The People Poetry Slam is Back at the B Side

Their next slam is October 13th 2021, 6:30 to 9:00 pm, at the B Side Lounge, 2785 Euclid Heights Boulevard in Cleveland Heights. Please follow them on Instagram to stay updated.

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UPDATE: Rustbelt Poetry Festival on Hiatus

UPDATE from Akeem Rollins:

Hey, everyone. In light of growing cases of COVID-19 in Cleveland and the postponement of most things, we are going to put Rustbelt on hiatus for this year.

I am also stepping down as the chair. Blaire Bruns, JDavid Ockunzzi and Jacob Wagner are the current management committee. If you have questions, please direct to Blaire Bruns, the new planning chair, for next year's tournament.

Thanks everyone. I know. Coronavirus sucks.
Stay healthy....


Original Post:

Join us for the Midwest's longest running regional poetry slam. Come witness some of the best performers from around the United States as they compete for the title of 2020 Rustbelt Poetry Slam Champion. Over 90 poets!

Join the Facebook group for regular updates:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/Rustbelt2011/.

Semifinal Slam

One Mic Open is having the first of the Semi-Final competitions for the Youth Poetry Slam Team at the Happy Dog at Euclid Tavern, Friday, December 1 from 8 to 11 PM. Donation to attend is $5/$3 students, but free to compete (if you're age 13 to 19)-- in fact, all youth of eligible age (13-19) will have no cover charge for the Semi Finals Pt. 1, 2 or Final stage, even if they don't compete. 

If you've never been to a poetry slam, this is something worth experiencing. Not for the aficionado of subtlety in poetry, a slam is in-your-face competitive poetry with a bad attitude. Miss this one? Look for the second Semi-Finals, January 5 at the Happy Dog.

The event is hosted by Twelve Literary and Performance Arts Incubator and One Mic Open.

Know any teenagers with a way with words and who wants to rumble?  Let them know! (Here are some tips.)

One Mic Open says:

One Mic Open is a grass roots youth literary arts education program geared towards bridging the gap between adults and youth, by having both share their work in a safe space at our open mic and slams. The ultimate goal of the slam series is to put together a four-six person team to compete at an international festival called Brave New Voices, sponsored by YouthSpeaks.

One Mic Open was created to reach the youth of not only Cleveland, but surrounding suburbs, in an effort to create a sense of community among the youth in North East Ohio. By sharing their talents, not limited only to poetry, at the open mic, we feel that they are creating a space in which they are free to be themselves in the most complete sense.

• One Mic Open on Facebook
• Youth Semifinals, Part 1 event page

One Mic Open: Youth International Slam Poetry Jan 27

Friday, January 27 at 8 PM - 11:30 PM

Happy Dog at the Euclid Tavern

11625 Euclid Ave, Cleveland, Ohio 44106

AKeemjamal Rollins writes:

It's time!

The first of two semi finals is here!

This will being the process of creating the International Youth Slam Poetry team for represent Cleveland, OH via One Mic Open for the third year running!

The festival is called Brave New Voices, run by Youth Speaks

• Learn more here: http://onemicopen.com/youth-slam-team
• Or at: http://youthspeaks.org/bravenewvoices/festival/

If you'd like to register, please message One Mic Open via Facebook or the contact page on www.onemicopen.com or sign up at the event.

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$3 for Students

$5 for Adults

FREE FOR YOUTH IN THE SLAM

Doors open at 8pm.

Event will start promptly at 8:30 with the open mic (5 min max on the mic), followed by the slam (rules below).

Do NOT try to be fashionably late!

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Youth interested must be between 13-19

Cannot turn 20 before July 2017

Slamming and place among the top percentage of poets will grant you a slot in finals.

If you don't qualify at this semi final event, no worries! 

You'll have another opportunity in Feb (details to be posted early Feb)

Check http://onemicopen.com/youth-slam-team for more detailed rules

*Slam Rules*

• 1 Rounds/1 poem ORIGINAL POETRY BY PEFORMER
• No props/musical accompanyment etc.
• 3 minute time limit
• 30 second grace period
• .5 points deducted for every 10 seconds over
• Your time starts with your first word, or when you engage the audience.
• You will be scored by 5 judges (0-10) the low and high will be dropped, with the remaining 3 added together.

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And check out the One Mic Open facebook page

Poetry Matters

POETRY SLAM!!!
#PoetryMatters
$$$ CASH PRIZE $$$
Sunday, October 25th, 2015
Sign-ups 5p-6p

Callaloo Cafe & Bar
15601 Waterloo Rd.
Cleveland, Ohio
More info: poetrymatterscle@gmail.com

Free Yo Mind at Guide to Kulchur September 20th

[From the event page on Facebook:]

Guide to Kulchur and Children's Defense Fund / New Abolitionist Association (Ohio) would like to invite you to Free Yo Mind Hip-Hop Cradle2Poetry Slam, the funky-fresh poetry slam contest hosted by Cleveland's youth. Food, drink, $25, $50, and $100 gifts and prizes, plus special guest entertainment.

FREE EVENT. COME SPIT DAT HOT FIRE!

