Slamlandia ft. Joshua Merritt

Join us on JUNE 26TH for an IN PERSON Poetry Open Mic and Slam at Literary Arts!

Sign-ups are at 6:30 PM. Show begins at 7:00 PM.

Both our poetry open mic and poetry slam have 10 slots. This show we are doing a LOTTERY SYSTEM, where we will take sign ups until 6:50pm, pull the lists, and decide randomly who gets to read this evening.

Literary Arts: 716 SE Grand Ave, Portland, OR 97214

Here are some important COVID-related things to note:

• While not mandatory, masks are STRONGLY ENCOURAGED
• Please be smart and safe and, if you are feeling ill the day before/of, please stay home
• Keep an eye on our social media for any more updates

We will have a feature from Joshua Merritt!

Joshua Merritt (they/he) is a nonbinary poet from Portland, Oregon. Their debut chapbook, Pass Through, is performance poetry adapted for the page about queerness, life, love, death, becoming and surviving it all with a couple laughs along the way. They are a fierce lover of the Portland poetry community, and most recently had the privilege to perform as part of the 2024 Portland Poetry Slam Team at the Bigfoot Regional Poetry Slam (which you all should go to, seriously, do not miss it, I mean it). You can find them writing with other poets, and in their garden learning how to grow tomatoes, not just write about them.

No door admission.

Please see our Accessibility and Safer Space info below.

★ •*´¨`*• O P E N • M I C •*´¨`*• ★

The open mic will start the show out. The open mic is a great way to share your wonderful poetry! You can share 1-2 poems lasting a maximum of 3 minutes. 10 slots only in the open mic.

★ •*´¨`*• T H E • S L A M •*´¨`*• ★

☆ The slam will be 2 rounds.

There are 10 slots in the poetry slam.☆

☆ Poems will be scored on a scale of 0-10. There will be 5 judges. The lowest score and highest score for each poet will be dropped and the middle 3 scores will be added together.

☆ There is a 3 minute time limit for poems performed in the slam - with a 10 second grace period. A 1/2-point time penalty will be subtracted from the poet's score for every 10 seconds they go past the time limit.

☆ The 5 poets with the highest scores will move on to the 2nd round.

★ •*´¨`*• A C C E S S I B I L I T Y •*´¨`*• ★

There is one entrance with no stairs. The event is on the bottom floor of the building. Any seating can be adjusted to make room for any accessibility equipment. There is also a bathroom that can be accessed on the first floor.

★ •*´¨`*• S A F E R • S P A C E • P O L I C Y •*´¨`*• ★

(1) – Slamlandia is committed to the safety of our community and all of its members. This includes but is not limited to performers, audience members, venue staff, volunteers, featured poets, and Executive Council members. We will not allow any act of hate, bigotry, harassment, or violence within our space and will prohibit the entrance of those who have committed these acts in or outside of our space.

(2) – The Slamlandia community is a community based in consent. It is the responsibility of individuals initiating contact to receive enthusiastic consent for the following activities:

☆ Physical contact

☆ Discussion of personal or heavy topics

☆ Discussion of poetry shared on stage

(3) – Slamlandia does not censor our mic and space - with the exception of hate speech. Hate speech includes, but is not limited to threats of violence, the use of slurs for a group you do not belong to, racism, sexism, transphobia, transmisogyny, homophobia, classicism, and ableism.

☆ Marginalized voices expressing anger toward the group of people oppressing them does not fall under the category of hate speech.

☆ In the event that a performer is using hate speech on stage, an Executive Council member will end their performance and ask them to leave the stage.

☆ In the event that a performer uses hate speech, it is the responsibility of the Executive Council to explain to the performer why this was a violation of our hate speech policy to the best of their ability and point them to resources for further explanation

Also check out other Arts events in Portland, Literary Art events in Portland.