Exit 36 Slam Poetry - Pompano Beach Arts

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The Sixth Annual Exit 36 Slam Poetry Festival is a three-day poetry festival that serves the community through educational, theatrical, and literary performances. The festival will nurture, support, and showcase regional, national, and international writers, facilitators, and artist from all over the country to honor the creative genius of our own cultural arts pioneers. The festival includes writing workshops, artists' talks, and the Slam Poetry competition. In its sixth year, the Exit 36 objectives remain the same -- to pay homage to poetry, spoken word, literacy, community engagement, and to celebrate the arts. The 3-day event attracts the premier spoken word artists in the country and will take place December 7-9, 2023 at the City’s cultural venues. This year we'll also be hosting an artist talk and poetry reading with special guest, Tarronia Tank Ball from Tank and The Bangas.

Tickets

TICKETS ON SALE NOW! Get your tickets here.

All-Access Festival Pass (3-Day Pass) | $30

The Festival Pass provides you with access to all the events during the entire festival.

Poet Registration

Poet Registration for 2023 has closed.

Rules

There will be 20 competing Poets, all competing Poets will need a total of five (5) poems to win.

PRELIMINARY ROUNDS:

During preliminary rounds (“bouts”), all poets will perform one (1) original poem.

Each poet will draw a number to determine the order of each performance.
No poet will be eliminated during preliminary competition.
The 1st place winners of the preliminary competition will be awarded a refund of their $150 registration.
- If a poet wins more than one preliminary bout the $150 prize can be gifted to the runner-up of that bout, per the winning poet’s request or prize will be forfeited.

Each poet will compete in two preliminary microbouts assigned via a random draw held publicly. The draw for the prelim order will occur onsite at the start of the bout, with poets drawing a number 1-10 for each round.

No ties will be broken in prelims. Poets will receive a rank based on their scores in the microbout. So a rank of 1-10 will be given, with the highest score receiving a 1. In the case of a tie, the rank will be shared and the next person will receive an adjusted rank.

For example, if there is a tie for 3rd place, the assigned ranks will be: 1,2,3,3,5,6. If there are multiple ties, the adjustments will be the same. If there is a tie for 1st and 2nd highest scores the assigned ranks will be: 1,1,3,3,5,6.

The top 15 poets with the highest cumulative score will advance to the Final Stage with the 16^th and 17^th ranked poets serving as sacrificial poets (Sacs) at Final Stage.

FINAL STAGE:

Round 1 – Fifteen poets
Round 2 – Eight poets
- Score is a cumulative score based upon the evening’s first two rounds.
- There is a half point deduction for every 10 secs over allotted three minute time limit, after a 20 second grace period.
Round 3 – Four poets
- The Final round score is a clean slate and starts at zero.
- There will be a calibration poet before the final round
- There is a half point deduction for every 10 secs over allotted three-minute time limit, after a 20 second grace period.

NO POEM REPEAT – Poets are not allowed to repeat poems performed throughout competition.

Tie breaks will be decided by highest overall score except for the last round on final stage, which will be broken by poem, which can be a repeat poem.
If there is a tie going into rounds after taking all 5 scores, we will take the extra Poet.
Protest to Scores must be done after bout, before score sheets are signed. Once score sheets are signed by competitors no protest can be issued.
Score sheets MUST BE signed by all competitors.

In case of a three-way tie all the prizes will be combined and spilt equally amongst winners

JUDGES:

Three (3) Judges will be selected from a pre-selected group of judges. The remaining two (2) will be selected from the audience.

PERFORMANCE RULES:

No props allowed
No reading of poems on final stage
3 minutes and 10 sec grace period during preliminary rounds
3 minutes and 20 second grace period during final stage

Prizes

1st place : $2,500

2nd Place : $1,500

3rd Place : $1,000

Event Schedule

Thursday December 7, 2023 I Pompano Beach Cultural Center

6:00PM - 7:00PM Prelims
7:00PM - 8:00PM Poetry reading with Tarronia Tank Ball from Tank and the Bangas
8:00PM - 9:00PM Prelims
9:00PM - 11:00PM Cypher on the rooftop

Friday December 8, 2023 I Pompano Beach Cultural Center

5:00PM - 6:00PM Workshop
6:00PM - 7:00PM Prelims
7:00PM - 8:00PM Artist Talk with Tarronia Tank Ball from Tank and the Bangas
8:00PM - 9:00PM Prelims
9:00PM - 11:00PM Since You Here Anyway Side Slam

Saturday December 9, 2023 I Ali Cultural Center and Pompano Beach Cultural Center