Best of Button – Week 54

“I know a few things about tomorrow. It’s kind of like a shadow, it’s hard to see when the sun isn’t bright but regardless it is there.”

Don’t miss this week’s Best of Button playlist. Today’s additions: Chelsea Guevara, Liv, Shasparay, Lyrical Faith, Meccamorphosis, Rain, Darius Simpson, and Scout Bostley! Congrats Poets!

Come back each week to see our newest and most popular videos.

While you’re here, head over to the Button store to check out our books and merch, or check out our newest release from Topaz Winters!

Jarvis – After Dancing at the Gay Bar

Performed at The 2023 Roxbury Poetry Festival in Boston, MA

“Masculinity is just a costume I wear for safety, a performance which manhood has become the greatest theater for.”

Don’t miss this poem from Jarvis, performing at The 2023 Roxbury Poetry Festival in Boston, MA

Shop Button Poetry.

Amiyah Anderson – Be the Change

Performed at The Town Hall in NY, during Black History Month 2024

“I still see the blue beating black until you see red and white. Is this your stars and stripes?”

Don’t miss this poem from Amiyah Anderson, performing at The Town Hall in NY, during Black History Month 2024

Shop Button Poetry.

Junious ‘Jay’ Ward – Swingset

Performed at IWPS 2015

“Dandelions are flowers in other countries, we just don’t find them pretty here.”

Don’t miss this poem from Junious ‘Jay’ Ward, performing at IWPS 2015

Get Jay’s book, Composition.

Ty Chapman – Philophobia: An Heirloom

Performed at Poets & Pints in Minneapolis, MN

“There he is: Another fatherless son, ever clouding away like a drift.”

Don’t miss this poem from Ty Chapman, performing at Poets & Pints in Minneapolis, MN.

Get Ty’s book, Tartarus.

Aaron Coleman – Elegy for Apogee

Performed at Camp Bar in St. Paul, MN

“Drowning? Consider this: What is desire? Who or what devours what or whom?””

Don’t miss this poem from Aaron Coleman, performing at Camp Bar in St. Paul, MN

Shop Button Poetry.

Seth Larbi – Ode to Chief Keef, Ending In Survivor’s Guilt

Performed NorthBeast Regional 2023 Finals

“In a moment we felt on top of the world, in a moment we forgot that tomorrow wasn’t promised.”

Don’t miss this poem from Seth Larbi, performing NorthBeast Regional 2023 Finals

Shop Button Poetry.

Ollie Schminkey – Everyone Tells Me That My Dad Will Always Be Watching Over Me

Performed Strike Theater in Minneapolis, MN

“Everyone tells me that my dad will always be watching over me, and I’m like, Shut up I’m just trying to masturbate.”

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

Get Ollie’s book, Where I Dry the Flowers.

Daniel Elias Galicia

Daniel Elias Galicia is the son of Chicana/o activists and educators. His poems have appeared in Beloit Poetry Journal, Button Poetry, EcoTheo Review, Ruminate Magazine, Iron Horse Literary Review, Relief: A Journal of Art & Faith, and more. His chapbook Still Desert was the Runner-Up for the 2023 Button Poetry Chapbook Contest (Button Poetry), the 2022 Robert Phillips Chapbook Prize (Texas Review Press), and a Finalist for the 2023 Chad Walsh Chapbook Prize (Beloit Poetry Journal). He is a Pushcart-nominated poet and a recipient of an Editor’s Choice Award (Relief).