Poetry Slam in Brazil Over the Last Two Decades: Challenges and Transformations

Introduction

Poetry slam has existed in Brazil for 17 years and has undergone changes since its inception, strengthening itself as a spoken word poetry competition that also serves as a playful and political moment. At each meeting, we observe the sharing of artistic and literary production by individuals and collectives who are part of social groups that have been marginalized in historical narratives and spaces of power. In this essay, we offer considerations on how this cultural movement has been formed and developed in our country, highlighting some points that we consider important in order to present its historical transformations, from the impacts of social media to the pressures of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The poetry slam movement in Brazil: from ZAP! to the present

We often hear that poetry slam in Brazil belongs to the chicks (minas, in Brazilian Portuguese). However, this has not always been the case, as minas have had to fight to gain more visibility and representation on the scene, as well as to take some of their own to state or national competitions. Let's go back in time to understand how it all began.

In 2008, on the initiative of Roberta Estrela D'Alva,¹ Brazil's first poetry slam, ZAP! SLAM, took place in the Vila Pompeia neighborhood, an upscale area of São Paulo. For four years, it remained the only poetry slam championship in the country. Spoken-word poetry was not new in Brazil, but this was the first competition that can be described as a poetry slam because of its defining features, such as the competition rules. Although Estrela D'Alva is a black woman, black women were not the central figures of this movement in its early stages. For the most part, it was men who were the first slammers to participate in competitions and who began to dominate the scene, both as competitors and as the audience for the events, a fact that we can observe through the records of some editions scattered across the Internet and which were part of the 2017 documentary Slam: Voz de Levante, directed by Estrela D'Alva and Tatiana Lohmann. Many of these men had been previously involved with hip-hop, especially rap, where women have also been historically excluded.

Some time later, in 2012, Slam da Guilhermina emerged, organized by Emerson Alcalde, Cristina Assunção, and Uilian Chapéu, also in the city of São Paulo but in the East Zone. We make this distinction to highlight that, although Brazil's first poetry slam competition (ZAP!) emerged in an affluent area of the city of São Paulo, the second developed in a peripheral, lower-income area. This was the first street poetry slam in the country, laying the foundations for a model that would later spread to other Brazilian states, remaining in force today almost two decades later. From this point on, other poetry slam groups emerged, some with a slightly different format, such as O Menor Slam do Mundo, where poets have ten seconds to perform, and Slam do 13, which sets a time limit of three minutes and thirteen seconds for poetic performances, in which judges must assign scores from 0 to 13 (rather than 0 to 10, as is traditionally the case), among others.

With the creation of new groups and the proliferation of poetry slam competitions in the city and metropolitan area of São Paulo, Slam SP (the first state championship in Brazil) began organizing in 2012. With the arrival of the movement in the states of Minas Gerais and Rio de Janeiro in 2014, it became possible to hold a "Brazilian Spoken Poetry Championship," SLAM BR, even though only these three states situated in a single region of the country (São Paulo, Minas Gerais, and Rio de Janeiro) were represented in this national competition.

From the creation of the first slam until 2015, we did not notice much relevance given to the power of women, who—even though they competed and were not few in number—faced strong resistance rooted in structural male chauvinism. Since 2010, Brazil has had representatives at the Poetry Slam World Cup, held annually in France. Luanda Casella and Estrela D'Alva were the first, but not through the selection process of the championships that existed in the country. Poetry slams already existed in Brazil in 2010, but there was not yet a local or national circuit through which a poet could be selected to represent the country in international championships, such as the one held in France. Luanda Casella took part in the World Cup in 2010 because she was already familiar with poetry slam in Europe, and did not reach the competition through Brazilian tournaments. Roberta Estrela D'Alva, in turn, learnt about the World Cup and submitted examples of her work to the organizers, who selected her for the 2011 edition. It was only from 2011 onwards that Brazil began selecting the winner of each year's tournament — ZAP!, Slam SP or Slam BR — as its representative. In subsequent years, five slammers in a row were cis men: Fabio Boca, winner of ZAP! in 2011; Lews Barbosa, from Slam SP in 2012; Emerson Alcalde, from Slam SP 2013; João Paiva, from SLAM BR 2014; and Lucas Afonso, from SLAM BR 2015.

