photo by Rebecca Henderson

Congratulations to the members of the 2003 Worcester Slam team... Ed Fuqua, Dave Macpherson, Seren Divine, Jon Wolf, and alternate Gary Hoare.

Check out the additional info we have on the 2003 National Poetry Slam.

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So what's this Slam thing anyway?

We're glad you asked that... Slam poetry can be moving, funny and deadly serious, sometimes all in the same poem. Poets come up and perform their original work for the audience. Five people randomly chosen from the audience before the bout will give each poem a score from 0.0 to 10.0, with 10 being the highest. The high and the low scores are dropped, and the three remaining scores are added. Each poet has a time limit of three minutes, with a 10-second grace period. After the grace period is passed, points will be deducted from the poet's final score.

Sound like fun? The Poets' Asylum holds both just-for-fun, themed, slams and open slams. Check out the Sunday schedules for the specifics.

Looking for more info? Head on over to the PSI FAQ page for all the info you need.

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2003 Slam Structure

A new season of Worcester Slam started on September 15, 2002. You may have heard that there were changes in store. That's true. In the past the top 2 finishers in one of 8 qualifying slam moved on to a semi-final bout. This year Worcester will be holding more slams (hopefully 14 total) and adopting a point-based system. The goal is to encourage more people to slam and to keep the competition open until the end of the season.

Here's the structure for the 2003 season:

1. We will hold 2 monthly slams with up to 8 poets each slam. Each slam will be 2 rounds and will follow the standard rules (3 minute time limit, 5 judges, scoring 0 to 10, drop high and low, etc.)

2. Points will be assigned for first, second and third place finishes. 3 points for first, 2 points for second, 1 point for third. Scores from each slam and the running total of points will be posted on the Asylum website and will be available at the reading for review.

3. There will be a $10 prize for winning the slam.

4. Open slam season will run from September to March - that gives use 14 slams total. It may be necessary to drop a slam due to weather or scheduling conflicts.

5. At the end of March the top 10 poets, based on accumulated points, move on to semi-finals.
   1. In the event of a tie the poet who competed in more slams will move on.

   2. If there is still a tie the poet with the higher average total points scored in slams to that point will move on.

6. One semi-final bouts will be held in April (the 27th actually). The semi-final will be 3 rounds. The top 8 finishers from the semi-finals will go on to finals.
   1. Ties during semi-finals will be decided by a sudden death head-to-head round.

   2. Poems used in semi-finals can not be used in finals.

7. Finals will take place on the second Sunday in May (that's May 11th for those of you keeping track). This will also be a three round competition. Same rules for deciding ties and poems used in semi-finals can not be used during finals.

8. Poets going to finals must commit to being on the Worcester team (should they win a spot) at the close of semi-finals or withdraw. If they withdraw the next poet in the semi-final bout will compete in finals.

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Other Slam Scores

This section will be for scores from Slams that don't fit into the point counting, number of slams participated in world of the Standings.

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2003 Nationals Recap

Another National Poetry Slam has been completed. Los Angeles took the team championship and Mike McGee of San Jose is the 2003 Indy champ. A nice write up about finals night can be found at the Chicago Tribune website (note registration is required to access this article however registration is free). The 2003 Worcester slam team ranks 20th out of 63 teams at this years Nationals. They won their first bout and took 2nd in their 2nd bout, behind the 1st place team by 1/10th of a bout. Sounds like a good slam to me. Part of At A Poetry Reading, the group piece penned by Dave Mac, appeared in an article in the Chicago Sun Times. Dave Macpherson, member of the 2003 Worcester Slam team, has provided updates on the happenings in Chicago. They are reprinted here. You check out team and individual rankings yourself by visiting the NPS2003 scores webpage. Team alternate Gary Hoare has posted a number of pictures from Nationals here and here. Worcester has been selected to host the 2005 Indy National Poetry Slam!!! There's lots of work ahead to make this a success and we'll need many volunteers. We'll get additional information out once the team gets back home and everyone has had a chance to relax a bit.

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Archived Info

Information on the past six years in Worcester Slam can be found in the links below.

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