Fuck Yeah Spoken Word

Get a good pair of headphones and a quiet room, you’re going to want to listen closely to this poem. Rachel Wiley is a member of the Writing Wrongs team from Columbus, OH that took fourth at the National Poetry Slam this year. This video was taken at Finals stage for the Women of the World Poetry Slam this past March.

Member of the Providence team that took third place this year at Nationals, here is Phil Kaye!!

Another group piece from slamNUBA’s Finals stage showing, this is Ayinde Russell and Dominique Ashaheed. Read more about their win.

Member of this year’s NYC - louderARTS team which made semi-finals, check out Angel Nafis’ poem “Angel’s Heart Clowns The Ocean”

You can read some more of Angel’s poems here, here, and read the text of the above poem here.

The team that left NPS 2011 with the championship, Denver’s slamNUBA, with a piece they used on the Finals stage. Read about the victory and see more of slamNUBA here

After a long absence, we return! For the next month or so, I will be bringing some of the best poems/poets that happened at the National Poetry Slam last month in Cambridge/Boston, MA.

Starting with a member of the Providence Slam team that made Finals stage. Franny Choi also made Finals stage at the Women of the World Poetry Slam this past March in Columbus, OH. Check her out!

At the individual world poetry slam, the one-minute round more often than not, gets short shrift.

THIS is Ken Arkind using the one minute round to its fullest potential. Take note.

File under “Remember This Name.” Sasha Langford just made her first appearance at iWPS, and she left it as the 11th ranked poet in the slam world. Pay attention.

Alvin Lau just made a record-setting sixth appearance on a national tournament’s final stage at iWPS 2010.

A poet who has figured out how to weave comedy and tragedy and turn from one to the other on a moment’s notice, here is Omar Holman.

One of the reason Seattle’s scene keeps pushing out some of the most in-depth and prolific poetry in the community, here is Karen Finneyfrock!

A legend in the spoken word community, and justifiably so, here is the thoughtful and precise Taylor Mali

Member of the second-placing Team Nuyorican this year at NPS, here is the quickly rising Jared Singer!!

I think it is vital for writers to hear and read other writers who are distant from what they themselves are attempting to do. As a blog of spoken word & slam, I think then that it’s also important I bring you voices from the more strictly literary or academic world. So enjoy two poems from the amazing Sharon Olds.

Departing from the world of slam poetry for a moment, this is former United States Poet Laureate Rita Dove.