A Nuyorican Poetry Slam

The Nuyorican Poets Cafe has been the home of the New York poetry slam for decades, a nonprofit born from the Nuyorican art movement on the Lower East Side. While its East 3rd Street building is being renovated, the slams continue nearby: an open slam every Monday at the Bowery Poetry Club, and the Final Friday Slam on the last Friday of each month at the Loisaida Center on East 9th Street, where the month's winners meet invited poets head to head in a bracket.

Check the Nuyorican's calendar for the month's dates; tickets are sold online and at the door. Monday is looser and anyone can sign up to read. Final Friday is the one to see first, with judges picked from the audience and an open mic afterward. The audience is loud, supportive and very much part of the scoring. Stay through the second round.