CARICON Poetry Slam

Fourth Annual · French Caribbean Rotation

Guadeloupe
2027Roots · Rhythm · Revolution

This year's theme is Roots, Rhythm, Revolution. The CARICON Poetry Slam lands in Guadeloupe for World Poetry Day. Three nights of spoken word from across the English, Spanish, French and Dutch Caribbean and the diaspora, set on the island that gave the world Maryse Condé.

Enter the Slam See travel packages
Reigning champion Akeem Chandler-Prescod receives the CARICON Poetry Slam trophy in Willemstad, 2026
Reigning champion Akeem Chandler-Prescod · Willemstad, 2026
One Slam, four languages, never the same shore twice
EnglishKingstonJamaica · 2025
Dutch · PapiamentoWillemstadCuraçao · 2026
FrenchGuadeloupeMarch 2027
SpanishPuerto Rico2028

For poets

Three minutes. One original poem. The Caribbean listening.

Open to poets 16 and older, from the islands and the diaspora, in any Caribbean language or creole. Submit a recorded performance by November 15; finalists are named November 30 and travel to Guadeloupe to perform live.

The 2027 theme

Roots

Where you come from: ancestry, land, language, the grandmother's tongue.

Rhythm

What carries you: gwoka drum, kompa, calypso, reggae, the pulse under the line.

Revolution

What you refuse and what you build: resistance, rupture, liberation, change.

Your poem may take on one word or all three. Any Caribbean language or creole is welcome.

Age16+

Every entrant must be 16 or older at time of submission.

The poem3:00

One original poem, performed and recorded. A link to your performance is accepted.

Your story

A 100-word biography and a clear, high-quality headshot for promotion if selected.

Judged on

Originality, creativity, technical skill and performance.

NowSubmissions open
Nov 15Submission deadline
Nov 30Finalists named
March 2027Live in Guadeloupe

What the champion takes home

A Caribbean escape and a return to the stage

  • A three-night all-inclusive Caribbean vacation
  • The CARICON Poetry Slam Trophy
  • An invitation to perform the winning poem at the 2028 Slam in Puerto Rico
  • Every finalist receives the CARICON Poetry Slam medal
Enter the Slam

For audiences · Travel packages

Come for the Slam. Stay for the island.

Every package bundles your Slam pass with hotel nights on Guadeloupe, so the trip is one decision. Choose the depth of your stay; we handle the rest with our hotel partner.

The Curaçao Slam audience on its feet
The room at the Curaçao final
Poets and guests at the Sunday breakfast in Curaçao
Sunday breakfast with the poets
Open-air breakfast under the trees in Curaçao
Open-air mornings between Slam nights
Weekend3 nights

The Open Mic

  • Hotel stay for the three Slam nights
  • General pass to all Slam rounds and the final
  • Welcome reception on arrival night
  • Airport transfer on arrival and departure
Per person, doubleRate released with hotel partnerHold a room
Most complete5 nights

The Stanza

  • Five nights spanning the full World Poetry Day weekend
  • Reserved seating for every round and the final
  • Guided day across Basse-Terre: rainforest, waterfalls, rum heritage
  • Meet-the-poets dinner with the finalists
  • Airport transfers throughout
Per person, doubleRate released with hotel partnerHold a room
Patron7 nights

The Epic

  • A week on Guadeloupe with an upgraded ocean-view room
  • Front-row patron seating and backstage access at the final
  • Island crossing to Marie-Galante or Les Saintes
  • Private dinner with CARICON leadership and the judges
  • Patron recognition in the Slam program
Per person, doubleRate released with hotel partnerHold a room

Rooms are limited to the partner hotel's block for the Slam weekend. Holding a room places you on the priority list; rates, flight guidance and deposit terms go to that list first when the block is confirmed.

Join the priority list

Choose your package, tell us where you're flying from and how many are travelling. Rates, flight guidance and deposit terms go to the priority list first, as soon as the hotel block opens.

Request my travel package

Opens the travel request form in a new tab. No payment is taken now.

Hall of champions

The voices who held the room

Every Slam crowns one champion and sends that voice to open the next shore. The 2026 champion returns to perform in Guadeloupe.

Akeem Chandler-Prescod raises the CARICON Poetry Slam trophy in Willemstad Reigning champion · Curaçao 2026

Akeem
Chandler-Prescod

Barbados

Crowned March 21, 2026 at Teatro Aula Habaai, Willemstad, in the Slam's first Dutch Caribbean edition, from a field of ten poets representing eight islands.

01
Akeem Chandler-PrescodBarbados · Champion
02
Carrie Rios SantanaPuerto Rico
03
Keeron IsaacTrinidad and Tobago
04
Aline AbdulCuraçao
05
Sergio HernandezPuerto Rico
A full house at the Curaçao Slam2026 · Dutch rotation

Willemstad, Curaçao

Teatro Aula Habaai, with partner Wintertuin Curaçao. Theme: Speak Truth, Speak Life. Ten poets, eight islands; Puerto Rico placed two in the top five.

The 2025 champion with the CARICON Poetry Slam trophy in Kingston2025 · English rotation

Kingston, Jamaica

Champion: Britton Wright

The Slam's first Caribbean edition, on World Poetry Day at Edna Manley College, with JAIKU and Ntukuma. Standing room for 300.

