Ybor City Poetry Slam

FRI 08/29 - SAT 09/27 - SAT 10/25
The Commodore — 811 E 7th Ave, Tampa, FL 33602

7PM

Poet Sign Up Here!

What is poetry slam?

  • 3 Rounds

    A Poetry Slam is a competitive spoken word poetry competition that has three rounds. In each round, the competing poet will have 3 minutes to perform a poem of their choosing.

    10 poets perform in the first round. 6 in the second. 3 in the final round.

  • 5 Judges

    After each poet performs, their piece will be judged by 5 judges on a 0-10 scale (Ex. 7.4, 9.8 etc.). The highest score and the lowest score will both be dropped and the middle three scores will be added together to give the poets score for that round (Between 0-30)

  • 1 Winner

    After 3 rounds, the highest-scoring poet in the final round will be crowned the winner! They will win money, bragging rights, and their points will be totaled toward their season rankings.

  • Thousands Strong

    Slam poetry is a nationwide culture with both team and individual poetry slams happening all throughout the year. These slams offer big stages, big prizes, and opportunities to connect with poets, writers, and performers from all over the country!

Detailed Poetry Slam and Slam Team Information

  • • 3-round competition

    • No props allowed (Books or devices to read from ARE ALLOWED unless your poem references the said device/book you’re using)

    • 5 Judges will be scoring each performance on a scale of 0.0 - 10.0 using decimal points. The highest and lowest scores are dropped and the 3 middle scores are added together to determine the poets score for the round (0-30)

    • The Judges will be chosen out of the audience on the criteria that they do not know any of the poets. There will be a good faith attempt to get unbiased and diverse judges

    • There is a time limit of 3 minutes per poem, with a 10-second grace period (3:10). 0.5 points are deducted for every 10 seconds you go over time starting at 3:11. (therefore once you hit 3:11 you receive a 0.5 penalty to your round score)

    • Maximum number of slammers is 10

    • Eliminations occur between each round after the first

    • Round 2 eliminates the four lowest-scoring poets of round 1

    • Round 3 eliminates the three lowest-scoring poets of round 2

    • 1st Round order is determined by random number draw

    • 2nd Round order is determined by the highest to lowest scoring poet from round 1

    • Final 3 poets for round 3 are determined by adding the poet’s scores from rounds 1 & 2 accumulatively.

    • Round 3 order is determined by the highest to a lowest cumulative score

    • The winner of the final round is determined by the highest-scoring poem of that round alone or “Clean Slate”

    • In the case of a tie, we will then determine the winner by adding the poet’s scores from all 3 Rounds together accumulatively

    • If there is still a tie after adding the cumulative scores, the poets must face off in a head-to-head (One more poem each), in which the judges will select the name of the poet they feel should win, rather than giving a score

    • Each qualifier slam costs $10 to enter, the winner of the slam gets the pot ($100) plus whatever sponsors are able to add

  • The 2025 Slam Season will be used to form the GrowHouse Slam Team that will compete at the largest regional poetry festival/team competition, Southern Fried Poetry Slam in June 2026 (SoFried is held in a different city or state each year, next year we have the benefit of it coming to Florida and will be held in Orlando!)

    Making the Team

    • Every month, GrowHouse will host a poetry slam open to all poets. ($10 entry fee)

    • Top 3 scoring Poets from each pre-lim slam will determine who competes in the Grand Slam

    • The top 5 poets in from Grand Slam in December will form the official 2025 Slam Team

    DISCLAIMER!

    Being on the team is a time commitment and potentially a financial commitment. By joining the team you are expected to attend practices once a week starting at the beginning of 2026. GrowHouse will cover registration fees for the team to compete, however travel & housing accommodations will be a group fundraising effort between the team and GrowHouse. If all funds are not raised through fundraising efforts, you are making a commitment to cover any remaining portions split evenly amongst the team. Please reach out if you have any questions or concerns.