Brooklyn Poetry Slam | Feb. 28, 2023

PLEASE NOTE: We are no longer taking RSVPs for this event, but RSVPs are not required to attend. Entry is first come, first served, so please make sure to come early if you’d like to grab a spot!

Check-in for entry starts at 6:00PM / Ballroom doors open at 6:30PM / Event starts at 7:00PM

Join us live and in-person at BRIC House for the Brooklyn Poetry Slam, an incredible evening of poetry and community led by co-founders Mahogany L. Browne and Jive Poetic! Mark your calendars now, and join special guests and poets from all over the world. This month’s featured poet is Safiya Kamaria Kinshasa.

Don’t miss the chance to speak out and be heard! At 6:50pm, poets will be able to sign up for either the slam competition or the open mic. The slam competition has 5 slots and the open mic has 7 slots. The signups are first come, first served.

We are unable to allow patrons to save seats for other guests. Upon reaching capacity in the ballroom, we will invite audience members to watch a stream of the event on the stoop.

And join our friends at BEM | books & more in the bookstore-cafe after the slam for a signing with Mahogany L. Browne of her new release Chrome Valley

Head here for information on upcoming poetry slams.

PERFORMER BIOS

Mahogany L. Browne, selected as Kennedy Center’s Next 50, is the Executive Director of JustMedia, a media literacy initiative supporting the groundwork of criminal justice leaders and community members. This position is informed by her career as a writer, organizer, & educator. Browne has received fellowships from Art for Justice, Air Serenbe, Cave Canem, Poets House, Mellon Research & Rauschenberg. She is the author of recent works: Vinyl Moon, Chlorine Sky, Woke: A Young Poets Call to Justice, Woke Baby, & Black Girl Magic. As the founder of the diverse lit initiative, Woke Baby Book Fair. Browne’s latest project is a poetry collection responding to the impact of mass incarceration on women and children: I Remember Death By Its Proximity to What I Love (Haymarket Books). She is the first-ever poet-in-residence at the Lincoln Center and lives in Brooklyn, NY.

Jive Poetic is a writer, organizer, and educator based in Brooklyn, New York. He received his BA in Media Studies from the State University of New York at Buffalo, and his MFA in Writing and Activism from Pratt Institute. In 2017 Jive was the first recipient of the John Morning Award for Art and Service. He is the founder of Insurgent Poets Society, Carnival Slam: Cultural Exchange, and co-founder of the Brooklyn Poetry Slam. His work has been showcased on season four of TVONE’s Lexus Verses and Flow, PBS NewsHour, and BET. International recognition and support for his work has come from the British Arts Council; US Embassies in Australia, Brazil, and Poland; and the Minister Of Culture in Antigua and Barbuda. He has received fellowships from Air Serenbe and Rhode Island Writers Colony, and when he is not on tour or hosting, he teaches poetry and hip hop workshops to at risk youth in New York City and the surrounding area.

Safiya Kamaria Kinshasa is a British born Barbadian raised choreo-poet and PhD student at the University of Leeds in Cultural Studies. Her interdisciplinary art, braids dance and poetry on the page and stage.
Safiya is an Obsidian Foundation fellow and an Apples & Snakes/ Jerwood Arts Poetry in Performance recipient. Her work has appeared in a variety of journals including Poetry London, Poetry Review and Wasafiri.
Safiya is also a national and international spoken word champion and came third place in The London Magazine Poetry Prize (2022).
Her debut poetry collection Cane, Corn & Gully (Out-Spoken Press) was released in November 2022. It has recently been shortlisted for the Barbados’ Gine On People’s Choice Book of The Year Award and England’s The Rathbones Folio Prize.