About Vancouver Poetry Slam
The Vancouver Poetry Slam (aka. Van Slam) has been wowing audiences since 1996, making it the longest-running poetry slam in Canada. Van Slam events feature a short open mic (with 3 sign up spots available), a 20-minute set from a featured poet, and a 2-round poetry slam competition.
Over its nearly three decades of existence, many of Canada’s most celebrated contemporary poets and spoken word artists have performed and/or competed on the Vancouver Poetry Slam stage.
Presently, Vancouver Poetry Slam takes place on the first Monday of every month at Shamshiri Caveman (139 Keefer St). To learn about upcoming events, check out our events page or follow us on Instagram.
Slams will consist of two (2) rounds of 3-minute poems (with a 10-second grace period) with up to eight (8) participants.**
**One or two additional sign ups may be allowed at the discretion of the Events Manager.
What is a poetry slam?
At a slam, anyone can sign up to compete. All poets must perform original work within the stated time limit without the aid of props, costumes, nudity, animal acts, or musical accompaniment. Unless otherwise stated, the standard time limit for Van Slam events is 3 minutes and 10 seconds. Should a poet go over time, they will have points deducted. All poetic styles are welcome – and if you can sneak ’em past the judges, even some non-poetic styles are welcome!
Judges?!
Yup! Before the show, the host selects as judges five random people or groups of people who chose to show up that night. These “highly qualified experts” give each poet a score between 0.0 and 10.0 (a range that covers everything from “my internal organs just spontaneously ejected themselves” to “my internal organs have become the poem”).
After each poem, the host reads the scores aloud, the audience cheers or jeers the scores depending on how they feel about them, and a scorekeeper tallies them, eliminates the highest and lowest two scores, adds up the three leftovers, and confirms the numerical value of that poem.
And through this incredibly imperfect method, poetry slam determines which poet has won the night!
But remember: the point is not the points – the point is the POETRY!
How Does Finals Qualification Work?
During the “regular season” at Van Slam, every poet signed up for the slam performs in the first round. The four (4) highest-scoring poets qualify to perform again in the second round. After the second round, those four poets are given a final rank based on their cumulative score total.
All four poets in the second round earn season points towards qualification for the Vancouver Poetry Slam Finals. Points are assigned as follows:
1st place – 8 points
2nd place – 6 points
3rd place – 4 points
4th place – 2 points
Poets may slam multiple times throughout the year to improve their points total. The March slam will be a “Last Chance Slam.” For the “Last Chance Slam,” any poets who are mathematically guaranteed to qualify for Finals will not be permitted to slam.
After the March slam, the top 8 poets by points total qualify for Vancouver Poetry Slam Finals, where they’ll have a chance to be crowned Van Slam Champion and qualify to represent Vancouver in the Canadian Individual Poetry Slam at Verses Festival of Words.
Get In Touch
Contact the Events Manager at inclusion@vancouverpoetryhouse.com if you would like to find out more about Van Slam events!