• Poets should be based in Durban or surrounding areas.
• Poems may be in any official South African language.
• Poets should be above 18 years of age.
• Each poet should submit the 2 poems that they will be performing on the day of the slam to be eligible for selection.
• Poems must be submitted as either text or voice note format on WhatsApp at 069 272 1918.
• Each poem must not exceed 3 minutes in length.
• WhatsApp submissions must contain the poets FULL NAME, AGE, GENDER, and LANGUAGE.
• Poetry Africa receives the right to publish or not to publish any of the poems submitted.
• Poetry Africa advocates for Freedom of Speech and Freedom of Creativity as enshrined in Section 16 of the South African Constitution. Poetry Africa will automatically disqualify entries that:
     o Promotes Hate Speech and which is derogatory of any racial, ethnic, religious, language or other demographic group;
     o Uses sexually explicit content;
     o Promotes any kind of violence, destruction of property or lawlessness.

• A different theme will be announced for each month on a poster released across our social media pages.
• Only 10 poets will be selected to participate live at the Centre for Creative Arts, Howard College.
• On the day of the competition, the poets will slam and the judges will select a winner who will win a R1000 cash prize and qualify for the grand finale in September, where all winners from January to August will compete once again where the winner will be featured on the Poetry Africa 2025 Line Up.
• Judging criteria for each month will be:
    o Quality of the poem
    o Relevance to the monthly theme
    o Style and impact of the performance
    o Originality

• The Jury’s decision is final. No correspondence will be entered into thereafter.
• Once a participant wins for a certain month, they cannot enter for another month.
• The runner up for each month will automatically qualify to participate in the following months slam if they are willing to try again.