Rockford REV 2026

For the past 12 years, the Speech Team of Jefferson High School has hosted a school wide slam in the spring to celebrate National Poetry Month. It is a chance for students to express their own unique voices and perspectives with their peer and their community. Poetry is not a dead art that lives in the textbooks of the English classroom. It is a means to discuss universal issues and connect with others in a challenging form. With these ideas in mind, the Speech Team has made this a region wide event to share the power of poetry with more high school students.

The first annual all-district slam, Rockford REV (Raise Every Voice), was held in 2014. Prior to that, we existed only as a JHS only event.

If you have more questions about our event or our mission, please feel free to contact me at [email protected]. I can also be reached by phone at 815-874-9536 but, to be honest, as a classroom teacher I can almost never answer the phone, so email is preferred.

We look forward to you sharing your voice on our stage and helping to make the world a better place. Your voice matters!

P oet Guidelines:

There really is no difference between Slam Poetry and what others may consider “traditional” poetry in the basic sense. That said, there is a key difference between the event of poetry slams and poetry interp or recitation; poetry slams are performances of poems written by the performer.

Some purists fear Slams because they can be vulgar or offensive, incorporating “street” language and expletives and, in truth, they can if the event allows it. It is, however, important to keep in mind that some poems considered canonical today were considered vulgar and offensive in their day.

We in Rockford have held the Rockford REV (Raise Every Voice) for 12 years now and have yet to find ourselves before a school board or angry parents. We protect our students using a few very simple rules:

• Poems performed must be the original work of the performer

• Performance may go no longer than 3 minutes

• No vulgarity

• No Hate Speech

That’s it. Those four rules pretty much handle it all. Our winning poems tend to be insightful, personal, and powerful – not vulgar.

A ll poets will be "scored" by our judges on a 1-10 scale (including one decimal place). The scores are just a tool to hold the event together - the points are not the point, the point is the poetry. We'll have "winners" but there are no prizes. The biggest prize of all is just being there!

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Host or Publisher JHS Speech Team