During our building’s 3 year Nuyorican-struction, our events take place in venues throughout New York City.

Here’s how to keep up with the SLAM scene:

Second TUESDAY of the month: SLAM WORKSHOP: Foundations & Frameworks online (via zoom)

  • Free! Craft mini-lesson and 1:1 feedback! 


Every MONDAY: The NUYORICAN BOWERY SLAM at the Bowery Poetry Club (308 Bowery, NY, NY).

  • Open slam! Two rounds! Cumulative score determines that night’s winner. 

  • Should there be a tie in the second round for first place, there will be a tiebreaking head-to-head.

  • Prize: $20 and an invitation to that month’s Final Friday Slam.


Last FRIDAY of the month: The FINAL FRIDAY SLAM (FF) at the Puerto Rican Traveling Theater (304 West 47th Street, NY, NY). 

  • Eight competitors! Head-to-head matches, tournament bracket style, between Monday winners, invited competitors, and a lottery slot from the audience. 

  • Three rounds! Scores are not carried over to the next rounds. — Should a poet have to perform more than three poems due to a redemption arc (not common), the poem from their losing round will NOT be counted towards their score total.

  • Prize: $100, a feature at an in-person Open Mic, and a nomination to participate in our annual Grand Slam.

We track all the winners’ cumulative scores (Mondays & Fridays) for the current slam season in the Scoreboard below. If you’re amongst the top 8 poets, your Grand Slam nomination will become an invitation! Should there be any ties for the top 8, those who have won MORE Nuyorican Bowery Slams will be preferred for the Grand Slam invitation. (More information about the Grand Slam below)

Here are the current season’s (December 2025 to November 2026) scores thus far:

Looking for calendar year’s 2025 scoreboard and winners’ blurbs? Click here to access our archived 2025 slam season page.

The Grand Slam

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The Grand Slam 🏆

End of the year in DECEMBER: GRAND SLAM at the Apollo Stages at the Victoria (233 W 125th St, NY, NY 10027) (2025)

  • Eight competitors! Three rounds! Head-to-head matches between the top 8 scoring poets from the year. (See Scoreboard and explanation above)

  • Prize: $1,000, a produced show at the re-opened Nuyorican’s building, and a potential spot on the Nuyorican’s National Slam Team.


Click to expand & learn about each of the 2026 Slam Season winners (December 2025 to November 2026) thus far:

  • Marcus is starting our 2026 Grand Slam Season off right! This week’s win comes in preparation for the Slam at the end of this month! Since the 2025 slam season is Dec ‘24 - Nov ‘25, his Nuyorican Bowery Slam win counts on the scorecards for next year’s standings! 

    His work resonates deeply with our slam crowd because Marcus’s masterful flow and deep insight pair beautifully to make amazing spoken word! Crowds love his ability to draw out the inherent hypocrisy in things that we accept as normal, all while speaking to the crowd like a friend who’s making an emphatic point!

    We want to give every shout out to @_marcus_stokes for his amazing performance at our slam, and hope to see him at future Nuyorican Poets Cafe events. Give him a follow and congratulate him for his amazing talent!

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--- Last updated 12/9/2025 -—