Literary Arts is excited to present the annual Verselandia! Youth Poetry Slam Championship on Thursday, April 27, 2023 at the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall. Happening every year during National Poetry Month, Verselandia! brings together the best and brightest youth poets from Portland and surrounding suburbs to compete for cash prizes and the title of Gram Slam Champion!
How it works:
This year, 21 finalists from 11 high schools will compete at Verselandia! Each individual school hosted their own qualifier slam competitions to determine who from their school would compete. An East Side Slam event was held for Gresham, Nelson, and Parkrose, which also determined a non-competing calibration poet to warm up the audience and judges at Verselandia! Each finalist, selected in random order, will have three minutes to perform an original poem on stage; no props, costumes, or instruments allowed—just the rawness of their voice and the rhythm of their words.
A panel of onstage judges will give the poems individual scores out of ten. Eleven finalists will be eliminated from the competition and the ten remaining poets will perform a different original three-minute piece. These poems will then be scored, and the top five poets with the highest scores will be announced, and the poet with the highest score overall will be crowned Grand Slam Champion!
The judges:
This year’s judges are Gustavo J. Cruz, Jr., Subashini Ganesan, Mindy Nettifee, Jae Nichelle, and Esperanza Spalding. Read more about these judges by clicking on their bios below!
Meet the judges
Get tickets to this year’s Verselandia!
