Unity College will host Imagine Unity-Slam for the Future, the first-ever Earth Week Poetry Slam on Friday, April 26 at 7 p.m. in the Student Center, located at 90 Quaker Hill Road, in Unity, Maine. Poets from across the nation will compete for prizes totaling over $1500.

The poetry slam at Unity College is the first time in Maine poetry slam history that poets will compete for a large cash prize.  There are over 20 poets from diverse backgrounds who are pre-registered, representing people from a variety of ages, ethnicities, sexual orientations, and gender identities.

Tina Smith, a poetry slam poet from Portland, Maine, and Imagine Unity slammaster, says that participants are coming to the Unity slam from rural and urban communities as far away as Denver, Colorado, and as close to home as students from Unity College.

“We’ll have first-time slammers as well as poets who have already won national and international competitions,” Smith said.

The event will begin with an open mic forum, and will include 1, 2, and 3-minute poetry rounds for all ages. The poetry slam will complete a full slate of Earth Week activities. Competitors should pre-register by sending an email to tnsmith09@gmail.com.

In recent years Unity College has gained national attention for a variety of achievements including its focus on sustainability science, the leading-edge of 21st century ecological problem solving and the vanguard in the fight for the mitigation of global climate change; its ground-breaking “green” innovations such as the award-winning TerraHaus, the first student residence on a college or university campus built to the Passive House standard, the most energy efficient building standard in the world; and for being the first college in the United States to divest from investments in fossil fuels, igniting a growing national movement in higher education.

Unity College is a private college in rural Maine that provides dedicated, engaged students with a liberal arts education that emphasizes the environment and natural resources. Unity College graduates are prepared to be environmental stewards, effective leaders, and responsible citizens through active learning experiences within a supportive community.