BPL to Host Bards & Brews Poetry Slam at Boutwell Auditorium on February 4

What: Bards & Brews Poetry Slam

When: Friday, February 4, 2022, 6:30 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.

Where: The Boutwell Auditorium Exhibition Hall, 1930 Reverend Abraham Woods Jr. Boulevard, Birmingham, AL, 35203

Details: 10 talented spoken word artists will compete for $300 in cash prizes ($150 1st place, $100 2nd, $50) in the Birmingham Public Library's first Bards & Brews poetry slam of 2022. On-site registration begins at 6:00 p.m. and poetry begins to flow at 6:30 p.m. $5 registration fee required for participating poets. Free admission. Must be 18 or order to attend and 21 or older to drink beer. Hop City Beer & Wine is the pourer and Ferus Artisan Ales is the beer provider. Ferus hosted Bards at its Trussville venue in July 2021. Bards & Brews is sponsored by the Alabama State Council on the Arts. For more information, visit www.Facebook.com/BardsandBrews or www.cobpl.org. 

Birmingham, Ala. - Want to see some of Alabama's most talented spoken word artists? Then make your way down to the Boutwell Auditorium in downtown Birmingham on Friday, February 4, for the Birmingham Public Library’s first Bards & Brews Poetry Slam of 2022. 

The poetry slam is limited to the first 10 poets to sign up on-site in the Boutwell Auditorium’s Exhibition Hall, 1930 Reverend Abraham Woods Jr. Blvd. There is a $5 registration fee to enter. The poets will compete for $350 in cash prizes. 

Registration will begin at 6:00 p.m. on Friday, February 4, and the poetry competition will take place from 6:30 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. You must be 18 or older to attend, and 21 or older to drink beer. 

Hop City Craft Beer and Wine is the beer pourer for the event, and Ferus Artisan Ales of Trussville is donating beer for the event. Bards & Brews is sponsored by the Alabama State Council of the Arts, which provided a grant to the Friends Foundation of the Birmingham Public Library last fall. 

A poetry slam is a competition using elimination rounds in which individuals perform their own original poetry before a panel of volunteer judges chosen from the audience. This will be BPL’s first poetry slam since one was held at the Central Library on November 5, 2021, as a tribute to longtime host Voice Porter, who died unexpectedly last August.