Sunday, Monday and Tuesday, 10-11-12 March 2024

Ideogramma has been organising the international Poetry Slam Cyprus since 2017, an annual event, and has proved a great success for all participants and audience alike!

The competition aims to provoke and lead poetry to extremes, seeking new forms of expression, always keeping in mind the contemporary international poetry trends.

Poetry Slam is a poetry competition, in which participants read their original work, dramatising the reading at the same time. Each poet-slammer has a maximum of 3 minutes to ‘slam’ in front of a 5member jury and the public. It challenges and invites all poetic voices, different traditions, genres and approaches. The poet presents them in such a way that the audience feels what the poem is about; political, erotic, social, etc. These performances break down the barriers between the poet-slammer, the judges and the audience, letting the words go free.

No poet who participates is above criticism, as all depend on the judgment of the jury and the public, which may even disrupt the performance of the poet-slammer, if his / her performance does not meet the conditions or is offensive in some way.

The competition also hosts a number of renowned Guest slammers from abroad and Cyprus. They perform out of competition.

Organising and staging such events is important because it provides the platform on which young emerging as well as established poets, are free to express themselves ‘outside the box’ and the parametres of correctness usually imposed by their social surroundings.

In 2019 Poetry Slam Cyprus introduced two new ideas:

• A separate competition to declare the annual National Slam Champion, and
• Voting on line for the most Popular Slammer both on the National and International level

International slammers both on the Guest and competition level are invited, while the Cyprus based poets (Guest and competition) are invited with an Open Call.

A five-member jury, from different art disciplines, based is invited is invited by the organisers.

P R O G R A M M E

Sunday
Cultural Bar / Café

All the slammers from abroad together with some slammers from Cyprus perform out of competition, in a relaxed atmosphere

Monday
Theatre venue

Guest Slammers perform out of competition

Competition between the Cyprus based slammers

•   Declaration of the annual Cyprus National Slam Champion and 2 runners up
•   Six slammers (including the above 3) are selected to compete in Tuesday’s international competition

Six invited poet-slammers: performance (out of competition)

Translations in English and / or Greek, wherever available are projected

Online voting for the Popular Vote (national)

Tuesday,
Theatre venue

Guest Slammers perform out of competition

International Competition

Round One – 12 slammers (6 Cyprus based and 6 invited from abroad)

Round Two – 6 slammers will compete for the top 3 places (Winner, 2^nd and 3^rd Places)

Guest Slammers perform out of competition

Translations in English and / or Greek, wherever available are projected

Online voting for the Popular Vote (international)