Dilla Day Fayetteville: Dilla Day Poetry Slam (Registration Page Only)

* THIS PAGE IS ONLY FOR POETS LOOKING TO REGISTER AND COMPETE IN THE J DILLA POETRY SLAM DURING DILLA DAY: FAYETTEVILLE, NC. THE SLAM IS FEBRUARY 20TH, 2026*

Rules for the slam: The slam itself will have its first two rounds follow regular slam rules. For those who are not familiar with Poetry Slam, here are some guidelines.Though rules vary from slam to slam, the basic rules are:

-Each poem must be of the poet’s own construction;

-Each poet gets three minutes (plus a ten-second grace period) to read one poem. If the poet goes over time, points will be deducted from the total score.

-The poet may not use props, costumes or musical instruments;

-Of the scores the poet received from the five judges, the high and low scores are dropped and the middle three are added together, giving the poet a total score of 0-30.

In the third round, the four remaining poets will have to slam with an original poem based off of one of J Dilla’s works with the time limit being 3 minutes and 30 seconds. This round will only have one judge and the judge will be Maureen “Ma Dukes” Yancey. The list of songs will be send to the competing poets once they have registered. $25 to slam.

1st Place: $500

2nd : $300

3rd: $200

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Host or Publisher LeJuane Bowens