AUDITIONS! AUDITIONS! AUDITIONS!
During auditions, Yale first-years and sophomores perform one original poem for the members of WORD during an audition slot of their choosing. Auditions take place over three days, then callbacks happen all in one day during the following week. The process is low pressure and super fun. We love to hear anyone’s work, no matter what experience level (many of us had never done spoken word prior to Yale). The only thing that matters is that you are enthusiastic.
Keep an eye out here and on our Instagram for audition dates and info for the 2025-2026 year!
During our annual WORDshop, you can come in and try your hand at writing spoken word, bring in your own poems and edit them with us, or just hang out with our community of poets. Date TBD.
As always, you can shoot an email to wordatyale@gmail.com if you’re interested in auditioning and want to know more!
WE ARE SO EXCITED TO MEET YOU!
FAQs:
Can you tell me a bit about the group?
We usually have about 15 members a year. We like to keep it small so that the group has a nice family-like atmosphere, and so each poem gets the attention it deserves.
What do you do in meetings?
We write poems individually and in groups, we edit them, we work on performance techniques, we goof around and hang out. The group is really relaxed, and we always make sure to have a ton of fun.
Does anything else happen?
We run poetry workshops for students in local high schools throughout the year. Performance-wise, we have two main shows a year, one at the end of each semester. We also perform at show collaborations with the other poetry groups on campus, usually around Halloween and Valentine’s Day. We also encourage our members to perform individually at various spoken word events on- and off-campus.
Well this all sounds great, but, I have a confession to make, what if I’ve never done performance poetry before?
That’s totally fine! Most of our members actually never did performance poetry before joining WORD, and many of them came from backgrounds in other creative activities. What we’re most concerned with in auditions is the potential we see in each candidate as a poet, a performer, and a group member. Try your hand at it – you never know, you might find just creative outlet you’ve been looking for.
Cool! What were you saying about auditions?
They’re really relaxed and not scary at all. You come in and share your poem with an audience of WORD members who are so excited to hear you and share a passion for the power poetry has to reveal the good, bad, and ugly of being human. Auditions will be sometime within the first month of school – click the Contact link above to be notified or to send us a message. And feel free to approach any WORD member if you have questions. We look forward to meeting you!
Do you have any last tips to help prepare?
Write work that you’re excited about and proud to share. Try to hone in on your voice. We have videos of past WORD show performances on our YouTube channel here, if you want to see what elements people incorporate while performing.
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