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CREDITS AND
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
We thank the Austin Slam group and the San Antonio
¡Puro Slam!, ESPECIALLY Ben Ortiz from SA for allowing
us to use their rules & stuff as a starting point for
ours... Thanks Austin Slam, ¡Puro Slam!, and Ben
Ortiz-- you guys ROCK!!
What
Is Slam, Anyway?
By Shilanda Woolridge, Austin writer, Austin-American
Statesman
A Start at a
Manifesto
by Marc Smith
GOALS OF THE
¡BALLABAJOOMBA SLAM!
- to enliven and diversify Corpus Christi poetry;
- to draw out and nurture new literary talent through a
fun, biweekly event devoted to performance poetry;
- to expand the audience for poetry and make it as
popular as any spectator sport or rock 'n' roll
show;
- to establish a sustained "regulation" slam venue that
will qualify to send a team of four Corpus Christi poets
yearly to the National Poetry Slam (the next National
Poetry Slam we can qualify for will be in Seattle,
Washington, in the year 2001).
POETS
Here is your chance to grab an audience by the throat and
apply a poetic pile driver! At the LOTUS CUP POETRY
¡BALLABAJOOMBA SLAM! the audience is not obligated to
listen, so the performer will have to make the public pay
attention and react. The winner of every weekly match gets
bragging rights and a prize. Whether you're a local lit
superstar or an unknown scribe, everyone has a chance to
win. COME ONE! COME ALL!
POEMS
WELCOME
Any kind of style, as long as the rules are followed
(see "Rules of the Slam" below). In the
past, poets have presented: formal verse, free verse,
monologues, mano-a-mano sonnets, parables, odes, ballads,
schizophrenic rambling, Antichrist rants, hip-hop
meditation, old-school rap, new-school foolin', romantic
wordgasms, dirty limericks, haiku, fables, twisted tales,
iambic pentameter, napkin-scribbled words of wisdom,
improvised words of anger, beatbox scratch-verse, phonetic
fisticuffs, abstract-experimental lyricism, and
drunken-master mind-over-matter magic to mention just a
few.
TO
THE POETS (& Poets' Oath)
AUDIENCE
Here is your chance to talk some smack back to all the wack
local verse, and to shower victorious word-smiths with
verbal gravy. At ¡BALLABAJOOMBA SLAM! the audience is a
part of the show. COME FOR THE CULTURE - STAY FOR THE WORD
MADE FLESH!
JUDGES
Every slam, we choose 5 judges from the audience to play the
Judge Judy of poetry. They will assign each poem a score of
0.0-10.0. [0.0 goes to the worst possible poem
imaginable performed by someone who should not quit his/her
day job, and 10.0 goes to a poem performed perfectly that
causes simultaneous orgasm throughout the house.
NOW AGAIN: ZERO MEANS "BOOTY" / TEN MEANS "DA BOMB." Judges
use only one decimal point. The scorekeeper will drop the
high and low scores for the round and tally the other three
judges' scores for round's cumulative score.
THE
JUDGE'S INSTRUCTIONS
RULES OF THE
SLAM
Sign up for the ¡BALLABAJOOMBA SLAM! begins at 8:30
p.m. every slam night and closes at roughly 8:55 p.m.
Everyone who signs before 8:45 will be allowed to slam,
however, if 12 or more poets sign for a competition the list
is closed at 8:45.
Again, you are guaranteed that you will perform only if you
sign by 8:45. Thus, please show up EARLY! The Sign up list
is randomized to determine the First Round order. Poets who
read 1st and 2nd in the first round have a choice to select
their reading spot during the next slam in which they
participate.
All poets read in first round. 8 poets will read in the
second round. 4 poets will read in the third (final) round.
The host may chose to extend the pool of finalists to 6, if
the contending poets come within the tenths of a point to
the fourth place. In rounds 2 and 3, poets will read in
order of high to low scores (one week) and low to high
scores (next week). Finalists are determined by a cumulative
score. The slates in the finals may be cleared and the
competition will starts from scratch (MC will make the
necessary determinations about how she/he wants to run the
finals).
In case 8 or less poets sign up, all poets read in all three
rounds.
Every round, each poet can read one poem of their own,
original creation, in any style and on any subject. No
props, costumes, or musical accompaniment. No reading the
same poem twice on a given night! (Poets can read the same
poems from week to week; although the ¡BALLABAJOOMBA
SLAM! encourages poets to write new stuff every week!) Poets
are allotted 3 minutes per poem, plus a 10-second grace
period to finish. Timing starts as soon as the poet makes a
connection in any way shape or form with the audience. Best
to hit the ground running. If the poet goes over 3 minutes,
there is a penalty depending on how long the poet went over
time:
3:10.01 - 3:20 = -0.5
3:20.01 - 3:30 = -1.0
3:30.01 - 3:40 = -1.5
3:40.01 - 3:50 = -2.0
and so on, with -0.5 for every 10 seconds over 3:10.
PROP/COSTUME/MUSIC
PENALTIES
The host will announce if these penalties apply:
1) costume = disqualification
2) prop: inadvertent use = -subtract two points from
cumulative score; premeditated = -disqualification
3) music accompaniment: -disqualification
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