slam poetry
Spoken word competition
Slam poetry is competitive spoken-word poetry performed before a live audience, with judges scoring each piece.
The form emphasizes dramatic delivery, personal narratives, and social commentary.
Poems are typically memorized and performed without props or costumes.
She won the national slam poetry championship last year.
The genre emerged from Chicago poetry readings in the 1980s.
- free versePoetry without fixed structure
- spoken wordPoetry delivered aloud
- spoken word artistPerformer of oral poetry
- voiceSound from throat
- raw emotionUnprocessed, intense feeling
performance · delivery · Langston Hughes · oral tradition · social commentary · intersectionality · audience · snap fingers · black experience · rhythm · emotion · creativity · word play · cadence · applause · drop the mic · microphone · expression
- poetry typeshaiku, sonnet, limerick, ballad, ode
- cultural artsart, music, dance, theater, opera
- poetryverse, verses, rhyme, rhymes, rhythm
- books and reading poetryverse, sonnets, haiku, rhyme, stanzas
- performance skillsmagic, illusions, sleight of hand, juggling, mime
- spoken wordspoken word, recitation, dramatic reading, declamation, oration
slam poetrytraditional poetry
Formally structured literary verse
classical poetry · sonnets · villanelles · iambic pentameter · metaphysical poetry
slam, poem, poet, poetry, poetic, poems, slammed, slams, slamming