Bards & Brews 1st Slam of 2024 Happening at the Central Library, Friday, February 2

The first Bards & Brews Slam is happening at the Central Library this Friday, February 2, at 6:30 p.m. Poets will compete in 3 rounds for cash prizes and audience members can volunteer as judges to decide who wins! 

Join us tomorrow night for a tasting of beers and wines while the Birmingham metro area's most talented poets compete against each other with original spoken word poetry. 

1st place wins $200.00, 2nd place wins $100.00, and 3rd place wins $50.00. Audience members can even help decide who wins by being a volunteer judge or by cheering for their favorite to sway the judge's score. 

Thed Weller is hosting this slam and local drummer Barry Johnson is our guest performer. Johnson will open the night with some West African drumming and then the stage will open for the sacrificial poem to kickoff the slam. 

You must be 18+ to enter and 21+ with proof of I.D. to drink. 

Registration starts promptly at 6:00 p.m. on-site at the Central Library, and it is open to the first 10 poets who register with the $5.00 entry fee. Poets must be at the library in person to register.

The slam will have 3 rounds and a final round between the remaining 2 poets. Scoring is cumulative. Come ready to compete!

Here are the rules for competing in the slam:

• Poets will be reminded before the slam that judges are chosen from the available audience

• All poems performed in the competition must be an original work of the performing poet

• Poets can sample up to 30 seconds of work from another artist

• Poets may use whatever is on stage and available to them during their performance

• No props, musical accompaniment, or costumes are allowed as a part of the performance

• Costumes are defined as any piece of clothing or accessory that is worn on stage which is not a piece of the poet's regular outfit; an item worn to enhance the poet's performance (like wearing a Superman t-shirt during a performance that references a superhero); and any form of nudity, including performing shirtless or in a swimsuit

• Performers should be careful not to put on or take off clothing while on stage as this could be considered a prop violation

• Poets have a 3-minute time limit with a 10 second grace period—after 3:10, a poet's score is penalized .5 points for every 10 seconds over the time limit

• During the final round, the grace period is extended to 20 seconds

• The high and low scores of each poem are dropped and the remaining 3 scores are added together to get the poet's score

• Poets with the 3 highest scores at the end of the 3 rounds win 1st place, 2nd place, and 3rd place respectively

• A slam off with one final performance from each finalist will decide a tie

Our emcee Thed Weller will choose 5 members from the audience to be our judges for the night. Before the slam, he will pull the judges aside to warn them about score creep and ask them to be consistent with their scoring. Judges must:

• be impartial

• not be related to—including being friends with—any of the competitors or an employee of the venue

• be able to stay for the duration of the competition

• not sit next to another judge

Poems are judged from 0.0 to 10.0 with a single decimal point (like 6.2 or 9.5) encouraged as a tiebreaker. Judges should score based on their response to the poet's performance, relevance, and passion. A sacrifice poem from a non-competitor will open the slam so judges can practice scoring.

We'll see you at the Central Library this Friday night!

Follow the Birmingham Public Library on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Twitter for more updates like these. Follow Bards & Brews on Facebook to stay informed on all poetry related programs. 

Bards & Brews is sponsored by the Alabama State Council on the Arts. 

By Cheyenne Trujillo | Library Assistant Ⅲ, Public Relations