The National Poetry Slam (NPS) is a performance poetry competition where teams from across the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by to ...

, and, occasionally,

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

and

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands. With an area of , Australia is the largest country by ...

, participate in a large-scale poetry slam. The event occurs in early August every year and in different U.S. cities.

History

The first National Poetry Slam was held at Fort Mason in 1990 in San Francisco. Aptowicz, Cristin O'Keefe. (2008). ''Words in Your Face: A Guided Tour Through Twenty Years of the New York City Poetry Slam.''

Soft Skull Press Counterpoint LLC was a publishing company distributed by Perseus Books Group launched in 2007. It was formed from the consolidation of three presses: Perseus' Counterpoint Press, Avalon Publishing Group's Shoemaker & Hoard and the independent S ...

. "Chapter Six: Playing Nice; The First National Poetry Slam" Page 45. . It was organized by poet Gary Mex Glazner and featured three competing teams:

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = List of sovereign states, Count ...

( birthplace of slam),

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

(

Nuyorican Nuyorican is a portmanteau of the terms "New York" and "Puerto Rican" and refers to the members or culture of the Puerto Ricans located in or around New York City, or of their descendants (especially those raised or currently living in the N ...

), and

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17t ...

(host city). It has been held every year since. 2014).Aptowicz, Cristin O'Keefe. (2008). ''Words in Your Face: A Guided Tour Through Twenty Years of the New York City Poetry Slam.''

. "New York City Poetry Slam Teams" Page 366-369. . From 1990 to 2007, the National Poetry Slam held an individual poetry competition (known as "indies") simultaneously with the team competition, with the poets earning the highest ranking individual poems during the first two days of competition moving on the semifinal and final rounds. The first winner of this event was Patricia Smith, who would go on to win the Individual National Poetry Slam Championship title a record four times.Poetry Slam, Inc. Website: Past NPS Winners page
/ref> Starting in 2004, Poetry Slam Inc. (PSI) began hosting a separate event called the

Individual World Poetry Slam The Individual World Poetry Slam (iWPS) is a yearly poetry slam tournament put on by Poetry Slam, Inc. that pits individual slam poets from around the world against one another. History From 1990 to 2007, the National Poetry Slam held an "indiv ...

(IWPS), in which solo poets, rather than teams, competed for the championship title.Poetry Slam, Inc. Website: iWPS page
/ref> Because of the popularity of iWPS and to avoid the confusion of two "individual" poetry slam titles being awarded ever year, Poetry Slam Inc. decided to cancel the "indie" competition at the National Poetry Slam.Poetry Slam, Inc. Website: NPS FAQ page
/ref> In 2008, the "Indie Finals" was replaced with the "Group Piece Finals," in which the teams with the highest ranking group pieces (multi-voice poems featuring more than one poet) competed for the title. Only teams who weren't already eligible for NPS semifinals were allowed to compete, with New York, NYC-Urbana being the first Group Piece Finals championship team. Also in 2008, the

Women of the World Poetry Slam The Women of the World Poetry Slam (WoWPS) is an annual poetry slam put on by Poetry Slam, Inc. The tournament features individual slam poets from around the world that "live their lives as women" competing to be the highest ranked woman poet in th ...

(WOWPS) was introduced, in which only female and female-identified poets are allowed to compete.Poetry Slam, Inc. Website: WOWPS page
/ref> The first WOWPS was held in Detroit, Michigan and the first WOWPS champion was

Andrea Gibson Andrea Gibson (born August 13, 1975) is an American poet and activist from Calais, Maine, who has lived in Boulder, Colorado since 1999. Gibson's poetry focuses on gender norms, politics, social reform, and LGBTQ topics. Personal life Gibson ...

.Poetry Slam, Inc. Website: WOWPS News page
/ref> In 2008, poet Harlym 125 created an unofficial individual competition called the National Underground Poetry Individual Competition (NUPIC) as a response to the absence of an individual competition at NPS.Spread the word.....there will be an Underground Indi's at Nat's....
/ref> The winner of this competition has traditionally been given a showcase spot on the finals stage at NPS. The National Poetry Slam has also been the subject of several feature-length documentaries, including the 1998 Paul Devlin film '' SlamNation'', and the 2006 Kyle Fuller and Mike Henry film ''Slam Planet''.

Results by year

Team Finalists

Individual Finalists at NPS

Group Piece Finalists at NPS

National Underground Poetry Individual Competition (NUPIC) Champion

----

Individual World Poetry Slam (iWPS)

----

Women of the World Poetry Slam (WOWPS)

{{main, Women of the World Poetry Slam

References

External links

National Poetry Slam 2008 Website

Official Poetry Slam Incorporated Homepage

SF Hosting Poetry Slam
Performance art festivals Poetry slams Poetry organizations