A poetry slam is a competition arts event, in which poets perform spoken word poetry before a live audience and a panel of judges. Culturally, poetry slams are a break with the past image of poetry as an elitist or rigid art form. 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 poetic as well as the performer's aesthetic qualities. It is a continuation of the ancient oral artistic tradition that started in the late 20th century and 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. As spoken word poetry is performed live, it is different from written poetry, because the way it sounds is one of the main components. 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.
Aloha Stadium is a multi-purpose stadium located in Halawa, Hawaii, a western suburb of Honolulu. It is the largest stadium in the state of Hawaii. As of December 2020, the stadium ceased fan-attended operations indefinitely, and placed a moratorium on the scheduling of new events.
Jamie DeWolf is an American slam poet, film director, writer, spoken word artist, and circus ringmaster from Oakland, California.
NORAZ Poets is a nonprofit poetry organization based in Northern Arizona now aimed at youth and senior citizens suffering from Alzheimer's disease.
Michael Salinger is an American poet, performer, and educator living in Northeast Ohio. He is one of the earliest participants in the National Poetry Slam, former board member oforganization's summer writing and performance conference. He is the author of teacher professional books and a frequent speaker at teacher conferences and in schools in the US and abroad where he uses performance poetry as a means to better literacy and comprehension skills.
Tracie Morris is an American poet. She is also a performance artist, vocalist, voice consultant, creative non-fiction writer, critic, scholar, bandleader, actor and non-profit consultant. Morris is from Brooklyn, New York. Morris' experimental sound poetry is progressive and improvisational. She is a tenured professor at the Iowa Writers' Workshop.
Cathy Song is an American poet who has won numerous awards including the Yale Series of Younger Poets Prize and the Shelley Memorial Award from the Poetry Society of America. She uses her heritage, coming from an Asian American culture, as the key compartment for her work.
Staceyann Chin is a spoken-word poet, performing artist and LGBT rights political activist. Her work has been published in The New York Times, The Washington Post, and the Pittsburgh Daily, and has been featured on 60 Minutes. She was also featured on The Oprah Winfrey Show, where she shared her struggles growing up as a gay person in Jamaica.
Kealoha is a poet and storyteller based in Hawaii. He was the first Poet Laureate of Hawaii and the first poet to perform at a Hawaii governor’s inauguration. He is an internationally acclaimed poet and storyteller who has performed throughout the world from the White House to ‘Iolani Palace and including hundreds of live venues. In 2010, he was honored as a "National Slam Legend" at the National Poetry Slam and was selected as a master artist for a National Endowment for the Arts program. In the genre of storytelling, he has gained national recognition by showcasing at events such as the National Storytelling Network Conference, the Bay Area Storytelling Festival, and the Honolulu Storytelling Festival.
The National Poetry Slam (NPS) is a performance poetry competition where teams from across the United States, Canada, and, occasionally, Europe and Australia, participate in a large-scale poetry slam. The event occurs in early August every year and in different U.S. cities.
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.
Yellow Rage is a duo of Philadelphia-based Asian American female spoken word poets, made up of Michelle Myers, who holds a PhD from Temple University, and Catzie Vilayphonh, the Fashion Director for two.one.five magazine. Their poems are self-written and are often based on personal experiences, focussing on social and political issues relevant to the Asian American community and aiming to challenge common misconceptions of Asianness. The performances are often aggressive and include frequent swearing, but also include wit and humor.
Sarah Kay is an American poet. Known for her spoken word poetry, Kay is the founder and co-director of Project V.O.I.C.E., a group dedicated to using spoken word as an educational and inspirational tool.
Brave New Voices was created by Youth Speaks Inc in 1998 after the inaugural Youth Speaks Teen slam poetry in San Francisco – the first poetry slam dedicated to youth in the world. Since that time, Brave New Voices has grown to represent youth ages 13–19 from all across the United States and several cities and countries from around the world. BNV is the largest ongoing spoken word event in the world. Cities compose teams of their top 4-6 youth poets to bring to the festival. When the festival began only four teams participated, and the competition has since grown to more than 50 teams.
Jason Tom is an American musician, math teacher, blogger, performance poet, and motivational speaker known for beatboxing in music, dance, and poetry slams. He received the Hawaii Scene Choice Award for Best Solo Human Beatbox Performer, TEDx Presenter Award for his “Vocal Groove” presentation, among other accolades. As the co-founder of the Human Beatbox Academy, he does outreach with performances, workshops and events for people of all ages. Tom represented Hawaii at the sixth International Human Beatbox Convention, and the first and fifth American Beatbox Championship. He has toured China and collaborated with groups such as Hawaii Meth Project and Music with a Message. His Hawaii beatbox class at the Art Smith was included in "Our Favorite Things" in the April 2012 issue of Hawaii Business Magazine. Tom has opened for Michael Winslow, Jabbawockeez, and Quest Crew. He also is a part of the newly formed Hawaii Hip-Hop Collective.
Grace Teuila Evelyn Taylor is a New Zealand poet and performer.
Rafael Santiago Casal is an American writer, performer, and producer originally from the San Francisco Bay Area. Casal's first television appearance was performing on three seasons of HBO's Def Poetry Jam, and as a creator online with millions of YouTube/Facebook views for his music, poetry, web shorts, and political commentary.
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": anyone is allowed to sign up until twenty slots are filled. It is typically hosted by the previous year's Australian Poetry Slam Champion or another known poet.
Camonghne Felix is an American writer, poet, and communications strategist. In 2015, she was appointed as Governor Andrew Cuomo's speechwriter, and was the first black woman and youngest person to serve in the role. Her debut poetry collection, Build Yourself A Boat, was longlisted for the 2019 National Book Award.