In 2015, a group, taking into account this history of male dominance on the scene and demanding more space and representation for women, gathered around the poet tatiana nascimento from Distrito Federal, and organized the first Slam das Minas, exclusively for women, whether as slammasters, slammers, or judges, also opening up the competition to the LGBTQIA+ community, with only cis heterosexual men barred from competing. This was a fundamental strategy to ensure that women would have at least one representative in their state competitions, with the possibility of advancing to the national level.

What we could not have imagined was the change that this initiative would bring to the poetry slam scene as a whole. Other states, from different regions of the country, also created their own poetry slam competitions aimed exclusively at this audience, and in the year following the creation of the first Slam das Minas, not only did they reach SLAM BR, but also took home the championship trophy. Luz Ribeiro, from Slam das Minas SP, became the first woman to win this stage, after securing victory in a tiebreaker with the Bahian poet NegaFyah.

Once this door was opened, the arrival of women competitors has never stopped, and they have become the majority on the podiums and among the finalists in the national competition over the last eight years.

There is still resistance to this progress. There is a video of Slam das Minas SP, made as an interview celebrating the poetry slam group's seven years of creation, in which we hear women noting that cis men rarely attend competitions exclusively for women or gender dissidents.² At one point, several of them argued that this can be explained by the fact that this is a place where men cannot speak themselves, but must listen to those who speak — something many of them are not used to.

It is worth noting the connection between these statements and the fact that Slam Q'brada, from Distrito Federal, created by Meimei Bastos in 2017 and initially open to everyone, announced that it would become exclusive to women and LGBTQIA+ people in 2023. This change was questioned by some, who considered it a form of segregation that promotes "gender separation."³ In a video later posted on the Slam Q'brada's page, Meimei points out that "the spotlight is given to women and LGBTQIA+ people, but the space for listening is for everyone" ("o protagonismo é dado às mulheres e pessoas LGBTQIA+, mas o espaço de escuta é para todes").⁴

This did not prevent men from participating in the poetry slam movement in general, nor was it the intention. The initiative had the practical effect of expanding who felt welcome to perform. Soon after, we were able to see the strength of the chicks in poetry slam, as they have been gaining more and more visibility in this cultural practice, especially in SLAM BR.

Exclusive poetry slam groups with other names have emerged, sometimes marking local or regional particularities. Today, there are Slams das Minas groups in the cities of São Paulo, Ceará, Rio de Janeiro, Pernambuco, Bahia, Acre, Rio Grande do Sul, and Paraíba, but also Slam das Cumadi (CE), Slam das Gurias (PR), Slam Dandaras do Norte (PA), Slam das Mulé (BA), Slam das Manas (MG and RS), Slam das Manas em Libras (SP)—for deaf women and sign language users—and the recently-created Slam das Donas (RJ) and Slam Pangeia (MG), among others.

Nowadays, it is no longer necessary for women to go through one of these poetry slam groups to feel represented, as they have been a significant presence in the most coveted competition of the year. As detailed by Pam Araujo, women's participation in SLAM BR has grown considerably since 2014.⁵ However, we caution against using statistics as a measure to interpret a national or even local scene, or to conclude that women are the majority in the entire poetry slam scene in Brazil. To corroborate these claims, we would have to be familiar with the detailed history as well as the current characteristics and makeup of each group in all states.

SLAM BR offers a glimpse into what poetry slam groups look like in Brazil. The national scene consists of hundreds of other groups, each with its own trajectory, and in each of which around ten poets participate every month. It is a massive movement from which only about 25 poets are selected for the four-day competition of SLAM BR.

Until 2021, SLAM BR took place in São Paulo, with the 2022 edition being moved to Favela da Maré, in Rio de Janeiro; the 2023 edition in the city of Itabira, Minas Gerais; the 2024 edition in Madureira, again in Rio, and the 2025 edition in Brasília. Nonetheless, based on recent developments in the scene what we can say is that strategies such as the creation of Slams das Minas have secured a prominent place for women in the Brazilian poetry performance scene, as it is now impossible to imagine poetry slam without them, whether they participate in greater numbers or not.

