On April 24, 2025, 22 students from 11 high schools competed for the title of Grand Slam Champion at the annual Verselandia! Youth Poetry Slam Championship.
Our top five poets were: in fifth place, Emma York, from Franklin High School; in fourth place, Nickolas Ritter of Adrienne C. Nelson High School; in third place, Gio Calandrella of Grant High School; in second place, Owl Matthews of Cleveland High School; and our 2025 Verselandia! Grand Slam Champion for the second year in a row is Qiana Woods of Parkrose High School.
Verselandia! is a celebration of Portland’s youth poets: a Grand Slam competition for winners of individual poetry slams held throughout the year by area public high school librarians. The championship event was held at the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall and was hosted by poet and performer Julia Gaskill, co-founder of the monthly open-mic series Slamlandia as well as the annual Bigfoot Poetry Festival. This year’s judges were Oregon State Representative Dacia Grayber, spoken word poet and educator La Toya Hampton, Multnomah County Library Director Annie Lewis, local author and translator Daniel Nieh, and President of Wieden + Kennedy Portland Jason White.
Verselandia! has the same rules as national poetry slams: Students’ poetry must be original work, each performance cannot exceed three minutes, and poets cannot use any props, costumes, or music. Verselandia judges use a scale of one to ten, rating both the writing and the performance on a scale of one to ten. Our top five winners received cash prizes.
