Preparation
- Teams must send in two cheques by the deadline - one deposit ($50.00) and one competition fee ($200.00) See REGISTER for more info.
- Teams must have at least three members.
- Participants must be enrolled in a high school or junior high school for the year of the competition and must be in good academic standing (not on suspension or subject to other disciplinary action).
- Teams must be sponsored by a school and have a teacher sponsor, or by a writing club and have a club organizer, present at the event in order to participate. If your school doesn't have a team and you are not part of a writing club with a team, you are welcome to join our Wild Card team by contacting us.
- Schools are responsible for completing off-site activity approval forms and for arranging transportation of their teams to and from the event(s).
- If you register and find out later that you will not be able to attend, please notify organizers ASAP so that an alternate team may have the chance to participate in the slam.
- Participants must be physically present and checked in at least 30 minutes before their bouts begin. Arriving after the scheduled bout time will result in disqualification for the team.
RULES
- Each poem must be written by the poet reading it. For group poetry, every reader will have had to work on the poem.
- All poems must be at or under three minutes. There is a ten second grace period. After that, for every ten seconds overtime, 0.5 of a point is deducted from the score.
- Poems are judged on a scale of 1.0-10.0 by judges.
- At the end of the round the teams are given a number of points based on where they place. The finalists are determined based on these points.
- No props, costumes, or musical instruments are allowed. Some singing is allowed but not the whole poem. This isn't a singing competition.
- No hate speech. Poems must be kept at an approximate PG 13 level. Swearing is not limited but remember, use language wisely.
- One group poem minimum per round. No maximum.
- Teams may not perform the same poem in multiple rounds. Once a poem is used in competition, it is done. Poems from previous CYHMN? Provincial School Poetry Slams are also not allowed.
- Individuals may only perform once per round but may perform in group pieces multiple times.
- Each team needs to have a total of twelve poems - three of them being group poems.
- Four poems per round. Two rounds guaranteed. One group poem per round. No limit on the number of group poems.
- Minimum three poets to a team. No maximum.
- Ties:
- A possible tie can occur between a team who earns two 4th place finishes and a team that earns a 3rd and a 5th. They will not be advancing to the finals anyway with a total score of 18.
- Another possible tie could occur with a team that earns 2nd and 5th and another that earns two 3rd place finishes. We will have to figure out a tiebreaker policy, in the event a ‘playoff’ spot comes down to these teams.
- In the event of a tie, the team will select any of the poems they have already performed (single poet or group piece).
- Plagiarism - clearly credit sources (including metaphors and/or four words or more from another writer). Ways to avoid:
- “Like Beyonce says, ‘....’”.
- Mention the source at the beginning of the performance.
- Preferred: write your own!!
- Executive-confirmed cases of plagiarism will result in a score of zero for the single performance. Coaches, please have a conversation with your team about this before the competition. Coaches can alert a member of The Executive Committee if they have any concerns. The Executive Committee accepts full responsibility for identifying and confirming plagiarism.
- AND THE BIGGEST RULE - HAVE FUN! This is about the poets not the points.
FAQ
Q. For the group performance, is there a min or max of participants? Does each team member need to participate in each group poem?
A. There is no max or min number of poets for group poems (except two, I guess, otherwise not much of a group piece). And no, not all the members of your team need to do group poems. You need one group poem per round, minimum. There is no maximum group poems - so if you want all four poems to be group pieces in a round, go for it. Basically you will need a minimum of three group poems ready to go - one for each round (two for the mandatory rounds and one in case you make the finals) and you will need at least two students to do them. Those students can still do individual poems.
Q. Can our team perform a poem written by a student from our school who is not coming to the slam?
A. No. For group poems all the performers have to have had a part in creating the poem. If the poem was made by, say, five kids and only four of them can make the slam - it's all good. But if one kid wrote the poem, then that poem has to be performed by that kid and no one else. If two kids made the poem a different two can't perform it. If one kid wrote the poem two people can't perform it. Only the writers of the poems can perform the poems.
Q. Could your clarify the group poem. Do we have to have 2 or 3 group poems ready for the competition?
A. You need to do one group poem every round - so have three ready just in case you make the finals. You can have more than this, but three is the minimum.
Q. Can family members buy tickets to come and watch?
A. The Can You Here Me Now? Provincial School Poetry Slam is free to come to with a donation of a non-perishable food or some money to the food bank. There aren't any tickets. We want as big an audience as possible so, yes, bring every relative you have and every friend you know!
Q. Is there any swearing allowed in the poems? Will they be disqualified if they happen to swear under their breath or if they mess up? Funny questions they are asking, since none of them really swear.
A. Swearing is allowed - there is no limit, but the judges might not take too kindly to a poem heavy on swearing. The kids won't be disqualified but it is up to coaches to guide our young poets to use swearing judiciously. No hate speech though, and if you think a poem might be on the edge of being okay - send it to us and we'll have our executive check it out. Messing up is fine - but tell them to not loose composure - the audience will have their back. It's all good. We have a very caring and supportive community.
A. There is no max or min number of poets for group poems (except two, I guess, otherwise not much of a group piece). And no, not all the members of your team need to do group poems. You need one group poem per round, minimum. There is no maximum group poems - so if you want all four poems to be group pieces in a round, go for it. Basically you will need a minimum of three group poems ready to go - one for each round (two for the mandatory rounds and one in case you make the finals) and you will need at least two students to do them. Those students can still do individual poems.
Q. Can our team perform a poem written by a student from our school who is not coming to the slam?
A. No. For group poems all the performers have to have had a part in creating the poem. If the poem was made by, say, five kids and only four of them can make the slam - it's all good. But if one kid wrote the poem, then that poem has to be performed by that kid and no one else. If two kids made the poem a different two can't perform it. If one kid wrote the poem two people can't perform it. Only the writers of the poems can perform the poems.
Q. Could your clarify the group poem. Do we have to have 2 or 3 group poems ready for the competition?
A. You need to do one group poem every round - so have three ready just in case you make the finals. You can have more than this, but three is the minimum.
Q. Can family members buy tickets to come and watch?
A. The Can You Here Me Now? Provincial School Poetry Slam is free to come to with a donation of a non-perishable food or some money to the food bank. There aren't any tickets. We want as big an audience as possible so, yes, bring every relative you have and every friend you know!
Q. Is there any swearing allowed in the poems? Will they be disqualified if they happen to swear under their breath or if they mess up? Funny questions they are asking, since none of them really swear.
A. Swearing is allowed - there is no limit, but the judges might not take too kindly to a poem heavy on swearing. The kids won't be disqualified but it is up to coaches to guide our young poets to use swearing judiciously. No hate speech though, and if you think a poem might be on the edge of being okay - send it to us and we'll have our executive check it out. Messing up is fine - but tell them to not loose composure - the audience will have their back. It's all good. We have a very caring and supportive community.
