On Thursday night, three female writers competed in a performance poetry tournament to qualify to represent Jersey City at the “Women of the World Poetry Slam” in Dallas, Texas. “WOWPS” is a national competition hosted by Poetry Slam Inc., an organization that also certifies slam venues across the country.

Jersey City Slam is a certified venue and home to poets from all over North Jersey. They have been in Jersey City for six years now, and for the past year they have hosted their events at TeaNJ on Newark Avenue. On the second and fourth Thursday of every month, TeaNJ stays open late to host the slam while serving coffee, tea and vegan-friendly sandwiches and pastries.

When I arrived for Thursday’s event, the café was already crowded. Poets and audience members were reading, chatting, sketching and writing. Tables and chairs were arranged to clear room for a performance space, and one table provided materials for political sign-making. Everyone who entered was warmly welcomed and a sense of camaraderie filled the room.

I was grateful to have a veteran attendee guide me through the evening’s proceedings. Rachel Therres – a visual artist, poet, and Hoboken schoolteacher – met me with a smile and caught me up on all I needed to know. There would be three competitors, each presenting poems of 4-, 1-, 2- and 3- minutes in length. Five judges selected from the audience would score the poems. In order to be a judge, the rule is to either know everyone, or know no one. As a newcomer, I qualified, and I gladly accepted the role.

I was introduced to the two “SlamMasters,” Mark Skrzypzak and Ann Marie Manso. I learned about the Jersey City Slam’s pretty infamous position in the poetry slam scene: they are known for having the most brutal time penalties of any venue, and for being the most honest judges, but also the most enthusiastic. Ann Marie acted as the evening’s emcee, and regaled us with “Alternative Facts” interspersed within the evening’s four rounds. With that in mind, everything you’re about to read may or may not be true.

Apparently, poetry slams were invented in the 1980’s by a Chicago construction worker named Marc Smith. They were originally hosted at an Uptown jazz nightclub called The Green Mill. The idea was to engage people with poetry in a new way: to cultivate an audience to experience spoken language as a form of revelry, to be participatory, reactionary, and boisterous.

For a competitive event, the crowd on Thursday night could not be more supportive of one another. Every performer was greeted with a chant: “Day by day, we’re getting better and better.” When a poet’s words resonated with the audience, they echoed a response of snaps, claps, yells and cheers. If a judge’s score was deemed too low, it was met with boos and complaints.

The three women poets who presented shared of their various backgrounds and poetic styles. Similar themes emerged, all of them deeply personal yet meaningful to all women, proudly feminist with an awareness of intersectionality. The topics varied from sexual harassment to objectification to race and religion to walking home alone at night.

The winner was Sandra Ann, whose powerful poetry often shed light on unpleasant or emotional experiences, yet was brilliantly worded and elegantly spoken. One of her lines read: “We are all beautiful masterpieces/ shining through our skin/ kaleidoscope jigsaws/ of heartbeats…” When she won, the first thing Sandra did was to hug her fellow competitors and thank the room for their support. A raffle was held to raise money for her travel expenses to Dallas, and I was thrilled to be the proud winner of a beautiful cat-patterned backpack.

While Sandra gets ready to head to WOWPS, there are plenty of other opportunities for Jersey City poets to share their work with a sagacious and sincere, yet supportive, audience. Most events feature a poetry workshop, an open mic, a feature performer and a three-round slam.

For more information, check out Jersey City Slam’s website and follow them on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram

Jersey City Slam is currently seeking a venue to host their Team Finals competition, for which they are expecting at least 75 guests. If you’re interested in hosting, please contact them at jerseycityslam@gmail.com.

To check out TeaNJ’s menu and information, please visit their website here.