Queer Slam Berlin at SO36

SO36 as a Home — A Political Self-Positioning

Since the late 1970s, SO36 at Oranienstraße 190 has been one of Berlin's most important left-alternative cultural centers. Punk, hardcore, dance events, performances, queer events — the venue in Kreuzberg-SO36 (hence the name, an old Berlin postal code abbreviation for Süd-Ost 36) hosts a dense program. Choosing SO36 as the venue for Queer Slam Berlin is therefore a statement in itself: queer texts belong in a politically charged space, not a sterile performance spot.

Every Edition a Competition

Format: 7 slam poets — invited regulars and guests — each present a text of maximum 6 minutes. An audience jury (sometimes called a "mini-jury" of 5 randomly selected spectators) judges, and the winner receives a Golden Prosecco. Texts must be original works. Costumes and props are allowed — the performance aspect is explicitly part of the format. Long singing passages are prohibited; the focus is on the spoken word.

• Where: SO36, Oranienstraße 190, 10999 Berlin
• District: Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg, Kreuzberg district (SO36)
• Format: Monthly, seven slam poets per edition
• Dates 2026: January 21, February 24, April 15, May 20, July 2 (CSD Edition), August 9 (Open Air Edition)
• Tickets: €15 advance, €20 door

Community and Visibility

Queer Slam Berlin has existed since 2019 — making it one of the oldest regular queer poetry slams in Germany. Unlike Berlin's mainstream slams (Kookoo Slam, Trampolin Slam), Queer Slam is explicitly for the LGBTQIA+ community and its allies — acts must identify as queer. This is not exclusion, but rather reserving stage space for voices that are underrepresented in most other slam formats.