In addition, changes continue to take place in Brazilian poetry slam, with the increased visibility of the trans community, which is still not very significant in so-called "mixed" competitions, i.e., those that are not restricted to a specific group. Despite being historically underrepresented in state and national championships, trans people have been winning competitions in recent years and have been standing out in the SLAM BR competition to the point that, for the first time, a trans woman, Apêagá, tied for first place in the 2022 national competition, losing the top spot on the podium in a tiebreaker.

The impact of the media: Adelson Chaves and the spread of poetry slam on social media

For about seven years, poetry slam remained restricted to in-person gatherings that mainly took place in southeastern Brazil. This began to change when Adelson Chaves, born in Curitiba, settled in São Paulo, arrived at poetry slam events, and excitedly recounted that he had watched a video in which Paulo Leminski prophesied, "The future of text is video text."⁶ Based on his interpretation of this idea, Adelson began recording the poets' performances at his event, Slam Resistência, held on the first Monday of every month at Praça Roosevelt in São Paulo, in 2015.

Adelson wasn't just filming, which was already being done, but was offering an innovative way of recording the events. He wanted to create his own audiovisual language with a decidedly activist footprint, expressing himself in his own media without depending on the hegemonic one. Adelson invited social activists to film and guide the process with a mixture of intuition and shamanic inspiration. The filmmakers needed to capture the slammer's emotion, follow their gestures, feel the rhythm of the poem, and create a recording together, focusing on the lens as a significant zone of contact and emphasis. Rafael Weinberg and Daniel GTR were two of the people responsible for making these videos. Instead of filming the event from a single perspective with a camera mounted on a tripod, they decided to use hand-held cameras, which enabled them to move around with the poets during their performance.

It took many attempts until, one day, some videos, such as those by Thiago Peixoto and Sabrina Lopes, went viral on Facebook. It was the first sign that Adelson's dream—and Leminski's prophecy—was coming true. People from all over the world wanted to know more about this art form that was spoken (or shouted) in public squares. Likes on social media skyrocketed. The audience at poetry slam events grew, not only at Slam Resistência, but across the country. Other videos also reached thousands, then millions of views. One of them even reached seven million views, which is quite impressive for a critical, politicized art form in a country where poetry is among the least widely read literary genres. According to the sixth edition of the survey Retratos da Leitura no Brasil (Portraits of Reading in Brazil), conducted in 2024, 12% of respondents classified as readers reported having read poetry books that year, compared with 22% who mentioned short stories and 20% who mentioned novels, for example.⁷

The poetry scene has spread across the five regions of Brazil, the number of poets has exploded, events continue to spring up in various cities, and SLAM BR itself reflects the impact. As far back as the 2016 version, São Paulo's Itaú Cultural amphitheater on Avenida Paulista was packed, leaving many people outside, unable to get in. Poetry slam had broken out of its bubble and become a national phenomenon. What was once a scene concentrated in less than 20 communities, has, by 2026, exceeded 400 poetry battles across the country.

From the streets to the screens: poetry slam in the time of Covid-19

Since their inception, poetry slam events have been characterized as poetic battles held in public places, attracting large audiences. However, with the arrival of the Covid-19 pandemic, slam poets had to adapt to digital media to continue performing and staying in community with peers. Naturally, these new circumstances had consequences for the organization and staging of competitions.

The dynamics of poetry slam changed during the pandemic, as restrictions imposed on face-to-face gatherings during the pandemic saw us turning to digital spaces. This profoundly altered the reception and perception of poetry performance. In an interview with Caio Nascimento about cultural activities during quarantine, Emerson Alcalde recalls that before the pandemic, "a poetry slam event was almost like street soccer."⁸ Interactions at in-person events were intense: people would shout, hug each other, and party together, aspects that were unfortunately lost in online competitions.

Furthermore, when watching some of these remotely held slams, we also noticed other consequences both in the organization and execution. While organizing became more exhausting because it included tasks that were not previously necessary, execution required the use of electronic and technological devices that were indispensable yet difficult to operate.

