Bigfoot Poetry Festival Presents: Compliment Death Match!

Join us on Wednesday, March 11th at The Purple Door Gallery in Portland to immerse yourself in the most wholesome poetry competition imagined!

Compliment Deathmatch (CDM) is a competitive spoken word game, created in 2017 by the poet RJ Walker. Part rap battle, part haiku deathmatch, part poetry slam, it is an inverted roast battle! Poets sign up to face off in bracketed rounds of head-to-head competition–all to prove who can out-compliment their competitors.

Compliments may be pre-written, memorized, or improvised. Rhymes welcomed but not required. Complimenters will have only 30 seconds to give their hearts to each other, and the audience will decide by applause and visual majority who wins each round of compliments. Winners of each round advance to the next bracket, until there is one final head-to-head compliment battle, from which our CDM victor will be crowned and awarded a super-secret prize.

Sign up in advance to take part here: https://forms.gle/UpzEt5etbFkyXS1N8

Entry is $10, either in advance or at the door. All proceeds will go toward putting on the Bigfoot Poetry Festival this year on June 25-27, 2026.

But you might be asking… what is this festival? The Bigfoot Poetry Festival is a three-day poetry event that happens in early summer in downtown Portland, OR. While changing from year-to-year, typically this festival offers such features as poetry open mics, writing / performance workshops, poet showcase(s), a poetry market, and a poetry slam tournament.

Know what’s Happening Next — before everyone else does.

Get App

Host or Publisher Slamlandia