Dallas Poetry Slam Grand Slam

Kicking off National Poetry Month, top-area poets will compete for a spot on the nationally ranked Dallas Poetry Slam team during the annual Grand Slam competition at 7 p.m. Friday, April 6. Admission is $10 at the door

One poet will be crowned this year’s Grand Slam Champion, sharing an opportunity with four other poets to represent the city of Dallas in Charlotte, N.C. during the National Poetry Slam in August.

Poetry slam is a competition of original poetry judged on content and performance by the audience. “Patrons can expect to be delightfully engaged at an event filled with high energy and passion along with a variety of individual poetic expressions ranging from humor or love to personal intrigue or social challenges,” says HBO Def Poet and Dallas Poetry Slam organizer and host, Roderick “Rock Baby” Goudy.

The Dallas Poetry Slam is home to nationally-ranked competitors including the 2009 European World Cup of Poetry Slam Champion and the 2008 Individual World Poetry Slam Winner Joaquin Zihuatanejo and the celebrated founder of DFW slam poetry is Clebo Rainey. In 2011, the Dallas team advanced to the group piece finals at nationals and has a long history of success in the poetry slam arena making Dallas Poetry Slam competitively the best poetry troupe in the South.