Congratulations to the 2005 Worcester Slam team - Gary Hoare, Shira Erlichman, Bobby Gibbs and Nick Davis! Scores and time penalties from Finals can be found below.

Congratulations to the winner of the Last Chance Slam - Adam Stone. Scores and time penalities from the Last Chance Slam can be found here.

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 dates of upcoming open (also called qualifying) slams.

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

2005 Slam Structure

The next open qualifying slam will be on March 20, 2005.

Here's the structure for the 2004/2005 season:

1. The top four finishers in the iWPS Slam-off have already earned spots in the team finals competition on May 22nd.

2. We will hold an open (also called qualifying) slam at least once each month from January through April. Each slam will be 2 rounds and will allow 8 poets to compete. Open Slams will follow the standard format outlined in the MC spiel, which is show below.

3. The two competitors with the highest cumulative score after two rounds advance to a semi-final bout on May 8th. Semi-finals will consist of 3 rounds with a no repeat rule; the poems used in semi-finals can not be used in finals.

4. The top four finishers in the semi-final slam will join the top four finishers in the iWPS Slam-off in the grueling 2005 Worcester Slam Team Finals on May 22nd. This will be a four round competition. Remember that poems used in semi-finals can not be used in the finals.

5. 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.

As with all competitions there are rules to follow. Worcester follows the rules as laid out by PSI with respect to time penalties, etc. The basics are covered in the MC spiel, a variation of which follows.

What you are about to witness is a poetry slam. The competitors, of whom there are 8, will perform their own original work, 3 minutes in time length or less. They will use no props, no animal acts and no musical accompaniment.

The judges, of whom there are 5, will take those hard wrought words and score them, Olympic style, zero to ten. Zero... the worst poem ever written. So bad that the poet should be forced to play in traffic so we never have to hear it again. Ten... the perfect poem. World peace and spontaneous orgasms throughout the room. We'll drop the high, we'll drop the low, add them together and poof, we have a score. The poet with the highest combined score after two rounds is declared the winner. Judges, please use one decimal point as it helps avoid ties.

Poets who go over 3 minutes are taken out back and shot. Either that or we give them a ten second grace period and then start deducting half a point for every 10 seconds they go over after that. Judges, don't worry about the time, we'll take care of it after you give your scores.

That covers the basics. The official rules can be found up on the Poetry Slam, Inc. website. You can check them out here.

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2005 Slam Scores

This is the place to check out the scores of the latest slam, qualifying or otherwise.

The competitors shown in bold were the top winners. Additional scores above.

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2005 Indy World Poetry Slam

The second annual Individual World Poetry Slam Championship (iWPS) will be held on February 10-12, 2005. iWPS '05 is being hosted by the Poets' Asylum and is sponsored by Poetry Slam, Inc..

The iWPS rep selection procss for this year at the Poets' Asylum was three qualifying slams (2 rounds, 3 minute time limit with penalities, no props, etc.) The top three finishers in each of the qualifying slams move on to the Worcester iWPS selection slam-off on December 12th. The slam-off will be a four round slam with a different time limit each round (1, 2, 3, and 4 minute rounds). The winner on December 12th will represent Worcester at iWPS '05.

iWPS '05 Slam-off

Here are the scores for the iWPS '05 Slam-off. All competitors took part in rounds 1 (a 2 minute round) and 2 (a 3 minute) round. The sacrifice poet was Bill MacMillan (who scored a 26.3).

The 6 top scoring poets moved onto the third round. Their scores were wiped out, putting everyone on an even footing. The order was randomly redrawn before the third round began. Eric Urban kicked out another poem while the order was redrawn, scoring at 28.7.

Congratulations to Lea Deschenes who will represent Worcester at the Individual World Poetry Championships in February '05.

There was more at stake than just the iWPS rep. The top four (4) finishers at the end of 4 rounds move on to the team finals competition in May. Best of luck to Gwen, Nick, Corrina and Lea.

iWPS '05 Qualifying Slam Results

The competitors shown in bold were the top finishers and move on to the Worcester iWPS selection slam-off on December 12 (2004).

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2005 National Poetry Slam

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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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