State Qualifiers District 6 WA

2026 — Pasco, WA/US

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Original Spoken Word Poetry

Event Description:

1. Spoken Word Poetry is a new supplemental event where students will write and perform original poetry. Original Spoken Word Poetry is poetry written for performance to express ideas, experience, or emotion through the creative arrangement of words according to their sound, their rhythm, their meaning.

2. The maximum time limit is 5 minutes with a 30-second grace period. The delivery must be memorized, and no book or script may be used. Should a student go beyond the grace period, the student may not be ranked 1st. Judges are to use accurate (stopwatch function) timing devices.

3. No more than 150 words of the original poetry may be direct quotation from any other speech or writing, and such quotations must be identified in a printed copy of the speech. An introduction is permitted, but not required.

4. A successful performer will craft a piece that elicits critical thought, reflection, or emotion. As opposed to traditional Poetry, Spoken Word Poetry is created to be performed aloud and may feature rhythmic flow, vivid imagery, word play, gestures, lyrical elements, and repetition.

Any contestant who uses a script or notes shall be ranked below those who do not.