Open Door Slam: Exit 36 Qualifier

Welcome to the Open Door Slam: Exit 36 Qualifier event! Get ready for an epic showdown at the Super D Banquet Hall LLc. This in-person event will bring together the best of the best in a fierce competition.

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Be aware this slam is a three-part Exit 36 Qualifier slam. The slams will be in three parts, with two Preliminary Slams, and one final Grand Slam.  

The winner for finals will earn a competition slot for the -2025 Exit 36 Poetry Slam Festival- in Pompano Beach Florida, December 11th-13th. Registration and a Performance Stipend are included. 

Prelims will happen August 15th and September (date TBD). 

Finals will be held in October (date TBD)

Prelim Rules: 

Each preliminary slam will have a cap of 12 slammers with three rounds. 

Participants will be cut from 12 to 8 after round one, and then down to four slammers after round two. 

The order will be drawn for the 1st round. The 2nd round will be in order from highest scoring poet to lowest scoring poet. Order will be redrawn for the Final round. 

Scores will be cumulative for Rounds 1&2, and clean slate for the Final Round. 

Total cumulative scores will be used to break any ties in the Final Round.

Poems from Prelim Slams cannot be repeated until the Final Round of the Grand Slam. 

General Rules: 

Poets have a 3-minute time limit with a 10-second grace period. After 3:10 a poet’s score is penalized by deducting .5 points for every 10 seconds over the time limit.

3:10 and under no penalty

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

Poets will be scored by 5 judges. Two out of five judges will be preselected Celebrity Judges from the Tampa Artists community. The other three will be randomly selected from the audience. 

Poems are judged from 0.0 to 10.0, with a single decimal point encouraged as a tiebreaker.

No props allowed!

Time starts at first interaction with the audience. Any interaction with the audience including on your way to stage can start your time so please be mindful. Bout Management has final discretion to decide what is or is not engagement.  

Also check out other Arts events in Tampa, Literary Art events in Tampa, Contests in Tampa.