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Performed at IWPS 2019 in San Diego, CA

“Is this what they mean when they say, ‘behind every strong black man be a strong black woman.'”

Don’t miss this poem from Jael Benjamin, performing at IWPS 2019 in San Diego, CA

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Performed at the Button Studio

“”I stare at the mother I refuse to become.””

Don’t miss this poem from Blythe Baird, performing at the Button Studio

Get Blythe Baird’s book, Sweet, Young, & Worried.

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Performed at WoWPS 2020 in Dallas, TX

“I wear my Spanish not on my hip like a weapon against my American identity, but like a badge of honor on my chest.”

Don’t miss this poem from Chelsea Guevara, performing at WoWPS 2020 in Dallas, TX

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Performed at The Town Hall in New York, NY

“Saturday wash days with grandma became Saturday appointments at the salon. Coiled, curled, and cleansed became wash, rinse, relax.”

Don’t miss this poem from Mariam Dembele, performing at The Town Hall in New York, NY

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Topaz Winters is the Singaporean-American author of So, Stranger (Button Poetry 2022) & Portrait of My Body as a Crime I’m Still Committing (Button Poetry 2019 & 2024). She serves as editor-in-chief of Half Mystic Press, an independent, international, & interdisciplinary publishing project, & as co-editor of Kopi Break, a journal of new Singapore poetry. Her work has been published by Waxwing, The Drift, & Poets.org, profiled in Vogue, The Straits Times, & The Business Times, & performed at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Centre for Fiction, & the Singapore Writers Festival. She lives between New York & Singapore.

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Performed at The Strike Theater in Minneapolis, MN

“”Newly awakened grief has hands wrapped around his neck twisted like rosary beads tightening in prayer clinging to the last breath of his body like a final amen.””

Don’t miss this poem from Ollie Schminkey, performing at The Strike Theater in Minneapolis, MN

Get Ollie’s book, Dead Dad Jokes.

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Ollie Schminkey (they/them) has spent the past decade coaching, mentoring, teaching classes, and running workshops for poets. They were the winner of the 2024-25 Palette Previously Published Poem Prize, and their work has been featured everywhere from Poets.org to Frontier Poetry to Upworthy. They’ve performed poems in 21 states, with their work garnering over 3 million views on YouTube. They are the author of four chapbooks and two full-length collections: Where I Dry the Flowers (Button Poetry, 2024) and Dead Dad Jokes (Button Poetry, 2021), which was shortlisted for both the Midwest Independent Publishers Association and the Eric Hoffer Grand Prize. They are the founder and director of the slam poetry tournament Midwest Poetry Mash-Up, and their work has been supported by the Arts Impact for Individuals grant through the Minnesota Regional Arts Council, as well as the Minnesota State Arts Board. You can also find them making pottery, dancing in their kitchen, or playing with their cat Pete, who is always trying to eat things he shouldn’t.

To take a class or to see more of their work, check out ollieschminkey.com.

Performed Rustbelt 2019 in St. Louis, MO

“She rubs disappointment into her palms and cups my chin.”

Don’t miss this poem from Lalli Mangum, performing Rustbelt 2019 in St. Louis, MO

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Mwende “FreeQuency” Katwiwa is a Kenyan, Immigrant, Shoga|Queer storyteller, speaker & feeler. The 2018 Women of the World Poetry Slam Champion, a 2017 TEDWomen speaker and ranked 3rd at the 2015 Individual World Poetry Slam, FreeQuency is a highly sought after performer, host, social justice teaching artist and workshop leader. Rooted in various global communities & having spent their life at the intersection of arts, education and activism, they and|or their work in Reproductive Justice, #BlackLivesMatter organizing & activism, LGBTQ+ advocacy and writing have been featured on The Independent, the New York Times, OkayAfrica, Upworthy, TEDx, For Harriet, Teen Vogue, Huffington Post, Everyday Feminism, & other outlets.

FreeQuency is the the founder of A Gate is Leaning: A Black Poetry Series, EMERGENT: A Storytellers Retreat at Foxfire Ranch (2018) and a cofounder of the Afro-Fashion & Culture blog Noirlinians. They are a recipient of the Louisiana’s Worldmakers Grant (2021), The Poets & Writers Project Grants for BIPOC Writers (2020), The Platforms Fund (2018). FreeQuency has also received the Newcomb Alumni Association Young Alumni Award (2020), the Black Out LOUD Excellence in Arts Activism Conference Award (2018), was named one of Gambit’s 40 under 40 (2018), an Aspen Ideas Festival Spotlight Health Scholar (2018), one of the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts YBCA 100 Honoree (2018) and has had a dissertation Slam Poetry vs. Racism: Awakening Awareness and Social Change in FreeQuency’s “Dear White People” and “The Gospel of Colonization” (2016) written about their social justice spoken word poetry.

Performed at Albany Barn in Albany, NY

“Who would sign up to love something so impermanent?”

Don’t miss this poem from Sierra DeMulder, performing at Albany Barn in Albany, NY

Get Sierra’s book, Ephemera.