Poet's Palace presents The Climate Slam

Poet’s Palace - in association with Your Canal Boat CIC, Loughborough University and the U.S. State Department — presents the Great 2023 Climate Slam! A poetry slam with £650 in cash prizes, great music and presentation by U.K. Slam Poetry Champion (and IPCC physicist!) Dr. Robin Lamboll.

The judges panel includes science communicators and professional poets to evaluate entries on both their lyrical and scientific merits. The evening convenes participants from past workshops, examples of whose work and scientific inspiration can be seen here: www.climateslam.com

Rules for the competition require entrants to reference a scientific infographic in their work, an idea suggested by Dr. Lamboll to counteract the lack of authority that society grants poets, (something he demonstrates in a TEDx talk at Cambridge, here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jTHN9kSMeFQ)

We undertake this effort because we believe that information presented in a fresh manner — with arresting language and the emotion of spoken word poetry — can turn down the temperature around climate change discussions. No one likes to be told what to drive, how to travel or what to eat. But everyone likes to feel they’ve learned something. We believe that verse and humor can gently reconnect people to the basic science they were exposed to in secondary school, and which they are perhaps prepared to revisit now, to better understand the climate crisis, allowing them to make more informed decisions and be more effective communicators with others.

The evening’s music is provided by musicologist, raconteur and host of the Spirit and Roots podcast, Dan Raza. (Www.DanRaza.com)

We can’t wait to meet you at this remarkable evening of poetry, music and inspirational learning. The first of many we believe!