Imani Cezanne is an American activist and spoken word poet. [1] She is the founding president of President of S.P.E.A.K. (Spoken Poetry Expressed by All Kinds). [2]
Cezanne was born and raised in San Diego, California. [3]
Cezanne has been on multiple National Poetry Slam teams including: Da Poetry Lounge, [4] San Diego Slam Team, [2] Oakland Slam Team Elevated! [5] , Golden State Slam, [3] The Root Slam, [6] Berkeley Poetry Slam, [7] and Busboys and Poets Beltway [8] [9]
She represented the Root Slam at the 2018 National Poetry Slam. [10]
"Heels" was originally filmed by All Def Poetry during her performance of the piece at the Da Poetry Lounge. [11] Later, Cezanne performed the piece again at the Ill List Slam Poetry Invitational in December 2014. [12] [13] [14]
Cezanne performed "Protest" at the 2015 National Poetry Slam. [15] [16]
Cezanne performed "Angry Black Woman" at the Da Poetry Lounge in 2015. [15] [17]
Originally performed at the 2014 Women of the World Poetry Slam in Austin, Texas. [18] It was filmed by Button Poetry and uploaded to YouTube. [19]
Filmed at Women of the World Poetry Slam Finals 2016 in Brooklyn, NY, an event hosted by Poetry Slam, Inc. [20]
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. Hip-hop music and urban culture are strong influences, and backgrounds of participants tend to be diverse.
Spoken word refers to an oral poetic performance art that is based mainly on the poem as well as the performer's aesthetic qualities. It is a late 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, 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.
Andrea Gibson is an American poet and activist from Calais, Maine, who has lived in Boulder, Colorado since 1999. Gibson's poetry focuses on gender norms, politics, social reform, and LGBTQ topics.
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.
Sini Anderson is an American film director, producer, performance artist, choreographer, dancer and poet, from Chicago, Illinois. Anderson is widely known for directing The Punk Singer (2013), a documentary about riot grrrl musician Kathleen Hanna's legacy and experience with late-stage Lyme disease.
Jamara Mychelle Wakefield is an American spoken word poet, community organizer and writer, previously known by her stage name London Bridgez. She founded Neo.logic Beatnik Assembly, an idea shop and creative arts production company, and organized the TEDxRoxburyWomen event featured on Basic Black, a TEDTalks event in Boston.
The College Union Poetry Slam Invitational (CUPSI) is an annual Poetry Slam tournament put on by the Association of College Unions International (ACUI) in which teams of four or five college students from different colleges and universities compete against each other. Its location changes every year.
Chingona Fire is a Latina feminist poetry collective from Los Angeles, California. It was founded by the poets Angela Aguirre and Yesika Salgado in February 2016. Their goal is to create a safe space and visibility for women of color. They are helping women of color to have locations to perform on stage and to have their voices heard. Each month they host events where people can perform in front of audiences of approximately 80-100 listeners.
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."
Da Poetry Lounge is the largest weekly open mic performance space for poetry in the US. It is located in Los Angeles at the Greenway Court Theatre.
Alyesha Wise, aka "Ms. Wise" is a poet, teaching artist and co-founder of Spoken Literature Art Movement (S.L.A.M). From Camden, N.J., Alyesha currently resides in Los Angeles where she also serves as a teaching artist for Street Poets, Inc. She previously served as the head coach of Da Poetry Lounge's slam team and a co-coach for the Get Lit Youth slam team. Wise co-founded and was a co-host of The Pigeon Presents: The Philadelphia Poetry Slam. She has been featured in a speaking engagement on the TEDx Talk series in which she dedicated the talk to her younger sister and Camden. While in Philadelphia, Wise was a co-host of Jus Words, the longest running weekly open mic in the city at the time. She also founded the organization Love, Us, a Philadelphia-based organization and annual production which worked to spread unity and self-love through the arts. The production was a large attraction in the Philadelphia poetry scene and a Twitter trending topic in 2010. She is currently the founder and organizer of Black Women Necessary, a safe space for black women. Wise also served as a former teaching artist and volunteer coordinator at New Earth, and continues to teach and mentor in Los Angeles youth detention centers. In 2017, she authored the book, Carnival. Ron Howard once said about Alyesha's performance style, "Very Powerful."
Desireé Dallagiacomo is an American spoken word poet and teaching artist. She is of European and Choctaw descent, and she is an enrolled citizen of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma. Her first book of poetry, SINK, was published by Button Poetry in March 2019. Before publishing her first full-length collection, her poems amassed millions of views on Youtube. Her poems, "Thighs Say" “Real Sex Tips.” and “Shave Me” among others were first published by Button Poetry. She is a Pushcart Prize Nominee.
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.
Aziza Barnes is an American poet. Barnes frequently performs slam poetry and has performed at the Da Poetry Lounge, Urban Word NYC, PBS NewsHour and Nuyoricans Poets Cafe.
Franny Choi is an American writer, poet and playwright.
Edwin Bodney is an American slam poet and author of the book A Study of Hands. He is one of the hosts of Da Poetry Lounge.
Porsha Olayiwola is a Black American poet based in Boston, Massachusetts.
Chrysanthemum Tran is a Vietnamese American poet, writer, and performer based in Rhode Island.
Walela Nehanda is a Black non-binary writer, cultural worker, cancer & stem cell transplant survivor, and mental health advocate from Los Angeles, California.