In essence, poetry slam is a hybrid genre that aims to go beyond the written poem as a mode of expression, prioritizing the oral performance of the text and the power of the body. For this reason, it is a common belief that it is the poetry of the body, "of which the voice is only an expansion," as Paul Zumthor states.⁹ According to Zumthor, performances, which excite and impress, have the potential to impact spectators (or viewers, in that moment of social confinement) in such a way that they are transformed by each experience. Indeed, in live poetry it is the interaction between the poet and the audience which constructs the meanings of a performance.¹⁰ In poetry slam, this mode of reception is indispensable because the audience reacts during and at the end of performances, taking on the role of an interlocutor. In contrast, in the virtual poetry slams of the pandemic, the performance and, consequently, the reception were the most impacted as the interaction between slammers and audience were no longer the same. The intensity had been lost in the digital sphere. Moreover, it is usually from amidst the audience members that the judges are chosen. During the online competitions, the judges were selected in advance rather than chosen from among those watching the event. In some cases, the judges were personally invited by the organizers; in others, an open call was issued for volunteers to apply. Selecting the judges beforehand allowed them to join the virtual room before the slam began in order to make some tests (their internet connection, microphone, and camera).

Poetry slam is not about text—or, at least, not only about text. If it was, it would be enough to send the poems in writing for a judging panel to evaluate them, as happens in traditional literary competitions. In poetry slam, what is evaluated is the performance. And that performance involves everything: the presentation, the body on stage, the time, the space, who speaks, what is said, and, above all, the political and social context in which it is being said.

In online events, the ability to evaluate the quality of performance was greatly affected by the fact that sometimes we could only see the poets' faces, not their entire bodies. In addition, social media chat was often the only option for audience interaction; applause turned into comments from internet users who were watching the broadcast simultaneously. But the poetry of a slam event also relies on the body to construct its meanings, and slammers have more freedom of movement when they don't have to worry about a camera or any other electronic devices. Kimani, Brazil's representative at the 2020 Grand Poetry Slam in France, addresses the issue in episode 3 of the Podfalar podcast.¹¹ She reports that holding the event virtually hindered the judges' reception of her performance, as they had to pay close attention to the translation of the poem in order to understand it. As a result, they may have focused only on the content of her text, but not on her performance.

During the livestream of an event, we may also encounter impasses related to poets' internet connection and access. In the 2020 edition of Slam da Guilhermina, held on June 26, in the final minute of poet Kaya's performance, the video image disappeared and we could only hear his voice. In another presentation on the same day, poet OCotta had to recite his poem three times because his network fluctuated and the video froze completely.¹²

Faced with these and other obstacles, slammaster Cristina Assunção pointed out that things did not go as planned, despite all the teams' organizational efforts. Following Assunçao's observation, it's straightforwardly clear that online events offer very different forms of the public square. The competition itself shifted: whereas prior to the pandemic organizers and participants were in direct contact with people and needed fewer material and technological resources, the pandemic required new methods of organizing competition.

Additionally, the bond that is created with other cultural practices during a live poetry event had also been adversely affected by the "new normal" during the pandemic. Poetry slams are more than competitions; they are an opportunity for artists to meet and share their experiences, to strengthen one another, to sell their art, zines, and books, as well as to promote their music and other projects, by participating as guests at the opening of a slam and interacting during intermissions.

Despite the negative factors, Emerson points out that a positive aspect of online poetry slam competitions was that it enabled poets from other cities, states, and countries, such as Angola and Mozambique, to participate.¹³ Indeed, since they do not require physical travel, virtual poetry slams allow poets to participate in many battles within a short span of time and even outside their country, without the costs of international trips.

Another positive point is that participating in these events amid social confinement was essential for the mental health of many people. As Wânia Storolli reminds us, "the relationship between the voice and technological devices can reveal itself as a human desire and need to overcome loneliness."¹⁴

With the resumption of in-person activities, a few initiatives, such as some editions of Slam Rasta and the selective stages of Slam Interescolar SP, maintained their remote virtual activity. Most, however, returned to their in-person editions on the streets, facing, in many cases, a significant drop in both the number of participants and the audience. As this shifted situation has continued, other poetry slam groups, such as Slam do Grito and Slam da Ponta, have stopped holding regular competitions.

