You might not imagine poets, those long-haired, dreamy bohemians, as aggressive competitors. But at the National Poetry Slam (August 1-6)—taking place in Georgia for the first time this year—more than ...

Ten teens recently performed original slam poetry at the Marcus Center for Performing Arts in Vogel Hall, with six selected to represent Milwaukee in the Brave New Voices Final competition in Houston, ...

Marc Kelly Smith had a great idea in the early 1980s: make poetry readings more palatable. He had thought, “Why is this artform that I have been writing and reading most of my life presented onstage ...

CLEVELAND, Ohio — I’m always amazed when I think of how boys and girls can stand on a stage and spell words I’ve never heard of and will likely never use in any stories I might write. Think of the ...

It’s been 20 years since Nancy Sullivan, a media specialist at Portland’s McDaniel High School, organized a poetry slam for students in the school’s library. That one slam eventually evolved into ...

When I first began performing poems as a 17-year-old in 2008, I had barely seen any spoken word, and neither had any of my friends. These days, when I speak to the diverse range of teenagers in the ...

When Olivia Vella’s seventh grade teacher asked every student to write a monologue on a topic about which they were passionate, Vella immediately knew what she wanted to say. She wanted to tell girls ...

When poetry becomes a team sport, says performance poet Jesse Parent, everyone has different strengths. “There’s a lot of emotional value, and there’s a lot of content value,” Parent said of the ...

Nia Lewis hated dodging strangers making leering comments on the street. First the catcalls made her angry. Then they inspired her. “You must understand that a body is just a body, a silhouette isn’t ...

A regular slam poetry night is moving to the stage of the Sydney Opera House to decide the 2025 Bread & Butter Poetry ...