Bad!Slam!No!Biscuit!

Slam poetry has become progressively accepted in recent years and has far overtaken more traditional poetry readings where poets usually perform from a print text to promote a book or product.

Bad!Slam!No!Biscuit! is a slam poetry event, and believe me from my first account experience there is nothing quite like it.

Being new to slam poetry I didn’t really know what to expect when I journeyed to The Phoenix one balmy autumn evening. Before this the only concept of slam poetry that I knew of was from Jonah Hill’s performance of slam poetry in a scene in 22 Jump Street. It obviously left quite an impression on me.

Nick D ushers in the first ever #Canberra National Anthem at @the_phoenix_pub to a (mandated) #standingovation. It’s moments like these wot make a #festival. #Noted16

A photo posted by Noted (@notedfestival) on Mar 16, 2016 at 2:28am PDT

A poetry slam is a competition in which each poet gets two minutes on stage to perform a poem without any props and are then judged and given a score out of ten. The judges are selected indiscriminately from audience members and possible poets, artists or even family members that have come to see their families perform. In this case the scoring was given from ten to infinite negative.

Before the poets took the stage we all had to recite Canberra’s national anthem that one of the poets devised and handed out to each audience member. Heckling is frowned upon at most events, but here it was welcomed and encouraged, though only once the poet had finished their allotted time, otherwise you would be seen as just being a dickhead.

Poems ranged from stories of a trip to the zoo by nice old ladies to rap orientated tales of hardship and past tribulations. Anyone who wanted to participate could and everyone was received well and gratifyingly. It takes balls to do what the participants did and for that reason, even if they weren’t terribly good they received my acclaim, and the majority of everyone else’s.

Slam Poetry, is something that we should all add to our bucket-list. If you’re wanting something to do then Slam Poetry events are held every third Wednesday of each month, and are definitely something worth going along to. I’m not going to give it a star rating but I will give it a virtual head nod of endorsement that you can give your mates. Nods head.