Feminist performance poet Alix Olson has always considered herself a loudmouth, and for a while her mouth–and her politics–got her into trouble. But she is quick to point out that the small acts of ...

Poetry slams have come a long way since 1985, when members of the Chicago Poetry Ensemble started read-ing their work at the old Get Me High Lounge in Bucktown. Today there are poetry slams in every ...

In a restaurant in N’Djamena, the capital of Chad, a woman in a white dress picks up a microphone as a keyboardist gently plays. “I wanted to silence these scars that reminded me how I was broken, ...

You can’t keep a good slam down. After stints at now-defunct venues like the Black Box and Oaklandish, the venerable Oakland Slam is back in the spoken-word business at the Oakland Metro (201 Broadway ...