You Can Judge a Poetry Slam

The requirements to judge a slam are simple: You enjoy poetry and you’re not unfairly biased towards any of the competitors. You don’t have to “know” poetry or be a poet yourself. There’s no gatekeeping in slam.

The judging process is also straightforward. You can evaluate the quality of the language and the performance, but it ultimately comes down to how the poem makes you feel. We’ll start the evening off with an initial “sacrificial” poem. If you think a poem was better than the sacrificial poem, give it a better score. If you think it was worse, score it lower. When you are a judge, you’re the expert!

Some things to keep in mind:

• Audiences may disagree with a score and are encouraged to let the room know while all the scores are read out. This is part of the game and helps maintain poets’ morale if they don’t get the scores they expected or hoped for by letting them know their work and performance resonated with someone. No one is allowed to bully, pressure, or insult you.
• You’ll be expected to stay for the entire show. We’ll make sure you have plenty of breaks and opportunities for trips to the restroom or the bar, but we’ll need to you be ready to listen and score poets while they are performing.
• Poets may and often do talk about heavy subjects and tell very personal stories. The rest of the audience can dip out for a poem or two to process emotions and take a break, but we’ll need you to be there for every poem of the round.
• If you have any concerns, qualms, considerations, queries, or quagmires, don’t hesitate to talk to the slammaster or any of the Back Porch Poets.  We want our judges to be happy, healthy, and having a good time!