Poetry Center San José presents San José Poetry Slam – Live In Person!
Come join us for poetry and some of the most delicious pizza in San José at our new venue in Little Italy, Bibo’s Pizza! (Across from Henry’s Hi-Life.
Sunday, October 26, 2025
Room opens at 6:00p.m. (PST)
Sign up list will be open until 6:30p.m.
Slam starts at 6:30p.m.
Hosted by Scorpiana Xlent.
Our October Feature is Papi Grande!
Papi Grande (He/Him/Prince) is a dynamic multidisciplinary artist and 22x Berkeley Slam Winner.
He was the Chief Strategist for Loudmouth at the 2025 Central Valley Regional Festival,
a Gold Beams Champ, and part of the 2025 Loudmouth Slam Team.
He placed 3rd at Bigfoot Poetry Festival with the Berkeley Slam Team and is the author of Theme of Identity.
Give it up for… Papi Grande!
Cash prizes for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place.
If you have never been to a Poetry Slam before, a poetry slam is a competition, imagine spoken word poetry as an olympic sport. The rules are simple:
1.) Poets must use their own poems.
2.) poet must use only one poem per round.
3.) no musical accompaniment.
4.) no props.
5.) there is a time limit of 3 minutes and 10 seconds. going over that will result in a time penalty.
6.) poets must have video on while performing or there will be a 3-point penalty deduction.
This is a two-round slam, poets with the highest scores will move up to round two.
If you're not competing, we could use judges.
Please remember to submit a quick audience survey to help us improve our logistics and content and report to our funders and sponsors. Here is the link to the survey: https://bit.ly/3M63VqH
Poetry Center San José promotes and supports the literary arts in San José. Over the past four decades, PCSJ has brought hundreds of exceptional writers from around the country to read from their works and, in many cases, to conduct workshops for local writers. PCSJ is a nonprofit organization established in 1978. Its base of operations is in the charming turn-of-the-century Victorian home where the renown poet Edwin Markham once lived, now located in San José History Park. Poetry Center San José is a member supported organization and is funded, in part, by grants from Applied Materials Foundation, the City of San José's Office of Cultural Affairs, Knight Foundation, Poets & Writers, Silicon Valley Community Foundation, SVCREATES, in partnership with the County of Santa Clara and the California Arts Council and also supported in part by a SVCreates National Endowment for the Arts American Rescue Plan grant. We also thank Brandenburg Family Foundation and Anne & Mark's Art Party for their generous giving.