VanSlam New Sh!t Challenge!

Objective:

This is an opt-in challenge, meant to encourage poets to produce new poetry and bring it to VanSlam.

How it will work:

Monthly, during the regular slam, poets will opt-in during the first round. The theme will be decided by the previous Sh!t Slam challenge-winning poet. To qualify new pieces must never have been slammed before anywhere. To signal that they are opting-in before the poem the performer will say “New Shit” and the audience will uproariously respond: “NEW SHIT!” It also has to make a connection to the chosen theme. The first round will be the New Sh*t Slam qualifying round.

Scoring will be the same as how we score for our WOPS, You get points for every poet you beat at a Vancouver Poetry Slam between, November and April. Having finales during Verses, then having the New Sh!t Slam challenge becoming an all year round challenge after verses. You get 1 point just for participating. Alt slams and youth slams don’t count for points. The more you opt-in, the more points you get and the better chance you have of being one of the top 10. The results from any other play-offs don’t count towards the New Sh!t Slam challenge, just as they did not count toward the Van Slam team play-offs qualifying either.

The highest ranking (winning) New Sh!t Slam competitor will decide the following months’ theme and announce it to the audience, the theme can be an idea, a phrase, a writing prompt, basically anything as long as people can write to it and it isn’t oppressive.

We will start on November 5th with RC’s feature with the starting theme being RC Weslowski/RC’s Poetry.