Eleven of the finest "slam" poets in the northwest will compete in the Fifth Evergreen Invitational Poetry Slam at Evergreen Unitarian Universalist Fellowship in Marysville on Saturday, April 24, at 7:30 p.m. The poetry slam is a head-to-head competition for hundreds of dollars in prize and prestigious bragging rights.

A poetry slam is a competition in which poets perform their own work and are judged by randomly selected audience members holding up score cards, Olympic-style. The job of the judges is to resist being influenced by the audience; the job of the audience is to influence the judges.

Poets are always competing-for publication, for awards, for academic positions. But in the past, poetic competition has always been very genteel, behind the scenes. A poetry slam is many things, but genteel is not one of them. The subtle-gloves are off. Think whispering, ranting, crying, laughing uproariously; think in-your-face.

While you're at it, think PG-13.

Every year EUUF has presented at least one national champion, and this year organizers expect at least two, plus first and second-place finishers from France's World Cup of Poetry. They will be joined by at least one official legend of the National Poetry Slam, a Seattle Poet Populist, three Grand Slam champions from Seattle and one each from Vancouver, Dallas, San Jose and Boise.

Organizer and slam legend Jack McCarthy explained, "This is the fifth year that we've done this, and all the reviews have been raves."

Evergreen Unitarian Universalist Fellowship is located at 1607 Fourth Street at the corner of Columbia in Marysville. Recommended admission donation is $10. All proceeds go to the poets and the church. Refreshments will be available at the break.