NEW JERU SLAM SERIES

Established in 2004 when 3 poet friends took a road trip to the Southern Fried Poetry Slam in Charlotte, N.C. just to hang out with poets from the southeast, needing 4 poets to make up a competing slam team, the 3 friends asked a poet who was at the festival without a team to join them. When asked what was the name of their team, in a partially intoxicated state, they exclaimed, "New Jeru Slam", which is a wordplay on New Jerusalem; the urban nickname for New Jersey. At that slam, New Jeru reached the final stage as a pick up team. Since then, New Jeru has been a staple in the Poetry slam community, winning a Southern Fried Poetry Slam championship, and reaching final stage numerous times in a 20 year span. "Big Mike," co-founder of New Jeru Slam has a Southern Fried Individual Champion title under his belt to add to the New Jeru accolades. Since then, the New Jeru Slam Series has grown, and a younger generation of slam poets have continued the tradition of New Jeru Slam as a force to be reckoned with within the Slam Poetry Community.