The Second Tuesday Slam

A Little Bit About Our Slam

Hello and welcome to Portland's longest running poetry slam, The Second Tuesday Slam. In case this is the first time you've heard about our slam or any slam, welcome to the most entertaining friendly competition known to man. Poetry slam is designed to pit poet against poet in a dynamic battle of the brain. Every poet competing in the slam is required to use poetry of his or her own creation, this is not a recitation contest. This is a crucible for both your written and performance skills. With that being said, the technical side of the slam (you know the rules and such) are explained in full here.

You may ask yourself -"why compete"? You may ask yourself - "what are we competing for"?. You may ask yourself - "well...how did I get here"? The answer is simple. It's up to you. You can compete simply for the challenge, the sibling rivalry, the thrill of the crowd. You could also compete for the cash prize and the championship belt (that's right people a REAL championship belt). Or you could compete for a chance to join the Portland Slam Team and travel to the National Poetry Slam. “Nationals”as the slam poets call it is a national competition between teams of slam poets from all over the country and the world. Each year hundreds of the best performance poets in the country gather to hash out just who IS the best poet in town.

But if you aren't up for the competition there is still a role for you. The best part of the selection of our slam team is, that you, the audience pick our winners and ultimately our team. Very democratic eh? Check out our new guidelines for qualifying for the slam team here.

Keep checking back for more information about slam poetry in Portland and don’t forget to stop by the North Star Music Café on the second Tuesday of every month for Port Veritas’s Second Tuesday Slam, starting shortly after the open mic at 7:30pm