A Poetry Slam will be held Friday, Nov. 17 at 7:30 p.m. in the Redwood Room of the University Union. The first annual Poetry Slam is part of the Sacramento International Poetry Festival taking place Nov. 11 through Nov. 17.

The Poetry Slam is a competition of spontaneous, unrehearsed poetry open to all students and community members. Cash prizes totaling $200 will be awarded to the first, second and third place winners.

“All poets have three minutes to perform their poem. Once the three minutes are complete there is a ten second grace period after which they will be penalized .5 points for every ten seconds”, said Theresa Shelton, Program Coordinator for the CSUS Multi-Cultural Center and co-sponsor of the event.

The poets will be judged on a ten-point scale. Some judges will be experienced poets and other judges will be picked randomly from the audience. The judges will hold up a card with a score from one to ten that will determine the overall score of the participant.

“Depending on how many competitors, there may be several elimination rounds so poets should bring a plethora of poetry”, said Shelton.

Poets who wish to compete for the $200 in cash prizes must register at 6:30 p.m. in the Redwood Room. The first place winner will be awarded $125.00, second place $50.00 and third place $25.00. There is a $5.00 registration fee for participants.

Admission:

$5.00 non-students, $3.00 for students with valid student identification.

Tickets for this event will be sold at the door.