Lem Gonsalves at the Los Angeles Slam, 20232023 – 2024 · Los Angeles

Where it began

Lem GonsalvesBeviny AshleyChris SidersCurtis MoGregory Walton IIJennifer EdwardsKeanna JordanRichard WilliamsTiffany IkeTyler FayeVerniel Monk
Britton Wright and Akeem Chandler-Prescod together in Curaçao The 2025 and 2026 champions greet each other in Curaçao

Champion to champion

The crown passes hand to hand

Britton Wright won Kingston in 2025 and came to Curaçao to see the title change hands. Akeem Chandler-Prescod took it home to Barbados. In Guadeloupe, Akeem defends nothing: the crown goes back on the table for every poet in the field.

From the Slam journal

Dispatches from every shore

Stories from the stage, the poets and the islands that hosted them.

Guest performer at the Kingston Slam, 2025

Guest performer, Kingston 2025

Guadeloupe 2027 · Announcement

Roots, Rhythm, Revolution: the theme for Guadeloupe

The fourth Slam asks poets where they come from, what carries them and what they refuse. Guadeloupe, home of gwoka and of Maryse Condé, is the right island to ask it.

Read the dispatch

Every CARICON Slam moves to a new linguistic region of the Caribbean. After English-speaking Kingston and Dutch-speaking Willemstad, the Slam crosses into the French Caribbean for 2027. The theme gives poets three doors. Roots is ancestry, land and the language a grandmother spoke. Rhythm is the drum under the line, from gwoka to kompa to calypso. Revolution is the Caribbean habit of rupture and rebuilding.

Poets may walk through one door or all three, in any Caribbean language or creole. Submissions close November 15, 2026, and finalists are named November 30.

The 2026 finalists on stage in WillemstadCuraçao 2026 · Recap

Ten poets, eight islands, one night in Willemstad

Akeem Chandler-Prescod of Barbados took the crown at Teatro Aula Habaai under the theme Speak Truth, Speak Life.

Read the recap

The Slam's first Dutch Caribbean edition drew poets from across the region to Willemstad on World Poetry Day. Barbados won, Puerto Rico placed two poets in the top five, Curaçao's own Aline Abdul finished fourth, and Keeron Isaac gave Trinidad and Tobago its first appearance and first podium at the Slam.

That same week, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass sent a Certificate of Recognition to local organizer Kimberly Fecunda-Janga, carrying the Slam's Los Angeles roots onto the island stage.

Britton Wright performing at Edna Manley College, KingstonKingston 2025 · Recap

The night the Slam came home to the Caribbean

After two Los Angeles editions, the Slam crossed to Kingston and Britton Wright was crowned the first Caribbean champion.

Read the recap

On World Poetry Day 2025, Edna Manley College for the Visual and Performing Arts hosted the first CARICON Slam ever held in the Caribbean, organized with JAIKU and Ntukuma. Three hundred people filled the room across three nights of competition.

Britton Wright took the championship, and Kingston set the standard for the rotation: a new island each year, a new language, the same demand for original work.

Los Angeles 2023 – 2024 · Origins

Where it began: two seasons in Los Angeles

Before the rotation, the Slam was a Los Angeles stage for Caribbean and diaspora poets.

Read the story

The first two Slams gathered poets aged 16 and up in Los Angeles, including Lem Gonsalves, Tiffany Ike, Verniel Monk and Gregory Walton II. They proved the format: one original poem, three minutes, judged on originality, creativity, craft and performance.

That format now travels the four linguistic regions of the Caribbean, one island at a time.

In the press

What the region said

Coverage of the Slam from newsrooms across the Caribbean. Links open the original story.

Curaçao.nuMarch 23, 2026Barbadian poet wins CARICON Poetry Slam in CuraçaoDutch Curaçao.nuMarch 21, 2026Curaçao's Poetry Slam receives recognition from Los AngelesDutch Trinidad ExpressApril 9, 2026Poetry bronze: Keeron Isaac makes Trinidad and Tobago's Slam debut a podium TTT NewsApril 2026Historic win for T&T poet at 2026 CARICON Poetry Slam International Authors Forum delegation in CuraçaoInternational Authors ForumMay 20, 2026IAF represented at the Curaçao Slam final alongside JAIKU The Jamaica GleanerMarch 2025Poetry takes over Kingston this week

The destination

Guadeloupe, the butterfly island

Two wings joined by a mangrove channel: volcanic, rain-fed Basse-Terre and the white-sand plateau of Grande-Terre. A French Caribbean archipelago where Creole is spoken at the market and literature is a civic pride.

Basse-Terre

La Soufrière volcano, the Carbet falls and a national park of rainforest trails, an hour from the beach.

Grande-Terre

Sainte-Anne and Saint-François for lagoon water, Pointe des Châteaux for sunrise over the Atlantic.

Rum & table

Rhum agricole from cane-juice distilleries, accras, colombo and bokit from the roadside.

Memory

Mémorial ACTe in Pointe-à-Pitre, a world-class center on the history of slavery and its abolition.

The island of Maryse Condé, who carried Guadeloupean storytelling into world literature. The Slam arrives to add new voices to that line.

Why Guadeloupe · CARICON 2027

Take the Slam home

Caribbean Witnessed

A landscape hardcover series that documents each Slam island. Volume 1 carries the Curaçao edition through the lens of series photographer Britton Wright, in a 750-copy run with 250 signed copies.

Guadeloupe becomes Volume 2. Travel-package guests are the first to reserve it.

Order Volume 1 Book Guadeloupe
With Jamaica Tourist BoardCuraçao Tourism BoardWintertuin CuraçaoEdna Manley CollegeLangers
CARICON · Caribbean Literary, Culture & Heritage Organization
A Celebration of Caribbean Literature, Culture & Heritage
[email protected] · 323-243-0035 · cari-con.org
EIN 99-4258230