Big Cheese Poetry Slam May 2026

Welcome to a new way to experience poetry: The Big Cheese Poetry Slam!! 🧀🧀🧀
On the Last Tuesday of the Month, we will have up to 16 poets share their ORIGINAL work with us in front of a live audience with five randomly selected judges. They will score each poet on a scale of 0.0 to 10.0. We drop the high and the low scores, add up the middle, and that total determines the 5 poets who will make it into the Second Round.
After a brief intermission, our Top 5 return to the mic. Their second-round scores are added to their first-round totals, and by the end of the night, we will crown our Top 3 Poets of the Month!!
The Big Cheese Poetry Slam does things a little differently than a standard open mic or literary journal. This isn't a showcase, this is a competition with compensation! In a literary landscape where payment can be ten cents a word for a poem, Big Cheese Poetry centers the labor poets pour into their craft. Our Top 3 poets receive:

• Publication in the annual Big Cheese Poetry Anthology
• Contributor honorariums (aka prizes money) to honor the work behind the words
• And, of course, bragging rights for the month

Prizes
🥉 Third Place: $25
🥈 Second Place: $50
🥇 First Place: $100
Watch the metaphors fly and buy your ticket now!
(No tickets sold at Door.)

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Host or Publisher Briana Hammerstrom