May 3, 2026, 3:13 p.m.
(PHOTO: Intent/Natalia Dovbysh)
The offline semifinals of the national selection of World Poetry Slam Ukraine, an international project organized by LitSlamUA in cooperation with the literary agency OVO, took place in Odesa on May 2.
According to the organizers, the Odesa stage was held in cooperation with the literary organization Naked Poets.
The semifinal was part of an offline tour of Ukrainian cities. The semifinals have already been held in Kharkiv and Kyiv, and Lviv is next, after Odesa. Based on the results of all the selections, the participants of the grand final in Kyiv will be formed, where they will choose a representative of Ukraine on the international poetry slam scene.
In the Odesa semifinals, 16 poets competed: Denys Dmitriev, Sinyooka, KATRYA, Yizhak, Tkachynsky, Yelyzaveta Shipitsyna, Anna Iva, Pavlo Shykin, Chaplya, Svetoslava Miloradovych, Yevhen Kushnirik, Solomiya Ptakha, Ptashynyi, Serhiy Demchuk, Anna Kharybina, and Maksym Korovnychenko.
Slam in American slang means "a hard hit on the ball"; "sharp criticism"; "brutal response" - a poetry reading in which not only what is read but also how is important. The slam tournament is a bizarre combination of sport and art: it is a competition between poets in artistic reading. A competition in the fullest sense of the word: with assessments by a jury randomly selected from among the audience, with a clear time limit, with penalties for violating the established rules.
The jury judged the performances: Elena Gerasimyuk, Andrey Hayetsky and Gleb Serdyuk, and the hosts of the Odesa semifinals were Katrusia Kharchenko and Tatiana Khoronzhuk, who became the first female tandem of hosts in the history of slam.
The competition was held according to European rules:
The evaluation was based on a 10-point scale. Some of the scores were given by the jury, others by the audience.
The event included an auction and fundraising to support the Sky Monsters unmanned systems unit of the 13th Brigade of the National Guard of Ukraine, the Charter. Three participants made it to the Kyiv stage, and one of them participated online because he is a military man.
Кирило Бойко