Welcome to the Big Cheese Poetry Slam, a competition designated to run these poets some cheddar!

On the 2nd Tuesday of Every Month, up to 16 poets compete against each other for the Top 3 of the Evening. The Top 3 poets of each month’s Big Cheese Poetry Slam will have their poem PUBLISHED in an anthology series at the end of the season! In addition to publication, these Poets of the Evening will receive a CASH PRIZE! 3rd place gets $25, 2nd place gets $50 and 1st place will receive $100, bragging rights AND a victory lap poem!

“How do you determine the Top Three?” I hear you ponder.

Here is the breakdown:
We have Two Rounds of Poetry with an Intermission in between. The first Round consists of up to 16 poets– each have 3 minutes with a TEN SECOND grace period to share their work with the audience. From 3:11 onward, the poet will receive a deduction of .5 points for each 10 second increment they go over time. At the 4 minute mark, they will be disqualified.

“Points?” Ohhhh yes, there are POINTS! Each poet will receive a score after their poem from 5 randomly selected judges in the audience that evening. They are scored on a scale of 0.0 to 10.0, based on merits such as: emotional impact, structure, projection, innovation, memorization, tone, rhythm, figurative language, form, sound, originality, social commentary, symbolism …or whatever system they think best suits placing a number to a feeling.

We drop the High Score and the Low Score, add up the middle three, and use that Total Score to determine who our Top 5 poets are going into Round 2, which follows the same format. We add up the Total Score from Round One to the Total Score of Round Two in order to find our Top 3 Poets: the winners of cash prizes, publication, and bragging rights!

We ALSO have a feature for you this evening! Read more about The Bathtub Poet below!!

Woman, poet, mother. Shiaian is an Alabama transplant who wears many hats. Her work focuses on love & how to express it ...along with a shit ton of personal growth. She was just accepted into a book publishing course and is currently writing a book that should be ready for readers by June of 2025’. Her favorite thing to do is bring the community together and uplift others. Shiaian is the owner and host of “Moment of Truth”, which is held every last Thursday. Outside of working on her own event she participates in various community based open mics and does a lot of volunteer work around the Portland area. Her work can be found at @thebathtubpo3t on IG.

Audience:
If you want to see the metaphors fly, come on down to the Hi-Lo Hotel on September 10th at 6:30pm. Tickets are $10 presale and $15 at the door. If you are a student, veteran, or have an Oregon Trail Card, tickets are $5 at the door upon identification. If cost is a barrier, ask about our NOTA Program, Donated Tickets, and volunteer options! No one will be turned away for lack of funds.

Poets:
If you got the mac, then we’ve got the cheese babeyyy. Here is this month’s Sign Up List. Please check in with the host by 6:45pm to be considered for this month’s Slam. 16 poets will be randomly selected throughout the night. If you are not selected, you automatically get a spot in next month’s slam as long as you are in attendance.

We will see you there!!

Questions? Email bigcheesepoetry@gmail.com