Slam Rules for Competitors:
1. No Props or Musical Accompaniment (must be a-cappella if you sing).
2. You must perform your own original poetry.
3. All poems must be 3 minutes long or less. (Competitors who go over set time will lose points for every 10 seconds over 3 minutes.)
4. There are three knock out rounds so you must have three poems prepared to compete.

Slammers or poets interested in reading during the open mic intermissions contact Joe: 216-650-1961, Deisha: 216-239-4409, or Philip: 937-238-4843 via phone or text.

Winners receive $25 for 3rd, $50 for 2nd, and $100 for 1st place.

More details, audience participation and slammer rules will be announced day of slam.

Buy Me Some Peanuts and Crackerjack...

Let's talk about team sports for a minute. Let's set aside the Indians' tugging of our playoff hopes back and forth. Let's forget about the Browns' draft picks. NEO's Lake Effect Poetry Slam Team is heading to Boston for Nationals in a few weeks, and they need our full attention.

When I first started dipping my toes into the poetry reading scene, I didn't know anything about slam other than what I could glean from the comments of other poets and snippets of Def Poetry Jam I might have caught once or twice. I filled in the blanks with a lot of misconceptions.  Such as:

Poetry slam is for teenagers. Slam is like hip-hop. Slam is for street poets. Slam is not for little, Catholic, white girls. Slam poets need to rhyme their poems. Slam poets need to improv their poems. Slam poets need to memorize their poems. Slam poets...need to...recite their...poems...like this... Poetry slam is about pitting one artist against another in a mean-spirited fight. Poetry slam isn't "real" poetry.

I quickly learned that slam was none of those things I used to think it was.

Slam is a poetry performance competition. Some poems lend themselves more readily to performance competition than others, but there is no defined genre for slam. Slam showcases a skill that every poet in every venue needs:  the ability to not only write an effective poem, but to then read/perform it in an engaging manner. Yes, there are some bad slam poems, but there are also some bad academic poems. And some of the best slam poems I've heard were on page.

Fast forward six years from those first open mics, and I found myself in Charlotte, NC for the 2012 National Poetry Slam, as Northeast Ohio's Grand Slam Champion. It was thrilling, terrifying, and inspiring to be around so many poets, to hear so many different voices, to be in front of so many different people.  Writing is a solitary activity, but slam is a team sport--a team sport with a national community.

National Poetry Slam is a chance for poets to stand in front of people from across the country and show off what we're doing here at home. And with this year's team--AKeemjamal Rollins, Caira Lee, Ariana Cheree, and Christine Howey--Boston's going to be buzzing about Cleveland.

But Lake Effect is still short of funds needed to get to Boston. The good news is that they have a handful of fundraiser events coming up in the next couple weeks before they leave. The better news is that you still have a chance to hear their poetry before they leave. Check out the schedule of Lake Effect fundraisers and readings, wish them well on their trip, and root root root for the home team!

24-hour poetry marathon - you can be a feature for only $1 a minute and support Cleveland's slam team!

Click pic for a larger version of the flier. Contact Akeem Jamal Rollins for more info or visit the Facebook event page.

Starving Artists present annual 3-Part Slam Series

[Click poster to see a larger version]

From the Starving Artist Project press release:

It's the 1st Annual 3-Part Slam Series, hosted by the Starving Artist Project. There will be three different slams held at three different venues over three days. Each slam has a different theme, and will be open to poets of all ages. Each competitor WILL be required to pay a $10 entrance fee for each slam they compete in. This money will go into a pot and the top poet will win a percentage of this pot. Each slam will be three rounds and scores will not be cumulative.

The Slams:

September 8th, 2010 - "The Minute Slam" at The Root Cafe, 15118 Detroit Avenue in Lakewood, OH. (Each round of this slam will be restricted to a time limit. 1st round - 1 min, 2nd round - 2 min, 3rd round - 3 min.)

September 9th, 2010 - "Women's Only Slam" at the LGBT Community Center, 6600 Detroit Avenue in Cleveland, OH. (This slam is restricted to women poets only, but all are welcome to attend.)

September 10th, 2010 - "Men's Only Slam" at Urbean Joe's Cafe, 14804 St. Clair Avenue in Cleveland, OH 44110 (This slam is restricted to male poets only, but all are welcome.)

Visit the 3-Part Slam's Facebook event page here.

The Printer's Ball

A great article today in the Chicago Sun-Times about the fifth annual Printer's Ball. It starts like this . . .

Robert Frost was never this hot. Guns. Empowerment. Mass media. Those were some of the popular themes at the Brave New Voices summit here, where more than 900 teenage poets and spoken-word artists from across the world gathered to bring poetry into a new convergence of hip-hop, choreography and guttural rhymes.

Words have always helped to make sense of a turbulent world. In this regard, hip-hop and slam poetry is an extension of the 1950s Beats' link between jazz and poetry. "The Beats taught everyone poetry doesn't have to be homework," said Tony Trigilio, 43, director of creative writing and poetry in the English department of Columbia College, which offers the nation's only undergraduate poetry major. "They used the elaborate rhythms of jazz. They brought poetry back to its roots in music."

Read the rest of the article here. And did YOU know that Columbia College offers the nation's only undergraduate poetry major? I dig it.