Ghost Poetry Show is a community of poets and writers from the greater Phoenix area (and beyond) that connect through writing nights and spoken word poetry slams. We take pride in having poets that have never shared their work in front of anyone, all the way up to poets that have competed at the national level. No matter gender, race, religion, ethnicity, sexual orientation, or age anyone can take the stage and compete in the three round poetry slam or attend a writing prompt night.
FAQ
How do I sign up to perform?
Send us an email at GhostPoetryShow@gmail.com
What Is a poetry slam?
A poetry slam is a spoken word poetry competition. Our events consist of 3 rounds and 15 poets. In round 1, all 15 poets share a poem that is 3 minutes or less. Each poet is judged by 5 randomly selected audience members on a scale from 0.0 to 10.0. To remove any dramatic judges, we drop the lowest and highest scores and add the 3 remaining scores up to give each poet a numeric value to their poem. We take the top 5 scoring poets in round 2 and then the top 3 poets in round 3. All poets in the final round walk away with prize money but only the highest scoring poet of the evening gets to go home with the title of being a Ghost Poetry Show slam champion.
Why the name Ghost Poetry Show?
Before the ‘show’ existed, a poet in the community had been hospitalized. While they (neutral pronouns for anonymity) were there, a few poets began writing poems to support them. The group called themselves the ghost club. Fast forward to the current iteration of the slam scene in Phoenix, Arizona and it needed a name for the event. The name was changed a little bit to more directly reflect the poetry slam taking place. However, the supportive nature of the community still carries on today.
How did we start?
Coming out of the pandemic, as in person events began to start up again, the Phoenix Arizona arts scene needed a poetry slam. There were/are so many talented poets that didn’t have a stage to share their words with the community. With a ton of local support and a bit of luck with a venue willing to take a chance on event without a proven track record, Ghost Poetry Show was born.
When was our first slam?
Our first slam was September 30, 2021 at the now defunct FilmBar in Phoenix, Arizona.