Original Spoken Word Poetry Info

The Original Spoken Word Poetry category will follow all relevant NSDA guidelines as found linked here.

"Original Spoken Word Poetry is a new supplemental event where students will write and perform original poetry. Original Spoken Word Poetry is poetry written for performance to express ideas, experience, oremotion through the creative arrangement of words according to their sound, their rhythm, their meaning. The maximum time limit is 5 minutes with a 30-second grace period. The delivery must be memorized, and no book or script may be used. No more than 150 words of the original poetry may be direct quotation from any other speech or writing, and such quotations must be identified in a printed copy of the speech. An introduction ispermitted, but not required. A successful performer will craft a piece that elicits critical thought, reflection, oremotion. As opposed to traditional Poetry, Spoken Word Poetry is created to be performed aloud and may feature rhythmic flow, vivid imagery, word play, gestures, lyrical elements, and repetition."