Students from Portland and east Multnomah County public high schools will perform spoken word performances in this annual poetry competition
Verselandia!, Portland’s annual city-wide youth poetry slam championship happens this year on April 24th from 7-9 p.m. at the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall. Verselandia! is a Grand Slam competition of Portland’s high school youth poets who have competed in individual poetry slams held throughout the year by area public high school librarians. Tickets for the event start at $20, are free for students and available here.
Verselandia! was founded in 2012 by teacher-librarian Nancy Sullivan in collaboration with Literary Arts to bring local high school poets together. Prior to the city-wide grand slam competition, Sullivan had been hosting the Madison High School Poetry Slam since 2005. And then in 2019, the first East Side Slam took place featuring schools in eastern Multnomah County.
“Verselandia! is a vital event that centers young people and empowers them to share their stories and perspectives with our community,” said Olivia Jones-Hall, director of youth programs at Literary Arts. “We want to elevate young voices and help these young poets feel seen and heard.”
Members of the public are invited to cheer on the youth poets as they compete for poetic glory in front of a panel of judges. This year’s judges are 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. Poet and performer Julia Gaskill, co-founder of the monthly open-mic series Slamlandia as well as the annual Bigfoot Poetry Festival, will host this year’s event.
“We’re asking our whole community to show up and support these brave young people, especially right now,” said Andrew Proctor, Executive Director of Literary Arts. “You will be blown away by their work, and their courage—it’s an evening filled with emotional power and is not to be missed. It’s one of the highlights of our entire year’s programming.”
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 props, costumes, or music. Verselandia! judges use a scale of one to ten, rating both the writing and the performance. Winners will receive cash prizes.
