Hang on to the seat of your pants, because Sam Rush is about ready to rocketlaunch you into the heart of the universe!! Come tell us all about it on our open mic or poetry slam!! Get ready for launch at our free poetry workshop before the show!!

6:00pm: Free Poetry Workshop with Sara Emily Kuntz
7:00pm: Sign-Ups and Socializing
7:30pm: Open Mic
8:00pm: Feature
8:30pm: Poetry Slam

Please note: the Bureau is closed on Tuesdays. We open at 6 PM for Union Square Slam.

Suggested donation of $5 to benefit the Bureau. No one turned away for lack of funds.

About our Feature:

Sam Rush was raised in South Florida, but now makes poems and songs in and around New Hampshire. Sam got to writing poems after developing progressive hearing loss as a teenager and noticing how many words each word could be. They represented the venue Slam Free or Die in the 2014 and 2015 National Poetry Slam and the 2014 and 2015 Women of the World Poetry Slams (WOWPS), preforming on finals stage at WOWPS 2015. Sam has work published or forthcoming in The Offing, Snacks, Drunk in a Midnight Choir, and We Can Make Your Life Better (U of Hell Press) and currently works for a non-profit focused on empowering youth from cultures in conflict.

About our Slam:

::Union Square Slam National Team Competition::

There are 3 quarters of competitive poetry slam, each culminating in a Semifinal. Each quarter consists of six open slams (one or more of which is a New Shit slam — competition in New Shit slams counts towards your total points!)

Each open slam will :
– consist of up to 8 poet competitors
have a 3 min time limit for each round with a 10-second grace period
– will go from 8 in the first round to 5 in the second round and 3 in the third round (this is subject to change depending on the number of competitors that night — see below)
– be scored cumulatively — the winner of the night will have the highest cumulative score from all three rounds.

At the end of each quarter, the poets with the 8 highest cumulative scores FOR THE QUARTER, are invited to compete in Semifinals. If a qualified poet opts out, then the next highest ranking poet qualifies. Semifinals are run using the same rules as the Open Slams. The top two highest ranked poets in each Semifinals bout will advance to Finals Stage, along with the top two winners of the Last Chance slam.

Last Chance Slam will be INVITATIONAL only to include the top 8 poets who have the highest cumulative scores over the entire season/all three quarters, but who didn’t not otherwise qualify for FINALS.