Peterborough Poetry Slam, 141 Charlotte St, Peterborough, ON (2026)

Formed in November 2007, the Peterborough Spoken Word Collective presents the monthly Peterborough Poetry Slam Series, as well as other spoken word, poetry, hip-hop, and storytelling events, performers, and initiatives. We've sent four teams to the annual Canadian Festival of Spoken Word, and veteran poets of our scene have featured nationally and internationally. What do you want to see the Colle

ctive get up to in the next year? Write on our wall and follow us on twitter http://twitter.com/ #!/poetryslamptbo or send us an e-mail at [email protected]

05/21/2026

Last Call, Y'all!!! This slam season is coming to a close.

Next week on Thursday, May 28th at Dreams of Beans we'll be holding our last poetry slam of the 2025-2026 season before taking our summer break.

7:00 pm sign-up, 7:30 pm start. Join us for the May installment of the Peterborough Poetry Slam.

$5-10 Sliding Scale! No one turned away for lack of funds!

Regular Slam rules apply. What might those be? Glad you asked...

The Rules:

A poetry slam is a game, a challenge, a show! It is a competitve performance poetry experience. Competitors sign up to share work on the microphone and are scored by judges slected from within the audience. If you plan to compete, you'll need two poems (one per round) to share. After each round, you are scored. After two rounds, the scores are added up, and the winner is crowned (metaphorically speaking… no monarchs here!).

1. There is a 3 minute time limit (followed by a 10 second grace period). At the 3 minute and 10 second mark, the poet looses half a point from their total score. An additional half a point time penalty is incurred for every 10 seconds after 3:10.

2. All poems must be orignal (i.e. written by you).

3. No musical accompaniment.

4. Service animals and adaptive divices are welcome and encouraged.

5. Team pieces welcome!

6. No props or costumes.

Don't feel like Slamming? No stress. We always have a few open mic spots throughout the show. We ask Open MIC poets to keep their performances to 1 or 2 poems, or a max of 5 minutes total.

NOTE on Accessibility:

Dreams of Beans is a physically accessible space.

Given the ongoing transmission of Covid-19 in our community, our events remain a mask-friendly and we request that anyone who is sick or has been in close contact with someone infected with Covid-19 please stay home.

Please contact us if you have specific accessibility needs or concerns.

SupportLocalOntario

04/24/2026

Last night we had the Peterborough Poetry Slam April edition, at Dreams of Beans, in Downtown Peterborough.

We had a great night, with some great poetry on performed throughout the night.

04/23/2026

Tomorrow NIGHT! Thursday, April 23rd at Dreams of Beans! 7:00pm sign-up, 7:30 pm start. Join us for the April installment of the Peterborough Poetry Slam.

$5-10 Sliding Scale! No one turned away for lack of funds!

Regular Slam rules apply. What might those be? Glad you asked...

The Rules:

A poetry slam is a game, a challenge, a show! It is a competitve performance poetry experience. Competitors sign up to share work on the microphone and are scored by judges slected from within the audience. If you plan to compete, you'll need two poems (one per round) to share. After each round, you are scored. After two rounds, the scores are added up, and the winner is crowned (metaphorically speaking… no monarchs here!).

1. There is a 3 minute time limit (followed by a 10 second grace period). At the 3 minute and 10 second mark, the poet looses half a point from their total score. An additional half a point time penalty is incurred for every 10 seconds after 3:10.

2. All poems must be orignal (i.e. written by you).

3. No musical accompaniment.

4. Service animals and adaptive divices are welcome and encouraged.

5. Team pieces welcome!

6. No props or costumes.

Don't feel like Slamming? No stress. We always have a few open mic spots throughout the show. We ask Open MIC poets to keep their performances to 1 or 2 poems, or a max of 5 minutes total.

NOTE on Accessibility:

Dreams of Beans is a physically accessible space.

Given the ongoing transmission of respiratory illness in our community, our events remain mask-friendly and we request that anyone who is sick or has been in close contact with someone infected with Covid-19 please stay home.

Please contact us if you have specific accessibility needs or concerns.

SupportLocalOntario

04/20/2026

Speak up and SPEAK OUT!

We're at it again! This week on Thursday, April 23rd at Dreams of Beans! 7:00pm sign-up, 7:30 pm start. Join us for the April installment of the Peterborough Poetry Slam.

$5-10 Sliding Scale! No one turned away for lack of funds!

Regular Slam rules apply. What might those be? Glad you asked...

The Rules:

A poetry slam is a game, a challenge, a show! It is a competitve performance poetry experience. Competitors sign up to share work on the microphone and are scored by judges slected from within the audience. If you plan to compete, you'll need two poems (one per round) to share. After each round, you are scored. After two rounds, the scores are added up, and the winner is crowned (metaphorically speaking… no monarchs here!).

1. There is a 3 minute time limit (followed by a 10 second grace period). At the 3 minute and 10 second mark, the poet looses half a point from their total score. An additional half a point time penalty is incurred for every 10 seconds after 3:10.

2. All poems must be orignal (i.e. written by you).

3. No musical accompaniment.

4. Service animals and adaptive divices are welcome and encouraged.

5. Team pieces welcome!

6. No props or costumes.

Don't feel like Slamming? No stress. We always have a few open mic spots throughout the show. We ask Open MIC poets to keep their performances to 1 or 2 poems, or a max of 5 minutes total.

NOTE on Accessibility:

Dreams of Beans is a physically accessible space.

Given the ongoing transmission of Covid-19 in our community, our events remain a mask-friendly and we request that anyone who is sick or has been in close contact with someone infected with Covid-19 please stay home.

Please contact us if you have specific accessibility needs or concerns.

SupportLocalOntario

Address

141 Charlotte St
Peterborough, ON
K9H 2T6

Website

http://www.peterboroughpoetryslam.org/

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