Wayne State College’s Poetry Slam Event encourages both students and members of the community to participate in the slam on Nov. 18 at The Max Bar & Grill on 109 Main St at 7 p.m.

The poetry slam is the longest running slam in NE. They are expecting many attendees at this event because they have always had a huge turnout at previous poetry slam events.

“The slam has been on hold since fall of 2019, so because of Covid we’ve been on a hiatus just because it’s a big event,” Chad Christensen, a WSC professor, said. “So, there’s a lot of anticipation for the slam to come back because it has been a major element.”

According to Christensen, the poetry workshop and fiction workshop classes are encouraged to attend and participate in the Poetry Slam Event. These classes have opportunities to share their creative works.

This event is a big event for the English department, but they also encourage various majors to attend the event.

“It will be all sorts of different students. Not just English students, right, or humanities students, we’ll have sports people, science people,” Christensen said.

According to Sharon Carr, WSC professor and editor of the WSC Press, the editing and publishing class asks for donations for prizes for the slam. Both the editing and publishing course and the WSC press are involved in putting on the slam.

“Anybody is open to the slam, so it doesn’t have to be a student necessarily. It’s a competition,” Carr said.

According to Christensen, there are three judges. The judges are chosen from the Plains Writers Series. This allows students to be given the opportunity to be judged by published writers.

“It’s notorious for awesome crazy wild prizes, first through fourth place. It goes for four rounds.” Christensen said.

According to Slam Master Chloe DuBois, there is always a fun theme that is done for the slam event. This year’s slam is Jumanji and jungle themed. The event also features live music before the event occurs. This year’s live music will be played by musician Trevor Fullinfaw.

Members of the community and WSC students can compete in the slam event on Nov. 18. Those that would like to compete, pre-registry is at 6 p.m. Participants need four original poems and to pay a $5 registration fee. This event will take place in Wayne at The Max Bar & Grill on 109 Main St at 7 p.m.

For more information check out the WSC Press website at wscpress.com.