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What the Buck?

What exactly is a poetry slam? And what the buck is BuckSlamMN? Let us fill you in: slam poetry is the art and sport of competitive performance poetry. Based on the idea that everyone is entitled to an opinion on poetry, a slam puts the power in the audience's hands. Five audience members are given scorecards, and each participating poet gets three minutes to lay their art out there. Judges will each give a score from 0.0 to 10.0. We drop the low and high score, and add the three middle scores. At the end of the night, the poet with the highest score is the winner.

At BuckSlam, this means a two-round event. In round one twelve poets will perform. In the second round, we will cut to the top six poets, who will perform a second piece. Our winner is crowned with metaphorical antlers to walk away as a buck, with a buck. That's right, our glorious cash prize is one dollar!

Violence Prevention and Accountability

BuckSlam is committed to principles of restorative justice, prioritizing the safety and healing of harmed parties as well as the growth and learning of those who cause harm. We believe no one is disposable. We are working on a more in depth process for conflict resolution and accountability and will update our community once that exists.

Accessibility

BuckSlam is hosted at Indeed Brewing Company, a homegrown Minnesota brewery and taproom with a long history of supporting artists and hosting arts events in their Ox performance space. Indeed is wheelchair- and walker-accessible, although the doors do not have automatic door openers. The space has multiple gender-neutral, accessible restrooms, and there are no steps to get to the stage area. Indeed does not have a mask policy, but BuckSlam has masks available and encourages attendees to mask during the show. The performance space can accommodate approximately 70 people. More questions? Contact us here!

THE FOREST COUNCIL

Kanoro Day

Tanesha Nicole Kozler

Zach Goldberg

Anna Šverclová

Anna Binkovitz (Forest Council emeritus)

José Gonzalez (Forest Council emeritus)

Our logo and branding is designed by Mel Nigro.

BuckSlam MN is a sponsored project of Springboard for the Arts, a nonprofit arts service organization. Contributions on behalf of BuckSlam may be made payable to Springboard for the Arts and are tax deductible to the extent permitted by law.

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This activity is made possible by the voters of Minnesota through a grant from the Metropolitan Regional Arts Council, thanks to a legislative appropriation from the arts and cultural heritage fund.

© 2023-2025 by Anna Binkovitz, Zach Goldberg, and Tanesha Nicole Kozler

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