A poetry slam is a competitive art event in which poets perform spoken word poetry before a live audience and a panel of judges. While formats can vary, slams are often loud and lively, with audience participation, cheering and dramatic delivery.
Spoken word is an oral poetic performance art that is based mainly on the poem as well as the performer's aesthetic qualities. It is a 20th-century continuation of an ancient oral artistic tradition that focuses on the aesthetics of recitation and word play, such as the performer's live intonation and voice inflection. Spoken word is a "catchall" term that includes any kind of poetry recited aloud, including poetry readings, poetry slams, jazz poetry, pianologues, musical readings, and hip hop music, and can include comedy routines and prose monologues. Unlike written poetry, the poetic text takes its quality less from the visual aesthetics on a page, but depends more on phonaesthetics, or the aesthetics of sound.
Alix L. Olson is an American poet who works exclusively in spoken word. She uses her work to address issues of capitalism, racism, sexism, homophobia, heterosexism, misogyny, and patriarchy. She identifies as a queer feminist.
Hedwig Irene Gorski is an American performance poet and an avant-garde artist who labels her aesthetic as "American futurism." The term "performance poetry," a precursor to slam poetry, is attributed to her. It originated in press releases for experimental spoken word and conceptual theater Gorski created during 1979. She is a first-generation Polish American academic scholar and accomplished creative writer. The innovative poetry, prose, drama, and audio works are published and produced in a variety of media using standard and experimental forms.
Roger Bonair-Agard is a poet and performance artist. He has made numerous television and radio appearances, has led countless workshops and lectures, and has performed his poetry at many US universities as well as at international festivals in Germany, Switzerland, Milan, and Jamaica. He has been accused of sexual abuse by multiple people, including other poets.
Beau Sia is an American slam poet.
Michael Matthew McGee, more commonly known as Mighty Mike McGee, is an American slam poet.
Sheri-D Wilson, CM D. Litt, is a Canadian poet, spoken word artist, educator, speaker, producer and activist.
Taylor McDowell Mali is an American slam poet, humorist, teacher, and voiceover artist.
Tazuo Basho Yamaguchi is a Japanese-American poet, filmmaker, storyteller, musician, painter, jllustrator and puppeteer. He both a national and world head-to-head haiku champion. He is also master of the English form of haiku and senryū. He has published four books of poetry and six recorded volumes. He also produced the National Poetry Slam, International World Poetry Individual Slam, Women of the World DVD from 2002 to 2013.
The Canadian Festival of Spoken Word is an annual festival produced by Spoken Word Canada and planned by a local Festival Organizing Committee in each host city.
The Austin Poetry Slam (APS) is one of the longest running poetry venues in Texas. Founded in 1994 by Wammo of the Asylum Street Spankers and helmed for 15 years by former Poetry Slam, Inc. president, Mike Henry, Austin Slam is renowned for memorable and often raucous performances by many of the best poets in the slam poetry world. Austin Slam is best known nationally for hosting the National Poetry Slam (NPS) in 1998, 2006, & 2007, and for Austin teams' national finals stage performances in 1996, 2003, & 2008.
Suzi Q. Smith is an American an award-winning artist, activist, and educator who lives in Denver, Colorado.
Sarah Kay is an American poet. Known for her spoken word poetry, Kay is the founder of Project V.O.I.C.E., a group dedicated to using spoken word as an educational and inspirational tool.
The Women of the World Poetry Slam (WoWPS) is an annual poetry slam by Poetry Slam, Inc. (PSi). The tournament features individual slam poets from around the world that "identify as women" competing to be the highest ranked woman poet in the world.
Rudy K. Francisco is an American spoken word poet and writer. He has won several poetry slams and written six books of poetry: Getting Stitches, Scratch, No Gravity, No Gravity Part II, Helium, and I'll Fly Away. He made an appearance on TV One's Verses and Flow and performed his spoken word poems "Complainers" and "Rifle" on the Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.
Imani Cezanne is an American activist and spoken word poet. She is the founding president of President of S.P.E.A.K..
Javon Johnson is an American spoken word poet, writer, and professor. He is the director of African American and African Diaspora Studies in the Department of Interdisciplinary, Gender, and Ethnic Studies at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, and the author of Killing Poetry: Blackness and the Making of Slam and Spoken Word Communities.
Australian Poetry Slam is an annual poetry slam competition run within Australia. Contestants of all ages, experiences and talents perform live and are judged by the audience to determine the best both locally and nationally through a succession of heats and finals. It is run in the style of an "open slam" in which anyone is able to register to perform. Events are typically hosted by the previous year's Australian Poetry Slam Champion or another established performing writer.
Deborah Emmanuel, known by her performance name ArunDitha, is a slam poet and multi-disciplinary artist from Singapore.
