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).

Hailey M. Tran

Hailey M. Tran is a DC-based and Lowell-raised dreamer. They are a queer Asian American Latina spoken word and performance poet, who believes in the transformative power of storytelling and art.

Hailey has their BA in Political Science and Social Work from Simmons University and is currently a high school history teacher. Passionate about helping students understand their ancestral memories, Tran’s pedagogy uses the creative process to interrogate structural and interpersonal violence. They strive to help their students to better understand racial, gendered, and queer identities, and connect with their community at large.

Hailey has competed in MassLEAP’s Louder Than a Bomb with FreeVerse! and the 2018 Brave New Voices Festival where they advanced to Final Stage. They have served as a Youth Spoken Word Leader for the Boston cohort. Hailey’s debut collection, an everyday occurrence, is forthcoming by Button Poetry.

Najya Williams

Najya A. Williams (she/her) is a multidisciplinary artist who floats along the U.S. East Coast. She graduated from Harvard College and is a 2025 M.D. and Narrative Medicine Program Graduate from the Lewis Katz School of Medicine (Temple University). Najya is devoted to the liberation and healing of all oppressed peoples, and this passion is reflected in many of her projects, service efforts and literary works. Her poetry, essays, and other writings have been accepted and/or published by a number of organizations, including POETRY Magazine, Black Youth Project and Healing Points. Currently, she is a Managing Editor for the Katz Journal of Medicine, Editor for Querencia Press, Poetry Faculty for Pocket MFA, and Board Member for Girls Health Ed, Inc. Her 2024 TEDx Dilworth Park talk, “The Pulsing in Our Spirits and Our Blood” is now available for public viewing via the national conference website. Looking ahead, Najya hopes to continue inspiring full-body wellness across the world, one word and patient visit at a time.

Chelsea Guevara

Chelsea Guevara is a U.S.-Salvadorian poet from Salt Lake City, Utah. In 2024, she won the Womxn of the World International Poetry Slam, becoming the first Salvadoran and the first Utahn to earn a national individual slam title. Currently a student in the University of Arizona’s Latin American Studies graduate program, she utilizes her academic research to inform her creative work centering culture, history, memory, and identity. Chelsea’s micro-chapbook Somewhere Over the Border was a finalist for the Gunpowder Press Alta California Chapbook Prize in 2023. You can find her work on Button Poetry, Write About Now Poetry, and Mapping Literary Utah.

Meg Ford

Meg Ford is a queer writer from New Jersey who was voted Most Likely to Leave and Never Come Back. They are a two-time National Poetry Slam semi-finalist with the Boston Poetry Slam Team and received their MFA from Emerson College. Their work has previously appeared in The Rumpus, NAILED, PANK, and the We Will Be Shelter Anthology from Write Bloody. Meg can most often be found hanging out with the cat at your party.

Sherrika Mitchell – Cat Call

Performed at WOWPS 2023 in Baltimore, MD

“They will call us bitches cause we unmuted our voices and reclaimed our bodies, and isn’t that the irony? Being called a bitch when he’s the one hounding outside of the passenger seat window.”

Don’t miss this poem from Sherrika Mitchell, performing at WOWPS 2023 in Baltimore, MD

Shop Button Poetry.

Best of Button – Week 52

“Love arrives exactly when love is supposed to, and love leaves exactly when love must.”

Don’t miss this week’s Best of Button playlist. Today’s additions: Zach Goldberg, Maggie Smith, Mica Rich, Clint Smith, and Sarah Kay! 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 Edythe Rodriguez!