Franny Choi | |
|---|---|
 Franny Choi performing at a poetry slam | |
| Born | February 11, 1989 |
| Occupation | Poet |
| Nationality | American |
| Alma mater | University of Michigan |
| Genre | Slam poetry |
Franny Choi (born February 11, 1989)[ citation needed ] is an American writer, poet and playwright. [1]
Choi uses she and they pronouns. [1] She lived in Northampton, Massachusetts and now resides in Greenfield, Massachusetts. [2] [3] Choi's parents are Choi Inyeong and Nam Songeun. [4] She is Korean-American. In high school, Choi was introduced to the poetry of Allen Ginsberg and became interested in poetry's spoken form. In college, she joined a group for marginalized spoken poets, called WORD!, which was her introduction to slam poetry. [5]
Choi graduated from Brown University with a Bachelor of Arts in Literary Arts and Ethnic Studies in 2011 and received an Master of Fine Arts in Poetry from the Helen Zell Writers' Program at the University of Michigan. [6] After graduating, she became a co-director of the Providence Poetry Slam. She founded the Dark Noise Collective with Fatimah Asghar, Danez Smith, Jamila Woods, Nate Marshall, and Aaron Samuels in 2012. [2]
Choi worked for Hyphen, a non-profit Asian-American culture magazine, as a senior editor. She was co-host, with Danez Smith, of the podcast VS. [2] She was a Gaius Charles Bolin Fellow in English at Williams College; in 2022 she joined the undergraduate Literature Faculty at Bennington College. [7] [8]
Choi is a two-time winner of the Rustbelt Poetry Slam. [9]
Choi promotes social activism through her poetry and writing. [10] In her poem "Whiteness Walks Into A Bar", she highlights institutionalized racism in the United States. [11] Other poems, like "furiosa", focus on feminism. [12] Choi curated a series of video poems by 12 queer Asian American and Pacific Islander poets for the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center. [13]
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.
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Danez Smith is a poet, writer and performer from St. Paul, Minnesota. They are queer, non-binary and HIV-positive. They are the author of the poetry collections [insert] Boy and Don't Call Us Dead: Poems, both of which have received multiple awards, and the poetry collection “Homie/My Nig”. Their most recent poetry collection Bluff was published in 2024.
The Adroit Journal is an American literary magazine founded in November 2010. Published five times per year by founding editor Peter LaBerge, The Adroit Journal is currently based in Philadelphia. The journal was produced with the support of the University of Pennsylvania's Kelly Writers House from 2013 to 2017 and was based in the San Francisco Bay Area and New York City from 2017-2019 and 2020-2023 respectively.
Fatimah Asghar is a South Asian American poet, director and screenwriter. Co-creator and writer for the Emmy-nominated webseries Brown Girls, their work has appeared in Poetry, Gulf Coast, BuzzFeed Reader, The Margins, The Offing, Academy of American Poets, and other publications.
Button Poetry is a Minneapolis-based poetry company and independent publisher of performance poetry. They are known for their viral videos of slam poetry performances, including a performance of "OCD" by Neil Hilborn that the Knight Foundation called "the most-viewed slam performance in history."
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Terisa Tinei Siagatonu is a Samoan spoken word poet, arts educator, and community organizer. In 2012, she was awarded a Champion of Change Award for her activism.
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Jamaica Heolimeleikalani Osorio is a Kanaka Maoli poet, educator, and activist who lives and works in Hawai'i. She is known for her poetry and activism centered on Hawaiian culture and identity.
Jenny Johnson is an American queer poet.
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