It’s that time of the year again! Time for Union Suare Slam’s top poets to duke it out for the next two spots on our first Finals stage ever this May, with none other than the legendary Franny Choi!!!

6pm: Free Poetry Workshop with Sara Emily Kuntz
7pm: sign-ups (open Mic Only)
7:30pm: Open Mic
7:50pm: Feature
8: 20pm: Semifinals Slam (invite only)

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

About our Feature:

FRANNY CHOI is a writer, performer, and teaching artist.
She is the author of Floating, Brilliant, Gone (Write Bloody, 2014) and a Rhode Island State Council on the Arts Fellow. She has been a finalist for multiple national poetry slams, and her work has appeared in Poetry Magazine, The Journal, PANK, The Rumpus, and others. She is a Project VOICE teaching artist, a Co-Director of the Providence Poetry Slam, and a member of the Dark Noise Collective.

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.

HOST: Thomas Fucaloro