificial limb company)
1402 E. Pike St
Seattle WA 98122
signups 6:30, show starts at 7:00pm
Prelim #2:
Friday January 15th
Youngstown Cultural Arts Center
(West Seattle)
4408 Delridge Way SW
Seattle WA 98106
signups 6:30, show starts at 7:00pm
Prelim #3:
Friday February 19th
Northwest African American Museum (NAAM)
(south of downtown on 23rd)
2300 South Massachusetts St
Seattle WA 98144
signups 6:30, show starts at 7:00pm
Wildcard slam:
Saturday March 6th
Seattle Art Museum (SAM)
(downtown)
1300 First Avenue
Seattle WA 98101
signups 11:00am, show starts at 11:30am
Final Slam:
Friday March 19th
The Moore Theatre
1932 Second Avenue
Seattle WA 98101
signups 6:30, show starts 7:00pm
For more information:
Information and Rules:
Every year, Youth Speaks Seattle
hosts a series of poetry slams to select the Seattle youth poetry
slam team, which is 4-6 youth who then have the opportunity to travel
together to the international Brave New Voices youth poetry festival
and slam. This coming year, the 13th annual BNV festival
will be held July 19-25th in Los Angeles.
This year we have secured a series of venues, doing our best to make our slams accessible to all parts of the city and beyond. We also welcome and encourage other youth in the region beyond the Seattle area to come slam. We've had people from as far away as Oregon secure a spot on the Seattle team! Youth must be 19 years old or younger as of July 2010 to slam.
While Youth Speaks Seattle offers many opportunities for working on your writing and performance, not everyone has had the same opportunity to access our programming to get help and coaching with their poetry. We already held our first mentor-day, and will schedule more days like this for any interested youth to come and get suggestions and help with their writing and performance from our amazing poetry mentors, so please take advantage of these opportunities. We are also happy to meet with you, or email with you to help you with your work, so please get in touch with us!
Slam is essentially a gimmick to make poetry exciting and to attract an audience. Young people in Seattle already write amazing poems and attracting large audiences, so we would love to avoid the ridiculousness of judging and scoring artistic expression. Unfortunately, we don't have a better way of choosing a youth poetry slam team fairly, so we continue with the necessary evil of slam. Just remember, the points are not the point! The point is the poetry! But to make sure that everyone understands the rules and structure of the slam series in advance, this is all the nitty-gritty business that you should know:
This season, we are hosting 3 preliminary slams, 1 wildcard slam, and then a final slam for poets who have qualified in the 4 previous slams. To make sure that we create space for the largest number of young poets the opportunity to compete, we limit your participation to any 1 of the 3 prelim slams: you may not slam in more than 1 prelim slam. Choose wisely. While waiting and polishing your work for a later slam may have its advantages, also be aware that in all past years the number of people slamming in earlier prelims is often smaller and competition less fierce than later slams. Because this limit means you have only one chance to make it to the final slam via a prelim slam, we have also created a wildcard slam which is open to ALL poets, including anyone who competed in a prelim slam. The wildcard slam is your second chance if you didn't make it in a prelim slam. Because the wildcard slam is the last chance to make it to finals, everyone brings it hard, so it is often the most difficult slam to win. In each of the prelim slams and the wildcard, 3 poets will be selected to move on to the final slam, for a total of 12 finalists.
The 3 prelim slams will be a maximum of 12 poets, and sign ups are first-come first-serve 30 minutes before the show-start. Be at the slam early! If you are traveling from out of town or can't arrive early to sign up, please email us well in advance: in...@youthspeaksseattle.org
The wildcard slam may have a different maximum number of poets and an entirely different round structure to allow more poets to compete, this will be determined and announced later, it is always pretty wild!
Each of the 3 prelim slams will have the same structure: there will be three rounds, with a cut after each round based on your score, from 12 poets, to 8 poets, to 5. First round is random order. The top 8 poets will move on to the second round which is ordered based on score with the highest score performing first. After the second round, the cumulative score from rounds 1 & 2 determine the remaining 5 poets who move on to the final round which again will be ordered by score from high to low. The final round is clean slate (scores from previous rounds have no impact, unless a tiebreaker is needed). Out of the 5 poets in the last round, the top 3 poets win a spot in the final slam. The remaining 2 poets secure a spot in the wildcard, so they do not need to worry about signups for the wildcard.
As is standard, there will be 5 judges giving scores olympic-style (0-10), on the quality of both your writing and your performance.. The high and low scores are dropped, the remaining three give your score (after any time penalties) out of a possible 30 points. We follow the same time limit as BNV, which is 3:30 with a 10-second grace period. After 3:40 there is a penalty of .5 points for every 10 seconds over. So if you read a poem that is 3:53 long and score a 26.5, your adjusted score will be 25.5. Know how long your poems are because the penalty is severe, and be aware that audience applause can also slow you down. There is no minimum time limit.
And as usual, the slam is about your words and performance. Be as creative as you want with your performance! No costumes, props, or musical instruments are allowed, and your poems must be your own work. You can make music with your body or voice if you want, just no instruments. You can bring up whatever papers or notebooks you need if you do not have your poems memorized. We strongly encourage you to be very familiar with your work for the best performance, so memorization is to your advantage.
--
“I have come to believe over and over again that what is most important to me must be spoken, made verbal and shared, even at the risk of having it bruised or misunderstood.” - Audre Lorde
