Black Arts Matter Festival brings together musicians, poets, dancers and other artists in an interdisciplinary celebration of black artistry. Get to know the poets performing in the 2023 Black Arts Matter Festival All-Star Poetry Slam on November 10 beginning at 7:30 PM in Shannon Hall. Recommended for ages 16+, listener discretion is advised.
Ayanna is the 2023 Slam Charlotte Grand Slam champion, the current North Carolina Regional Slam champion, a 2023 Queen of the South slam champion, and the 2023 Womxn of the World Poetry Slam champion. As a queer black woman, Ayanna exists on the fringes and outside the box, and her artistry reflects this reality.
Blacqwildflowr is currently the 3rd at Stonewall International Poetry slam and 7th ranked femme poet in the world. She is a 3x award-winning performance etiquette instructor, award-winning published poet, host, affirmation goddess, and published author of On Bruised Knees and Rooted.
With the use of vibrant imagery, powerful vulnerability, and dynamic delivery, Blacqwildflowr flourishes in any atmosphere she enters, capturing the hearts of her audience by encouraging healing through the art of self-love.
She is the Founding Artist and Executive Director of Blacqwildflowr’s Planted with Purpose, LLC, an artistry development collective, transforming how emerging artists inspire the world.
Ebony Stewart is an international touring interdisciplinary poet, writer, and performance artist. Her work speaks to the Black experience, with emphasis on gender, sexuality, womanhood, queer-positivity, and race, with the hopes to be relatable, remove shame, heal minds, encourage dialogue, and inspire folks in marginalized communities.
As one of the most decorated poets in Texas, Ebony is a respected coach & mentor, one of the top touring poets in the country, and the 2017 Woman of the World Poetry Slam Champion. She has shared stages with many prestigious figures in the artist world such as the late-Amiri Baraka, Carmen Carerra, Marsha Ambrosius, Patricia Smith, Rudy Francisco, Ariana Brown, Lupe Mendez, and so many more. She has performed in 49 states at over 200 colleges and universities, as well as internationally in Canada, Australia, Ghana, and Norway.
Ephraim Nehemiah is a published writer, educator, and nationally touring performer. Their work sits comfortably in the Black cultural lineage of griots who are dedicated to using truth to document and critique the world around them. Ephraim holds a B.A. in Pan-African Studies from Kent State University where they were awarded the Undergraduate Poetry Prize and Maggie Anderson Scholarship. Ephraim is also the co-founder and former coach of Kent State’s award-winning collegiate poetry team that competed annually at the College Unions Poetry Slam Invitational from 2015-2018. Ephraim is the recipient of grants from PEN America, Maryland State Arts Council, and The Cleveland Foundation, and received fellowships from The Karamu House Performing Arts Theatre, Baldwin House Urban Writing Residency, and The Watering Hole Winter Retreat. Ephraim’s poems appear in various journals and publications such as Anxy Magazine, Flypaper, Lake Effect Anthology, UHURU Magazine, and Knights Library Magazine, where the poem "Jesus Christ Tries Talking to His Father Again" was nominated for a Pushcart Prize. Their performances have been featured on TEDx Talks, Button Poetry, AfroPunk, Season 1 of Free Tuition on Snapchat, and various other channels. They are a 2021 National Poetry Slam Champion, Baltimore’s 2020 Grand Slam Champion, 2019 Rustbelt Poetry Slam Finalist, and a 2018 Individual World Poetry Slam final stage performer. They made their visual artist debut in 2020 at Spaces Gallery in Cleveland, with the interactive installation 'Samaritan's Burden' that focused on inner-city poverty and wealth distribution. Ephraim is currently based out of Baltimore, MD where they serve as a Teaching Artist with DewMore Baltimore. Their first full-length poetry book The Autobiography of Absence was published in 2021 with Twelve Arts Press.
Jahman Hill is an award-winning poet, playwright, and professor. In 2018, Jahman claimed the title of 3rd best slam poet in the world, and in 2019 he wrote, produced, and starred in an award-winning one-man show, Black Enough, which played off-Broadway. Jahman Hill has become a sought-after poet internationally. His poetry videos have garnered millions of views online. Jahman is a professor at the University of Alabama where he received Master’s degrees in both Communication Studies and Women’s Studies. The core of Jahman's creative work centers around “The Flourish”, or the idea that Black people are infinitely possible beings.
Born and raised in Brooklyn, LeChell Rush is a Black, queer, multidisciplinary artist who creates socially engaged works exploring the complexities and taboos of intersectionality through the lens of queerness, femininity, and mothering in Black womanhood. Her mediums include poetry, photography, film, and mixed media visual arts.
