Every Wednesday is the iconic Berkeley Poetry Slam, AKA the longest-running poetry slam on the west coast since 1998! Poets have the chance to win $200 in cash prizes every week. Almost every week a featured guest poet will perform some of their work between the 2 rounds. Join us every Wednesday to enjoy the work of the Bay Area’s most talented poets!
Before the show
- Doors open at 7:00pm
- Free writing workshop led by hosts or featured poet of the week begins at 7:15pm
- Sign ups to compete in the slam begin at 7:15pm
- First 12 competing poets get in for free
- $10 cover at the door or $8 online at bit.ly/tspbps
Rules for poets
- You have 3 minutes with a 10 second grace period to spit whatever you want.
- You will lose 0.1 points from your total score for every second you go over the limit.
- At 4 minutes we will start music to play you off the stage & you will be disqualified from the competition that week.
- Your time starts when you address the audience.
- Content & trigger warnings are appreciated.
- NO props, NO musical accompaniment, NO nudity. Only what you can produce with your voice.
- Poets will be judged from a scale of 0-10. 0 being the worst poem you’ve heard in your life and 10 being the best poem you’ve heard in your life.
- Judges are selected from the audience members.
- There are 5 judges each week.
- Highest score & lowest scores are dropped.
- 3 middle scores are added to get you a score out of 30.
- The top 5 poets move on to the 2nd round.
- Top 3 poets of the night split $200. $100 for 1st place, $60 for 2nd place, and $40 for 3rd place.
Berkeley Slam Team Awards:
- 2nd place at the 2024 Regional Bigfoot Slam in Portland, OR
- 3rd in the nation at the 2015 National Poetry Slam
- 3rd at the 2023 Bigfoot Regional Poetry Slam in Portland, OR
Organized and hosted by local non-profit Rich Oak Events
- Rich Oak Events is the production team behind the Berkeley Poetry Slam. We are 4 young people of color providing platforms for poets and artists to perform, learn, grow, and build community. We host poetry slams, open mics, writing workshops, and showcases to enrich our community through spoken word poetry, music, art, and dance. We have programs that allow high school students to enter for free and gain access to resources that normally would be blocked by a financial barrier. As a fiscally sponsored program under Bay Area Creative 501(c)3, all donations are tax deductible.
- Donate on Cash App: cash.app/$BerkeleySlam
- Donate on Venmo: venmo.com/richoakslam
- Patreon: patreon.com/richoakevents
