Poetry Slam Workshop — Words are Events
A poetry slam workshop means: finding ideas, choosing words, capturing an audience. For more than ten years, poetry slam pioneer Bas Böttcher has been leading workshops at schools and universities. He supports young talents in independently writing their own performance texts and in working with the microphone and the audience. Following a multimedia introduction to the subject, the workshop focuses on the participants’ hands-on creative work.
Wer?
The workshops are aimed at schools, libraries, theater groups, museums, and summer camps — as well as professional development formats for team building and staff training.
Where?
Workshops can be booked in Germany, Austria, Switzerland and across Europe; larger projects beyond these regions are also possible.
Wann?
For online workshops, I offer a dedicated concept that has already been recommended by the Digital Learning Lab at TU Hamburg. Dates and times can be arranged individually. Due to high demand, an advance booking period of eight to ten weeks is recommended, although last-minute dates can occasionally be arranged.
Sharpening the focus:
Participants learn in a playful way how to discover their own ideas and themes. Sometimes a change of perspective helps to turn everyday objects into something special.
From first thought to text:
At the crucial step from an initial idea to a richly worded text, Bas Böttcher offers practical guidance on the craft of writing. The text techniques he has developed turn the workshop into a verbal research laboratory: How does a fourfold rhyme machine work? What is an associative chain reaction? What do meter and beats have in common?
Along the way, classic stylistic devices are also tested for their effect on an audience. As editor of the standard reference Die Poetry-Slam-Fibel – 20 Years of the Language Workshop, Bas Böttcher provides striking examples from all styles of performance literature to listen to, watch, or read. In this way, linguistic tools are not only explained theoretically but made directly experienceable.
Presenting with confidence:
The workshop concludes with stage training focused on developing a confident performance in front of an audience. Voice and gesture come into play. Whispering, rapping, and slurring are all allowed. The pieces created are presented within the group and recorded as MP3 files.
The result as MP3 and live performance:
Each participant receives an MP3 recording of their own text, preserving their creative work as a lasting memory. Many MP3 recordings from Bas Böttcher’s workshops can be listened to online here: [250 Poetry Slam Texts].
In multi-day workshop projects, the program may conclude with a larger school slam in front of a live audience in the auditorium.
In addition to the textual results, the workshop fosters independent creative work, linguistic sensitivity, confident public presence, personal expression, and the ability to evaluate literary productions.
Bas Böttcher | Workshop References
Universities:
Bas Böttcher has taught creative writing at the following universities:
— Humboldt University of Berlin (since 2022 to present)
— Leipzig University (2023/2024)
— Berlin University of the Arts (2016–2018)
— Bauhaus University Weimar (2014)
— University of Liechtenstein (2013)
— German Institute for Literature Leipzig (2012)
— Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen–Nuremberg (2008)
Schools:
Poetry slam workshops conducted at:
— Public schools in Hamburg, Hanover, Cologne, Frankfurt, Stuttgart, Düsseldorf, Munich, and many others
— Swiss cantonal schools in Lucerne, Zurich, St. Gallen, Basel, Bern, Thun, Zug, and Winterthur
— German international schools in Beijing, Singapore, Shanghai, Windhoek, Brisbane, Moscow, Rio de Janeiro, and Washington
— Boarding schools such as Schulpforta, Sankt Afra, Louisenlund, among others
Institutions:
— German Teachers’ Congress for German as a Foreign Language, Amsterdam
— Cultural Council of German Industry
— Working Group for Children’s and Young Adult Literature
— Federal Initiative “Education through Language and Writing” (BiSS)
— German Language Olympiad
— German Hygiene Museum Dresden – Language Exhibition
— Deutschlandfunk – Lyrix Competition
— Literaturhaus Bremen – Schulhausroman project
— Federal Association for Cultural Education of Children and Youth
— Federal Association of the Friedrich Bödecker Circles
— German Federal Foreign Office
— Institut de Formation de l’Éducation Nationale, Luxembourg
Publications:
— Editor of the standard reference Die Poetry-Slam-Fibel – 20 Years of the Language Workshop (Satyr Verlag)
— The Poetry Slam Expedition – with CD and DVD (Schroedel Verlag)
— Poetry Clips – DVD (Lingua Video)
— Neonomade – book & CD (Voland & Quist)
— This Is Not a Concert – book & CD (Voland & Quist)
Academic Degree:
— Diploma (Bauhaus University Weimar)