Slamovision 2025 Qualifying Slam

Slam poets from around Iowa are invited to participate in a special slam on Sept. 9 that will pick our entrant for an international slam competition.

SlamoVision is a project of the international UNESCO Cities of Literature. Slam poets in 18 of the 53 Cities of Literature around the world will compete in their home cities. One poet from each participating city will move on to an international competition to be judged by fans from the other cities. At the end of the process, one poet will be named the SlamoVision champion for 2025.

Caleb “The Negro Artist” Rainey, winner of the 2023 Iowa City event, will emcee the slam.

The Iowa City UNESCO City of Literature and Iowa City Poetry will co-host Iowa City’s slam poetry event at 6:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Sept. 9 at Close House, 538 S. Gilbert St. Poets from across Iowa may participate. Sign-up begins at 6 p.m., the slam begins at 6:30 p.m. Each poet has three minutes to perform. At the completion of three rounds, the winning poet will be chosen to represent Iowa City in the international competition.

A video of the winning poet from the Sept. 9 event will be entered into the contest. Iowa City poets and poetry lovers will convene during the Iowa City Book Festival, to watch and rank the poets from the other participating cities. This same process will happen in the other Cities of Literature. That judging event will be held at 6 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 10, in Meeting Room A of the Iowa City Public Library. The scores will be tabulated and an international SlamoVision poet will be crowned during an online event at noon on Nov. 5, hosted by the Dublin City of Literature.

Participating Cities of Literature are Bremen, Germany; Dublin, Ireland; Exeter, UK; Gothenburg, Sweden; Heidelberg, Germany; Iowa City; Kozhikode, India; Ljubljana, Slovenia; Manchester, UK; Melbourne, Australia; Nottingham, UK; Odessa, Ukraine; Quebec City, Canada; Reykjavik, Iceland; Slemani, Iraq; Tartu, Estonia; Vilnius, Lithuania; and Wroclaw, Poland.