The Eighth Annual Exit 36 Slam Poetry Festival is a three-day poetry festival that serves the community through educational, theatrical, and literary performances. The festival will nurture, support, and showcase regional, national, and international writers, facilitators, and artist from all over the country to honor the creative genius of our own cultural arts pioneers. The festival includes writing workshops, artists' talks, and the Slam Poetry competition. In its seventh year, the Exit 36 objectives remain the same -- to pay homage to poetry, spoken word, literacy, community engagement, and to celebrate the arts. The 3-day event attracts the premier spoken word artists in the country and will take place December 11 - 13, 2025 at the City’s cultural venues.

Tickets

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Rules

Festival Overview

• Total Competing Poets: 40
• Poems Needed to Win: 6 (including a 2-minute poem)
• Competition Stages: Preliminaries, Semi-Finals, and Final Stage
• No Poem Repeats: Poets must perform a new poem each round.
• Venue: Pompano Beach Cultural Center 50 W Atlantic Blvd. Pompano Beach, FL 33060
• Registration $175

Preliminary Rounds

• Each poet will compete in one of four micro-bouts per night.
• Poets will perform one original poem per preliminary round.
• Bout Draw will be done virtually through randomizer software. Poets can log onto zoom to watch the draw live, it will be recorded and emailed out only.
• No poet will be eliminated in prelims.
• No poem repeats are allowed throughout the competition.
• Ranking System:
• Poets are ranked 1-10 in their micro-bout based on their scores.
• If there is a tie, poets will share the rank, and the next poet will receive an adjusted rank.
• Example: If two poets tie for 3rd place, the ranking will be 1,2,3,3,5,6…
• Highest Score Prize: The poet with the highest score of the night wins $100 and the 2^nd highest score will receive $75.
• Poet can win prize both nights.
• In the event of a tie prize will be spilt equally.

Advancing to Semi-Finals

• The Top 20 poets with the highest cumulative scores from both days advance to Semi-Finals.
• Poets ranked 21st and 22nd will open for Semi-Finals, one in each bout.

Semi-Finals

• The Top 20 poets compete in two bouts of 10 poets each.
• The bout will be head-to-head battles.
• The winners of each head-to-head matchup will move on to final stage
• Semi-Finals will take place at venue from 12pm to 2pm.
• Performance Rules:
• Poets will perform 2-minute poems.
• Poets will draw numbers 1-10 to determine matchups (1 vs. 2, 3 vs. 4, etc.).
• Judging Method: Instead of scores, judges will vote by selecting a color assigned to each poet.
• Advancing to Finals:
• The Top 10 poets move on to Final Stage.
• The remaining poets will draw to determine which will be the 2 poets who will sac on final stage.

Final Stage

• Round 1: 10 poets compete.
• Round 2: Top 7 poets advance.
• Round 3 (Final Round): Top 4 poets compete in a clean slate round.
• Judging & Scoring:
• Score is cumulative for Rounds 1 & 2.
• The final round is a fresh start, meaning previous scores do not carry over.
• Tiebreakers:
• Ties will be broken by the highest cumulative score of all 5 scores
• If there is still a tie after cumulative score poets must perform a 1-minute poem slam off to decide who advances.
• The final round tie will be decided by an up to 3 minute 20 second one-poem slam-off (poets may use a repeat poem only for the tiebreaker).
• Protests:
• Any concerns regarding scores must be raised immediately after the bout before score sheets are signed.
• Once signed, no protests will be accepted.

Performance Rules

• No props allowed.
• No reading of poems on Final Stage (ADA exceptions apply).
• Time Limits:
• Preliminaries: 3 minutes + 10-second grace period.
• Semi-Finals (2-minute round): 2 minutes hard stop.
• Final Stage: 3 minutes + 20-second grace period.
• Penalty: 0.5 points deducted for every 10 seconds over time.
• No Poem Repeats: Poets must perform a new poem in every round except for a final round tiebreaker.
• No audience engagement of any kind before start of poem or time will be started. (I.e. dancing , skipping to stage, responding to crowd calls, any specialized movements etc)

Judging

• Each bout will have five (5) judges.
• At least three (3) judges will be from a pre-selected panel.

Prizes

• 1st Place: $5,000
• 2nd Place: $2,500
• 3rd Place: $1,500
• 4th Place: $500
• Highest Score Prize: $100 highest score and $75 second highest score of the night

Event Schedule

Day 1 – Ali Cultural Arts Center & The Hive Black Box

• Mandatory Orientation: 4:00 PM – 5:00 PM (poets only)
• Workshop: 6:00 PM – 7:00 PM (Ali Cultural Arts Center)
• Workshop: 6:00 PM – 7:00 PM (The Hive)
• Prelims: 7:30 PM – 9:45 PM (Ali & The Hive)
• Comedy in the Courtyard: 10:00 PM – 10:45 PM - Unwind and share a laugh at Comedy in the Courtyard, an open mic night blending local stand-up talent with feel-good and funny poetry. This lighthearted evening invites the community to enjoy witty wordplay, comedic storytelling, and the joyful side of spoken word in a relaxed, open-air setting.

After Hours @ Bojo’s: 11:00 PM – 2:00 AM

Day 2 – Ali Cultural Arts Center & The Hive Black Box

• Workshop: 6:00 PM – 7:00 PM (Ali Cultural Arts Center)
• Workshop: 6:00 PM – 7:00 PM (The Hive)
• Prelims: 7:30 PM – 9:45 PM (Ali & The Hive)
• Poetry Bingo: 10:00 PM – 10:45 PM - Poetry Bingo is an interactive twist on the classic game, blending the excitement of bingo with the power of spoken word. Participants mark off poetry-related words as they are spoken during live performances, racing to call out “Bingo!” It's a fun, immersive celebration of language and creativity.

Since You Here Anyways Underground Slam @ Bojo’s: 11:00 PM – 2:00 AM

Day 3 – Pompano Beach Cultural Center

• Semi-Finals: 12:00 PM – 2:00 PM
• Finals: 8:00 PM – 10:00 PM