European Championship & Gathering of Poetry Slam 2018

Hungary is proud to host the European Poetry Slam Championship 2018, extended into a week-long international performance poetry festival!

The main organizer, Slam Poetry Hungary Association welcomes more than 20 national poetry slam champions from all around Europe to a series of events between November 27 and December 1.

The Guest of Honor is none other than the founding father of the genre, Marc Kelly Smith from Chicago and a small spoken word team led by him, the Chicago's Speak Easy Ensemble 2018. They will work together in a 3-day workshop series with poets coming from the Visegrad4 countries (Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland, Hungary), along with young slam poets representing Serbia, Macedonia, the Ukraine and France. Other VIP guests of the festival are Mwende „FreeQuency” Katwiwa (Kenya/USA), 2018 Women of the World Poetry Slam Champion, and poet, professor and ‘Slam Master' Bob Holman from New York, whose previous appearance on the Hungarian slam stages has already been a great success. Additionally, along with local slam poets, Philip Meersman, Belgian slammer, head coordinator and organizer of the European Championships and Jaan Malin alias Luulur, Estonian sound poet, editor, essayist, curator will add poetic colour and joy to the program.   

November 27th will be a “Conference Day” at Anker't Budapest, where workshops, debates and open discussions will let the audience gain an insight into the origins and the present status of the genre both overseas and in Europe. The next day is the day of the Semi-finals, also at Anker't, with over 20 European slammers competing with each other. November 29th is dedicated to performances at Trafó House of Contemporary Arts, where among other solo productions, the American-European collaboration will present a unique, multilingual showcase with the title „Bridging Barriers”, as the culminating result of the intensive workshop sessions. Finally, the main highlight, of course, is the European Poetry Slam Championship Finals, taking place on November 30th, also on the stages of Trafó.

The project is co-financed by the Governments of Czechia, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia through Visegrad Grants from International Visegrad Fund. The mission of the fund is to advance ideas for sustainable regional cooperation in Central Europe. https://www.visegradfund.org/ #V4 #Visegrad

Funding is provided by the United States Government.

19:30 The Grand Slam Debate @ Anker't Budapest An interactive dialogue about the developments of the genre, led by Marc Smith on one side and Bob Holman on the other. For the first time in the history of slam poetry, the two slam gurus can publicly discuss their sometimes conflicting views of slam poetry, reflecting on its origins, definition problems, commercialisation tendencies, institutionalised models, successes and downfalls. Hosts: Philip Meersman (B) & Márk “Saiid” Süveg (H)

20:00 „Bridging Barriers” Live Showcase @ Trafó Final performance production of the intensive, 3-day workshop session, worked out by European slam poets (from Serbia, Macedonia, Ukraine, Slovakia, Czech Republic, Poland, France and Hungary) and Chicago's Speak Easy Ensemble 2018, led by Marc Kelly Smith, displaying how different languages and cultures may be creatively brought together, with purpose and harmony, to produce fruitful and intriguing works of art, with dynamic interaction and audience engagement.

19:00 Finals of the European Slam Championship @ Trafó Final rounds of the competition. Judges will be selected mainly from the US delegation and possibly other EU slam affiliates. Judge President: Bob Holman.