The Nuyorican Cafe is one of slam's original homes. Poetry Slam guru, Bob Holeman began slams there after seeing Marc Smith's brainchild in action at The Greenmill circa 1989. Since Holeman's introduction of slamming to New York, the teams sent from the Nuyorican have been a formidable verbal force on the slam scene.
The Nuyorican team was severely trounced by Team Manhatten at the 1998 National Poetry Slam where they became our nation's reigning spoken word champions.