Note: The following document was adopted by the body of Southern Fried Slam Masters
in Miami during the Slam Master meeting at SF2004. Additions and changes made at
subsequent Southern Fried Slam Master meetings are noted.
Southern Fried Poetry Festival
southeastern regional poetry slam
The slam is a 3-day festival including readings, workshops, side slams and the Regional slam
for teams and independent poets. This guide was adapted at the 2004 Southern Fried
Slam Masters meeting. Ammendments made at subsequent SM meetings are included
and noted.
I. The Regional slam is conducted in three preliminary rounds and a final round.
A. There is no qualification to enter but preference it given to southeastern teams
who register before a deadline specified by the Host.
1. At the 2004 Slam Masters meeting (SM2004) 'southeastern teams' was
defined to include those teams from the region whose border includes the
states of Louisianna, Arkansas, Kentucky and Virginia.
B. The number of teams is to be determined by the Host, but must be divisible by the
number 3 or 4 to accommodate the bout structure.
C. Once the number of teams has been determined independent poets may be added.
Two poets may be added to each bout. For example, if there were 16 teams, there
would be 4 bouts of 4 teams per round so that 8 independent poets could be added
to the festival.
D. A random drawing is used to determine which teams and independent poets
compete in each bout.
E. In the event that one or two teams are needed in order to even out the bouts, up to
two ‘pickup’ teams may be randomly chosen from among team alternates and
independent poets.
II. Preliminary rounds are divided into bouts of three or four teams.
A. Before each bout a representative from each team meets with the bout manager to
draw team order. The letters A, B, C (& D in the case of four team bouts) are written
on folded paper and drawn by the representatives. Independent poets also draw for
order.
B. This is the order of team performances:
1. Four team rotation:
Sacrifice Poet
1st rotation A. B. C. D.
2nd rotation B. C. D. A.
1st Independent Poet
3rd rotation C. D. A. B.
2nd Independent Poet
4th rotation D. A. B. C.
2. Three team rotation:
1st rotation A. B. C.
2nd rotation B. C. A.
1st Indepenedent Poet
3rd rotation C. A. B.
2nd Independent Poet
4th rotation A. B. C.
C. Each team is represented by one of its 4 poets each rotation in the round. Each poet
on a team must be represented in every bout. A team may chose to perform a team
piece if the poet represented is the (or one of the) primary author(s) of that poem. That
poet would lose his/her individual ranking for the duration of that festival.
D. Each team's poet's scores are added together to get each team's cumulative score.
The team with the highest score is the winner of the round and gets a ranking of 1. The
second place team gets a ranking of 2, etc. In the case of a tie, both teams get the rank
and the next lowest rank is dropped. For example, if two teams tied for 1st place, there
would be 2 teams ranked 1, and rankings of 3(and 4) for the remaining team(s).
E. Each poet's score is also ranked and each poet is given a rank for the round. Ties
are handled the same way as with teams.
F. At the conclusion of the third preliminary round, team and individual poet rankings
are added and compared. The four teams with the lowest cumulative rankings are
advanced to the final round. Likewise the four poets with the lowest cumulative
rankings are advanced to the final round.
G. Any protests of rules violations should be brought to the bout manager's attention for
resolution or to be referred to the protest committee.
H. At the conclusion of each bout, a representative of each team will sign the official
score sheet to signify agreement with the posted scores. After all the teams have signed
the score sheet the bout manager will sign it to make it official.
III. The Final round includes the top four ranked teams and top four ranked individual poets.
A. Order of performance is drawn for teams and individual poets.
B. After a Sacrifice poem, the first 2 rotations of team competition are run.
C. The individual poets compete in order drawn. There is a sacrifice.
The individual poets perform in reverse order.
D. The final 2 rotations of team competition are run.
E. Announce individual results from last to first.
F. Announce team results from last to first.
The prizes will include a case of RC Cola and a case of Moon Pies each for the
team and individual champions.
Prize money is to be determined by the host city.
IV. A Protest Committee of three persons will be named before the competition to resolve
protests. The members of the protest committee should be introduced at the team introductions
before competition begins.
V. Poetry
A. All poems performed in competition must be the original work of the performing poet.
B. There are no props, music or costumes allowed during poetry performances. Poets
may use whatever is on stage and available to all poets while performing (for example,
getting on top of a chair is not using a prop as long as all performers have access to it).
C. During the preliminary rounds, no poems may be performed more than once. A
poem may be performed in Finals even if it was used in a preliminary round.
D. Poems have a 3-minute time limit with a 10 second grace period. After 3:10 a poet's
score is penalized .5 point for every 10 seconds over the time limit. For instance, at
3:20 the poet loses 1 point, at 3:30 1.5 points, at 3:40 2 points, etc.
VI. Judging.
A. Judges must be impartial and not related to any competitors in the festival.
B. A diverse range of judges is preferred.
C. A person who is employed by the venue and currently on the clock may not judge.
D. Poems are judged from 0.0 to 10.0, with a single decimal point encouraged as a
tiebreaker.
E. Five judges are chosen per bout. For every poem scored, the high and low scores
are dropped and the remaining three added together for that poem's score.
F. Before the bout begins judges meet with the MC and are warned about score creep,
asked to be consistent and given an opportunity to use a sacrifice poem to practice
scoring and to use as a base score.
G. Before the beginning of any bout, a representative from each team will be introduced
to the judges and given an opportunity for each team to veto one judge.
H. Judges are chosen by the Bout Manager and/or MC.
VII. MCs must be impartial and careful to support every poet's performance equally.
Keep the energy high.
VIII. A SlamMasters meeting is held the morning after round one to resolve any difficulties,
decide on any rules changes and decide where the next Southern Fried will be hosted.
A. At SM2005 it was decided to choose each host city two years in advance.
B. At SM2005 it was decided that voting SlamMasters include all SMs from
southeastern slams and those SMs from slams outside the region who have
attended three consectutive years. On the third year, that team's SM may vote.
IX. This format may be altered during a SlamMaster meeting by majority approval of voting
SlamMasters in order to accommodate a host cities’ needs and requests.
Note Well: I have made one change to this document which is to replace the term 'individual
poet' with the term 'independent poet' to differentiate between individual rankings of poets and
the rankings of poets who are competing individually rather than on a team.
The use of the team 'indie poet' has been a source of confusion in the past, but if this change
alters the meaning of this document in any way, please point it out and I'll re-replace the changed terms.