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Life & Arts

UC to host series of Poetry Slam events

by LUCIANA A. RODRIGUEZ
The Daily Cougar

The University Center, in collaboration with the Association of College Unions International and Poetry Slam Inc., is giving UH students the opportunity to slam in the spring with rhyme and rhetoric in the annual Poetry Slam Series: From the Mind to the Microphone, from 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. on Feb. 25 inside the World Affairs Lounge.

This is the first time that UH students will be participating in the Poetry Slam Series, and the third time the University has hosted the Region 12 event.

Tryouts are open to UH student poets actively enrolled with at least three spring semester credit hours, and will be held from 7 to 9 p.m. on Jan. 18, Feb. 1 and Feb. 15 inside the UC World Affairs Lounge. Applications are available online at www.uh.edu/ucaf, or can be picked up inside the UC room 282. Walk-in contestants are also welcome. 

"(The participants) will be judged by their peers," UC Programs and Marketing Coordinator Jim Fawcett said. "We will be pulling people out of the audience to judge." 

The panel of five judges will choose the four best slamming groups or individuals from the three preliminary rounds, and will advance the contestants to the ACUI finals. Winners from the competition will then proceed to the ACUI national competition.

Contestants will have three minutes and a 10 second grace period to recite their verses, and will be judged on a 10-point scale, zero being the lowest and 10 the highest. If participants should exceed the time limit, points will be deducted from their final score. 

"Judging will be based on poem content, creativity and clarity," according to a UC and Associated Facilities Press Release.

Admission is free and light refreshments will be provided.

The ACUI and Poetry Slam is an annual event that began in the mid-1980s.

"The event we held in November inside the World Affairs Lounge was filled with spectators … and everyone enjoyed themselves," Fawcett said. "I would think this (Poetry Slam) would become a popular UC event and annual tradition."
 

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