Access to artistic language through poetry slam

Since the creation of Slam da Guilhermina in 2012, the movement has been reinventing itself on the streets, starting out in the square next to the Guilhermina-Esperança station in the city of São Paulo. Moving poetry into the public space is spatial, symbolic, performative, and political: this movement inaugurates a language situated at the crossroads between orality, the body, and peripheral territory. Spoken word poetry, when performed on the streets, breaks with the logic of silent and solitary reading, restoring the poetic word to its communal and ephemeral character. As Paul Zumthor emphasizes, "reception will be experienced through hearing accompanied by sight, both of which have as their object the performed discourse: it is, in fact, a characteristic of the oral situation that transmission and reception constitute a single act of participation, co-presence, the latter generating pleasure. This single act is performance."¹⁵

In this sense, a poetry slam is not limited to being a mere poetry tournament but constitutes a practice of community building. The circle that forms in street poetry slam is a space for speaking and, above all, for listening. If each poet has up to nine minutes — three texts of three minutes each — the rest of the time is devoted to active listening. In the words of Zumthor, "by listening to a voice or emitting our own, we feel and declare that we are no longer alone in the world."¹⁶ Listening, therefore, is not passive, but an act of co-authorship, sharing, and meaning-making.

In addition to its aesthetic dimension, street poetry slam operates as an agent of political literacy and revolutionary engagement with literary history. The spoken word is inseparable from the concrete situation of the here and now, from the presence of bodies and collectiveness. Thus, poetry slam brings poetry closer to audiences that have historically been excluded from formal cultural circuits, promoting access to artistic language as a right. In many cities, there are places that completely lack public facilities, such as cultural centers, or that have precarious spaces, with few activities available for local residents. In addition to providing new spaces for cultural activities, street poetry slams promote greater engagement with multiple art forms, especially poetry, for underprivileged populations.

Moreover, many poets have begun publishing their texts after participating in poetry slam events. The Slam da Guilhermina group, for example, began early on to publish books arising out of their competitions, bringing together poems from those who won their monthly editions. For many poets, this represented their first printed publication, which became another mode for the dissemination of their poetry, in addition to videos that circulate on social media. Currently, many poets already have at least one book published, which usually collects the poems they perform at poetry slam events or elsewhere. Some books have even won awards or at least been shortlisted as finalists. The book Das ruas para as escolas, das escolas para as ruas: Slam Interescolar SP (From the streets to schools, from schools to the streets: Slam Interescolar SP), edited and published by the Slam da Guilhermina group, won the 2021 Jabuti Award, a prominent literary award in the country, in the "Innovation-Promotion of Reading" category. The book, along with the recognition it received, also demonstrates the relevance of the poetry slam movement as a pedagogical tool. The book documents the history of the inter-school project, Slam Interescolar SP, from its creation in 2015 to the moment of publication. This project, a pioneer in the country, consists of an annual slam championship between primary and secondary school students in São Paulo. The book features poems from a few students who had already participated in different editions of this competition.

In the nearly 18 years of its existence in Brazil, these publications are some of the poetry slam movement's greatest contributions to poets who have been historically marginalized and, for a long time, distanced from poetic language and other culturally privileged forms of artistic expression. Many participants and audience members feel transformed by poetry slam and, by extension, poetry in a great many other settings. As some report, before discovering this cultural scene, they had not even realized that they too were poets and that, in addition to being heard, they would also be read one day. This is revolutionary.