As a poet, LeChell is a 3x Womxn of the World Poetry Slam finalist, finishing second in the world in the 2022 competition and a finalist of the inaugural Stonewall International Poetry Slam (2021). She is the author of two full-length poetry collections, “Cause Therapy Ain’t For Black Folks" from Qwest Press and the self-published collection Jaywalking. Additionally, she has penned the chapbook “Flat Feet, Diabetes, and A Pretty Smile.” LeChell has been published in Defunkt Magazine and graced stages throughout the nation. Her performances can be found on Write About Now and Button Poetry.
LeChell honors Carrie Mae Weems, Gordon Parks, Zora Neale Hurston, and black women from the hood as influences for her work.
Maya is a poet out of Pittsburgh who has recently relocated to Baltimore to expand her professional and artistic career. She majored in Behavioral Science at Point Park University and is now the Administrative Assistant at Pennsylvania Avenue Black Arts and Entertainment District. Maya began slamming the summer of 2020, and in April of 2021 became one of the top five women poets in the world. She is currently working on the release of her first poetry book.
Tony McPherson is a biracial-Black poet, dancer, and CEO (Ars Poetica) from Oklahoma, based in New York. His work appears on Best of Button Poetry, Write About Now, SlamFind, Huffington Post, Upworthy, The Good Men Project, and elsewhere. His poems also appear in the Emmy-winning documentary “Frameworks,” and “Love Beats Rhymes” by Lionsgate Films. McPherson is a Rustbelt Poetry Slam Champion, a two-time Inkslam Champion, a three-time Brooklyn Poetry Slam Champion and placed runner-up at the Individual World Poetry Slam. Currently a poet-in-residence with the National Museum of African American History and Culture, McPherson is represented by The College Agency.
Mecca ‘Meccamorphosis’ Verdell is an internationally-winning spoken word poet, teaching artist, and actor for film and Theatre (locally and Off Broadway). Mecca uses their own anger and passion to speak on the 'soft' and 'pink' of Black culture. Their writing fearlessly ventures and unveils Black American shadows that exist from generational trauma. They center the pain, joys, and beauty of Blackness through the lens of womanhood and queer experiences. As a Teaching Artist, they’ve used their work to connect teachers and their students to create emotionally intelligent responses in an academic space. Mecca has molded poetry to be used in marketing and commercials as a Visit Baltimore Ambassador and or the National Education Association. Through their success, Mecca has been performing at universities, embassies, and theaters showing audiences how poetry can peek into the spirit and turn healing into ritual. Their debut book The Things I've Unlearned is an example of that process.
Nathan R. Wallace is a poet from Hinesville, Georgia. Nathan recalls his earliest start in poetry through performing poems at his local church. Nathan’s first poem was published in fourth grade through the help of his teacher Mrs. Lee. Nathan established himself as a prolific speaker and performer by winning numerous speaking titles in high school some of which being: second in skills USA prepared Speech and a state competitor in the national recitation competition, Poetry Out Loud.
Nathan decided to focus on poetry full-time after becoming a member of the Brave New Voices 2018 Team Atlanta and was a semi-finalist. In 2019 Nathan won a rigorous competition to become Atlanta’s Youth Poet Laureate and acquired his first book deal. He was also a member of the 2019 Team Georgia State New South Poetry Slam winner and a 2020 Georgia State Cupsi Team member. Nathan’s first published book was "I’m My Own Therapist”, a revolutionary example of vulnerability and imagery as he not only takes the reader through his life but paints a vivid picture as well. Nathan is a versatile artist who has not only made a name for himself as a performer but is also a teaching artist and host. Nathan has done poetry workshops on numerous topics from mental health to social activism on social media as well as partnered with organizations such as the Atlanta Hawks, East Atlanta Kids Club, and Georgia Broad-casting. Nathan has also performed in shows with acts such as Alysia Harris, Radi the Poet, Jasmine Mans, Jaha Bela, W.j. Lofton, and many more.
RADI is an artist, writer, and teacher specializing in spoken word poetry, performance art, and workshop facilitation. Her work covers topics such as Civil rights, body/sex positivity, colorism, sexism and more, all while reflecting her real-life experiences as a plus size Lesbian Black Woman. Competing for 10 years, RADI has had the honor of representing five National poetry teams, three of which are in her home state of New Jersey. She has traveled all over the world performing in New York, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Georgia, Florida, North and South Carolina, Alabama, Kentucky, Illinois, Texas, Colorado, California, the beautiful island of Antigua and many more.
Storyteller Steven Antoine Willis uses his poetic and theatrical background to embark on the daunting task of creatively articulating African-American culture with art heavily influenced by urban life and religion. Steven mixes elements of hip-hop, poetics, and theatrical performance with formal teachings of anthropology and political theory to help express his eclectic personal narrative. Willis is a contributing writer to the Breakbeat Poets anthology, NYU’s National Council for Teacher of English Journal, and is a 3-time Individual World Poetry Slam finalist. Willis received his MFA in acting from the University of Iowa in 2021 and the Iowa Writers Workshop for Poetry in 2023. His first full poetry collection "A Peculiar People" was released 2022 through Button Poetry.
