There are a lot of festivals around the world that appreciate poetry
. Apparently, one of them is the berkeley slam. The berkeley slam is all about poetry and the appreciation of that art.
When you look online to find information about slam you will find that each site that comes up will have some kind of information and it all relates to various poetry readings and how to enter and win prizes with your poetry. To be perfectly honest, the berkeley slam is all about getting your poetry out to the public.
You do not have to be a published poet to take part. You can actually just walk in off the street and start spouting your innermost poetic thoughts if that is what you want to do. You never know, you might just win something if you walk into the right pub or venue that is hosting and open mic night for the berkeley slam.
The thing about slam is that it is a lot of fun for all involved. The audience gets to hear some interesting world views and interesting poetry. The poet gets to show the world what they can do with the spoken word. The judges picked randomly from the audience get to score the various poems that they hear. Everyone does a lot of speaking and voting and the best poet wins a prize!
What is not to love about berkeley slam? Even people who do not love poetry will be able to enjoy the slam as there is a large socialisation component involved in the gatherings of poets. Most people love to socialise so that does not present a problem.
Of course, if this is really not your scene then you just stay away from the area while the berkeley slam is going on. The slam is really a free choice situation. If there is nothing about slam that you like then you do not have to attend. If you have something that you would like to say, then all you will have to do is get up and say it in front of a panel of your peers.