As writers, we are asked to be aware–to observe, analyze, empathize–but perhaps the most important action we can take is using our knowledge to create change. For decades spoken word artists tackle ...

In the wake of Malcolm X’s assassination in the winter of 1965, Black and brown poets like Amiri Baraka, Miguel Algarin, and Sonia Sanchez consciously rejected effete paper poems for those that sought ...

When Peter Kahn became an English teacher at the Chicago-area Oak Park and River Forest High School, he was terrified of teaching poetry. "Poetry was my least favorite subject as a student, and my ...

"We had a similar start,” Dillon Brown said, amused to compare his own initiation as a poet with that of Langston Hughes, a leading voice of the Harlem Renaissance and a frequent visitor to Long ...

The First Time I Wore Hearing Aids aims to make sound more inclusive for listeners by broadening the way in which we experience it. Raymond Antrobus uses spoken word poetry to portray a diverse ...

IOWA CITY — For Rudy Francisco, one of the most widely known spoken word artists in modern poetry, it started with a feeling. When he first saw a spoke word poem performed, he knew exactly what the ...

Spoken word poetry is not merely an art form but a communion of soul, experience and understanding. Spend one night tucked in the back of House of Hathor on Columbia’s North Main Street and you’ll ...

Spoken word poetry fuses the craft of writing with the energy of live performance, turning personal truths into shared, transformative experiences. It’s about shaping words for the ear, delivering ...