17th Annual Southern Fried Poetry Slam

This weekend, poetry will be Durham's predominant form of art. That's because the Bull City will play host to the 17th Annual Southern Fried Poetry Slam.

What is a poetry slam, you ask? It's the competitive incarnation of a poetry reading. The poet has 3 minutes to perform their piece, and they are then at the mercy of the judges and the audience to assign a quantitative rating (from 1 to 10) to their performance.

The Southern Fried Poetry Slam is the second largest slam in the nation, and was NC grown over in Asheville, circa 1993.

There will be exhibitions and preliminary competitions happening Thursday, Friday and Saturday, with venues including Pinhook and Blue Coffee. These lead up to the finals on Saturday night, which will be held at Duke's Reynolds Theatre.

Here's the schedule of events; tickets to the finals can be purchased online or at the event.