SLAM 2026 - Opening Gala - German-Language Poetry Slam Championships

Hannover kicks off SLAM 2026 with a gala featuring only reigning champions on stage. The line-up includes Ayşe Irem, who won the German-language individual poetry slam title in Chemnitz in 2025, and the current team champions Wortwin & Slamson - Ortwin Bader-Iskraut and Samson Völk. Joining them are comedian Lara Ermer and Sven Kamin, runner-up at the UNESCO Slamovision World Championship 2025. A musical special guest rounds out the evening. Hosts for the night are Ninia LaGrande and Jan Egge Sedelies.

Ayşe Irem is a spoken-word artist, activist, and workshop facilitator for poetry slam, empowerment, and creative writing. She grew up writing - first in Turkish, now in German - and takes on prejudice and social clichés, questioning everything and everyone, channelling her anger and passion into texts that make audiences think.

Lara Ermer is from Frankfurt and one of the country's most prominent comediennes. She tackles apparent taboos with humour, makes complex topics sharply accessible, and grounds her social commentary in solid facts - often reading stacks of studies before turning them into entertainment. Her work has earned multiple awards; her second book "Alle gegen Alle" was published in March 2025.

Sven Kamin is Hamburg city champion, the first poetry slam champion of Lower Saxony and Bremen, the first NDR Slam op Platt world champion, the first Bremer Rap-Slam winner, a four-time recipient of the Golden Kloppstock, and a three-time finalist at the German-language championships. He runs the Wedel Schädel Poetry Slam and co-organises Slam Bremen, one of the three oldest poetry slams in Germany.

Wortwin & Slamson - Ortwin Bader-Iskraut and Samson Völk - have won the German-language team championship three times in just five years, making them record holders of the slam scene. Both also hold their own as solo performers.