This year’s Individual World Poetry Slam, sponsored by the Arizona Humanities Council, was thought-provoking to say the least. The event lasted four days at multiple local venues, and led up to a final bout at Marquee Theatre on Saturday, October 11. The iWPS finals offered exposure not only to this year’s top contenders, but to the culture of slam poetry.Smaller, local competitions take place globally, each qualifying poets for the World Poetry Slam. Seventy-two poets started this week’s competition; a fraction of them made it to the finals.
One of the first things I noticed about the finals round was how diverse the audience was. People of all ages, sexual orientations, skin tones, and gender identities filled the audience.
Five judges were chosen at random from the crowd to serve as arbiters for the final round. From an outside perspective these judges seemed to favor particular (somewhat predictable) attributes over others. Whether this is reflective of the individual judges’ preferences, the audience’s influence, or the culture of slam, I just can’t say.Twelve poets made it to the final round. A thirteenth poet, designated the “calibration poet,” performed first to provide a point of reference for further scoring by the judges. Brenna Twohy, the Calibration Poet, was the 13th ranked poet in this week’s preliminary bouts.
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