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Fabiana Oliveira de Souza (@fa.bi.a.na_sou.za) holds a Doctorate and Master's degree in Neo-Latin Languages (Hispanic Literature) from the Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, with a doctoral internship at the Universidad de Buenos Aires through the Capes-Print Programme. During her PhD, she studied poetry slams in Brazil and Argentina, with an emphasis on the poetry and performance of women. She has published several articles on poetry slams, in addition to assisting in the organization of the anthology As minas do slam: nova cena da poesia falada no Brasil (2023), which brings together poems by 22 Brazilian female slammers. Furthermore, she is a Spanish teacher at Colégio Pedro II, working in secondary education and postgraduate Spanish teaching. At this institution, she develops research and cultural projects on school poetry slams and is the slammaster of Slam Corações Poetas, a competition for primary and secondary school students.

Emerson Alcalde (@emersonalcalde) is a poet, writer, slammaster, artistic producer, and has a degree in Theatre from Universidade Anhembi Morumbi. He is co-founder of Slam da Guilhermina - the second oldest poetry battle in the country - and Slam Interescolar SP, a project that won the Jabuti Award for the Promotion of Reading in 2021. He is a founding member of the World Poetry Slam Organisation. Representing Brazil, he has performed in countries across the Americas, Europe and Africa. In 2014, he won the title of runner-up in the Poetry Slam World Cup in Paris. As a writer, he is the author of several works that range from poetry and narrative to reflections on the slam movement. His published books include: A massa (2011), O Vendedor de Travesseiros (2015), Diário Bolivariano (2019), Gênesis (2020), Nos corre da poesia - Autobiografia de um slammer (2022), and O que é Slam de poesia (2024).

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References

1. Roberta Estrela D'Alva, "Um microfone na mão e uma ideia na cabeça - o poetry slam entra em cena," Synergies Brésil, no. 9 (2011): 119-126. ↩︎
2. Slam das Minas-SP, "Reporter Treze - 7 anos Slam das Minas-SP Parte 2," Instagram, April 3, 2023, https://www.instagram.com/reel/CqlXejGv6tu/. ↩︎
3. An Instagram post in which the aforementioned question appears, in an image highlighting a user's comment, can be found at https://www.instagram.com/p/CqN9vaUME8v/. ↩︎
4. Video available at https://www.instagram.com/p/CqLUjaHgAgn/. ↩︎
5. [CITATION NEEDED] ↩︎
6. Paulo Leminski, "Paulo Leminski Fala Sobre A Poesia Do Futuro - Fragmentos 1," Outras Rimas (August 2014), https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sku9F9KPLRE. ↩︎
7. These and other data can be found at https://snel.org.br/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/ApresentaA7A3o_Retratos_da_Leitura_2024_13-11_SITE.pdf ↩︎
8. Emerson Alcalde, "Saraus e slams online viram alternativa para artistas se apresentarem durante a quarentena," interview by Caio Nascimento, Terra (April 25, 2020), https://www.terra.com.br/amp/vida-e-estilo/comportamento/saraus-e-slams-online-viram-alternativa-para-artistas-se-apresentarem-durante-a-quarentena,3f17ce91d6f44ff8b9f93dde3a30f37buamds2eh.html. ↩︎
9. Paul Zumthor, Performance, recepção e leitura, trans. Jerusa Pires Ferreira and Suely Fenerich (Cosacnaify, 2014), 19. ↩︎
10. Paul Zumthor, Introdução à poesia oral, trans. Jerusa Pires Ferreira, Maria Lúcia Diniz Pochat and Maria Inês de Almeida (Hucitec, 1997). ↩︎
11. Kimani, Podfalar, episode 3, "Poesia e Identidades," moderated by Emerson Alcalde, by Instituto Moreira Salles (posted June 30, 2020), https://ims.com.br/convida/acao-educativa/emerson-alcalde/. ↩︎
12. Cristina Assunção, "Slam da Guilhermina Junho," Slam da Guilhermina (June 2020), 2:34:38. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=P8OWi01qcmw. ↩︎
13. Emerson Alcalde, "Slam da Guilhermina Junho," Slam da Guilhermina (June 2020), https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=P8OWi01qcmw. ↩︎
14. Wânia M. A. Storolli, "A voz desincorporada e a face do outro," Revista Voz e Cena 1, no. 2 (2020), 117. ↩︎
15. Zumthor, Performance, 65. ↩︎
16. Zumthor, Performance, 83. ↩︎