Spoken word poetry is a form of writing so vivid, so alive, that to confine it to the page saps it of half its life’s blood. The performers all brought something to their acts that transformed the ...

It's not often that "thinking inside the box," is lauded as a winning strategy. But for spoken word poet Henry Morray, it won Slamovision's 2025 international slam poetry competition.

Through slam poetry that centers LGBTQ+ voices and inspirational videos that touch on navigating life with autism, Lydia Gates has fostered communities both in the heart of Flagstaff's mountain town ...

A group of Lafayette poets will bare their souls and flex their performance muscles at one of the country’s largest slam poetry festivals this week. Five artists with Lafayette-based nonprofit ...

A new festival will come to Lafayette for the first time in 2025 after a local slam poetry team successfully pitched “The Hub City” as a host for the regional poetry competition. Southern Fried Poetry ...

It’s been 20 years since Nancy Sullivan, a media specialist at Portland’s McDaniel High School, organized a poetry slam for students in the school’s library. That one slam eventually evolved into ...

Exactly 13 seconds into the second poem Henry Morray chose to perform on a recent evening, the 22-year-old snagged the attention of his audience with a clever line. "Love is not a 4 letter word. It's ...

Marc Kelly Smith had a great idea in the early 1980s: make poetry readings more palatable. He had thought, “Why is this artform that I have been writing and reading most of my life presented onstage ...

Jon Kelly was a homeless 17-year-old high school senior in Miami when he joined the Army to provide for his fractured family. Since the second grade, he had been putting his feelings down on paper — ...

One by one, poets shrug their way to the stage, pausing for a breath before diving in. Without fail, someone from the crowd offers the rallying cry: "Let's go, poet!" The room answers in its own ...

As the Twin Cities’ slam poetry scene rebuilds, BuckSlam — a new organization dedicated to the style of competitive poetry performance — has quickly established itself at the forefront. Now, as its ...

Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) Facebook Click to share on X (Opens in new window) X Rudy Ru performs at Arts & Ideas Adult Invitational Poetry Slam. Credit: Eleanor Polak Photos ...