01/30/2016
Friends and Colleagues,
Youth Speaks' Slam season is coming up and WE ARE LOOKING FOR TEEN POETRY SLAM JUDGES. We are calling out to you! We're kicking off with the 20th Annual Youth Speaks Teen Poetry Slam on February 18, 2016 in Oakland, CA and we are SO excited!!If you are interested in hearing some of the most brilliant from across the Bay come together and share their voices and truth, come and sign up by clicking on the links at the bottom of this email.
The Youth Speaks Teen Poetry Slam (an Olympic-style poetry competition) features hundreds of young writers, emcees, and performers from throughout the Bay Area and Northern California, and attracts almost 10,000 audience members during it's month-long run.
This year, the youth poets that make it to the final round will be gracing the stage of the amazing Davies Symphony Hall in San Francisco!!
The judging job is one of the most critical roles of the entire month-long event. The judges – who should think of themselves as encourages of young writers 13-19 years old – help set the tone for the entire evening. The key is fairness and consistency.
There are three rounds of activities during the course of the Slam: the
Preliminaries, the Semi-Finals, and the Grand Slam Finals. Depending on when you are judging, you will witness varying degrees of experience on the stage. During the preliminaries, there are many first timers, a lot of very raw and exciting writing, and many exceptional surprises. By the time we get to the Finals, with only 16 poets from the hundreds who participated in the preliminaries, you will see true stars on stage.
As a judge, you are asked to place a “Score” on each poem, immediately following the performance. Poems will be no longer than 3 minutes and 30 seconds and cover a variety of topics.
You have three primary criteria by which to “judge” the poems. They are:
The Quality of the Writing
The Quality of the Performance
Content of the Work
It is up to each of you, individually, to determine your own standard for quality of excellence. For some, strong writing may focus on the clever usages of language, the uniqueness of point-of-view or topic, the clarity of metaphor; some may focus on the content of the poem, the passion behind the idea, and the rhyme scheme employed. This is all fine, as long as you are both fair and consistent. The same is true for performance; we don’t care if you focus on choreography, sound of the voice, the passion in which the poem is performed, or the way the poets move their bodies. All we care about is that you are fair and consistent throughout the night.
This year we are asking that judges be 21 and over and, if you are interested in judging more than one bout, please sign up for 1 bout per week (prelims) and up to 2 semifinals. The first 5 people to sign up will be judges, the last two to sign up will be considered alternated. All 7 will be called 90 minutes before each bout to be oriented and set up (if you're not judging don't worry plenty other ways for you to help!).
Thanks in advance, I look forward to seeing you there!
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For more information regarding dates, times and locations (and also to sign up) please check out:
http://youthspeaks.org/youth-speaks-teen-poetry-slam/
*dates, times, locations and signup link available here
AND/OR
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/2016-judges-registration-teen-poetry-slam-tickets-20591174758
*dates, times, locations, and registration available here
If you have any questions, comments, or concerns please feel free to contact Youth Speaks Events Coordinator for Bay Area Programs, Ashley Smiley, at [email protected].
Thank you!!!
Call Out For Judges Youth Speaks' Slam season is coming up and WE ARE LOOKING FOR TEEN POETRY SLAM JUDGES. We are calling out to you! This year we are kicking off with the 20th Annual Youth Speaks Teen Poetry Slam starting on February 18, 2016. If you are interested in not only hearing some of the m…
