Slam poets from around Iowa are invited to participate in a special international slam event in Iowa City on Oct. 15.
SlamoVision is a project of the international UNESCO Cities of Literature. Slam poets in some of the 42 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 2022.
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 Saturday, Oct. 15, at the Public Space One location at the Close House, 538 S. Gilbert St. Poets from across Iowa may participate. Sign-up begins at 6:30 p.m., the slam begins at 7 p.m. Each poet has three-and-a-half minutes to perform. At the completion of three rounds, the winning poet will be chosen to represent Iowa City in the international competition.
Oct. 15 is also the grand opening for the Iowa City Poetry Lending Library, which is located in the Close House. That evening, books by spoken word poets will be featured, and the visitors can sign up for a free membership. Check out the catalog at https://iowacity.librarika.com.
A video of the winning poet from the Oct. 15 event will be entered into the contest. On Nov. 12, as part of the Mic Check Poetry Fest, Iowa City poets and poetry lovers will convene to watch and rank the poets from the other participating cities. This same process will happen in the other Cities of Literature. The scores will be tabulated and an international SlamoVision poet will be crowned during an online event in December hosted by the Nottingham City of Literature in England.
Participants from Quebec City, Canada; Ljubljana, Slovenia; Exeter, Manchester and Nottingham, England; Kuhmo, Finland; Tartu, Estonia; and Vilnius, Lithuania, will take part.
