Slam 4 All!
See who’s competing!
🔔Contestant registration is now closed. All 15 slots have been filled! 🔔
🎟Now it’s time to fill the audience. Tickets can be purchased by clicking here.🎟
What: BlackBerry Peach Slam Poetry Competition Qualifier – Slam 4 All!
Who: Our 15 contestants are listed here with bios and headshots (as available). Check out their stories and follow their links! Join the audience on August 15 (in-person or via Zoom) to see if one of them becomes an NMSPS representative to the October BlackBerry Peach Slam Poetry Competition in Florida. Buy tickets now!
When: Monday, August 15 at 7pm (Entrants arrive by 6pm to sign in. Anyone not onsite and signed in by 6:15pm will be removed from the roster.)
Where: 505 Food Hall, 505 Central Avenue NW, Albuquerque, NM
Winners (an Adult Poet and a Youth Poet) will be chosen to represent the New Mexico State Poetry Society at the BlackBerry Peach Slam Poetry Competition in October 2022 in Daytona Beach Shores, Florida. NMSPS will help pay for air travel and lodging.
If you want to be part of the audience, click here to purchase a ticket, $10 each (plus handling fee).
Rules for Slam 4 All Event
Registration & Other Pre-Event Guidelines
1. Poets entering the Slam 4 All! competition in Albuquerque August 15 must register and pay the entry fee no later than 10pm August 13. The earlier the better, because only 15 slots are available.
2. One Adult Poet (21+) and one Youth Poet (14-20) participating in Slam 4 All may be chosen to represent NMSPS at the National BlackBerry Peach Slam Competition in Daytona Beach Shores, Florida in October. If no qualified poet emerges from the Slam 4 All, NMSPS reserves the right to choose representatives in another way.
3. Youth Poets must provide documented proof of age when checking in at the Slam 4 All! On August 15. Photo ID or birth certificate are acceptable. (Youth Poet must be born between October 24, 2001 and October 20, 2008.)
4. A minimum of five (5) competitors is necessary for the Slam 4 All! to be held on August 15. If that minimum is not met (i.e., fewer than 5 entrants are registered by August 13), NMSPS reserves the right to cancel the competition. All entry fees and ticket purchases will be refunded if the competition is cancelled by NMSPS. Otherwise, all sales are final.
5. Poets should arrive no later than 6 pm and must be checked in by 6:15 pm on August 15th or they may be withdrawn from competition.
6. Poets who live more than 25 miles from Albuquerque may request to perform via Zoom on the event date and time of August 15. Designate this option in the registration form.
Performance Rules:
1. All poems must be original creations belonging to the poet performing them.
2. During competition, poets may not use musical accompaniment, costumes or props of any kind.
3. Poets will have 3 minutes to perform their poem, with a 10 second grace period.
4. Poems that exceed the 3:10 time will result in loss of 0.5 points from the score for that poem for every 10 seconds it goes over. Time starts as soon as the poet first engages with the audience. The slam will consist of three rounds, so poets must have 3 unique poems ready to perform.
5. Sampling of songs created by other artists within your poem must be limited to no more than 25 seconds.
6. Poets may not engage with the judges in any way that could be seen as an attempt to influence their judgement.
7. Poets may not engage in hate speech, dissing, battle rap, or other aggressive activities. Violation of this rule may result in being asked to leave the venue.
8. If another poet, or an audience member feels any of these rules have been violated, they must bring it to the attention of the slam host as soon as the poem is over, to register their complaint. Any potential violations of the rules will be reviewed by the host and the judges.
9. Violating any of these rules will result in a 1.0 point deduction from the poets score.
Buy Tickets! Help the winners fly to Florida ✈
Our Slam 4 All Contestants! (Check back for more bios)
Harriet Engle doesn’t often talk about herself in third person, but for this, she will. A native of Michigan, her journeys brought her to Albuquerque in 2007. In between, she’s been a radio personality, a tech support monkey, a musician, and Jill of all trades. Her hobbies, when she has time, include playing in a community band, writing fanfic, and collecting cookbooks that she’ll someday have a kitchen worth using them in.
Cameron M. Little, oddly feathered as he is, roosts in Albuquerque, NM. He has appeared in “Snowdrops, A Collection Of Winter Poems,” by Wingless Dreamer. Despite so many references to birds, he is not one.
Jessica Parascandola has been participating in Poetry Slam for more than a decade, in both Rio Rancho and Albuquerque. She has been a member of multiple slam teams, including ABQ. Slams. Jessica was the Albuquerque Women’s Champion in 2020, and went on to represent New Mexico at the 2020 Women of the World Poetry Slam in Dallas. She finds poetry to be an amazing outlet for creativity that has greatly impacted her life.
Marcial Delgado is the host and organizer for the vibrant and welcoming space known as Voices of the Barrio Open Mic Poetry at El Chante:Casa de Cultura in the heart of downtown Albuquerque. Marcial’s first publication, Sell Me Insanity, (published by Swimming With Elephants Publications) was released in 2019. Marcial Delgado is just a vato from the barrio who fell in love with writing and poetry.
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Kristin Patton grew up writing poetry in the back of the classroom. In 2015, she began frequenting open mics and poetry slams to support personal growth and mental health, and offer her hands to the community. She is a 3 time member of Albuquerque’s Mindwell Poetry Slam Team which competed at the Southern Fried Poetry Slam. She featured at the New York City Poetry Festival in 2021 and represented Albuquerque at the Women of the World Poetry Slam Championship in March 2020. Her first book, The Beginning if This, was published that same year.
Rene Mullen is a neurodivergent performance and traditional poet, author of the full-length poetry collection This Still Breathing Canvas, and creator/host of the podcast Pen and Poet. His poetry has been featured in Poetry Quarterly, 50 Haikus, and the Santa Fe Literary Review.
Britt Elizabeth Verstegen is a 54-year-old survivor, writer, mother, grandmother, wife, friend, artist, and therapist. She lives in a small New Mexican town but grew up on the east side of Detroit, Michigan. Britt’s artistic focus is on healing, the universe, mindfulness, and the enduring resilience of human beings. Britt considers it her life mission to serve as a revelatory mirror to other human beings who have survived childhood abuse and neglect: You are beautiful.
Chance Kluckman is an Albuquerque native who started improvising poems live at open mics and poetry slams at age seven. He has grown up around poets, as part of the community and eventually started writing some of his poems down so he could perform them more than once. A natural born romantic, his inspirations include anime, cosplay and love (and heartbreak).
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Last updated on August 10, 2022