Slam poets from around Iowa are invited to participate in a special international slam event in Iowa City on Oct. 2.

SlamoVision is a project of the international UNESCO Cities of Literature. Slam poets in some of the 42 Cities of Literature around the world will compete in their home cities. One poet from each participating city will move on to an international competition to be judged by fans from the other cities. At the end of the process, one poet will be named the SlamoVision champion for 2023. This is the fifth year for the international competition.

The Iowa City UNESCO City of Literature and Iowa City Poetry will co-host Iowa City’s slam poetry event at 6:30 p.m. on Monday, Oct. 2, at the Public Space One location at the Close House, 538 S. Gilbert St. Poets from across Iowa may participate. Sign-up begins at 6:30 p.m.; the slam begins at 7 p.m. Each poet has three-and-a-half minutes to perform. At the completion of three rounds, the winning poet will be chosen to represent Iowa City in the international competition.

Twelve Cities of Literature are participating in Slamovision 2023: Dublin (Ireland), Exeter (UK), Iowa City (US), Kuhmo (Finland), Ljubljana (Slovenia), Manchester (UK), Melbourne (Australia), Nottingham (UK) Québec City (Canada), Reykjavik (Iceland), Tartu (Estonia), and Vilnius (Lithuania).

A video of the winning poet from the Oct. 2 event will be entered into the international contest. Audiences in each participating City of Literature will gather to watch and score the dozen video. The Iowa City watch event will be held as part of the Mic Check Poetry Fest, Nov. 3-4. The scores from all of the cities will be tabulated and an international SlamoVision poet will be crowned during an online event on Dec. 5 hosted by the Nottingham City of Literature in England.

To learn more and see all previous Slamovision Contestants, please visit: https://cityofliterature.com.au/slam-o-vision/