Kelly Zen-Yie Tsai, 27, is a Chinese/Taiwanese American spoken word artist who grew up in the suburbs of Chicago. A two season veteran of Russell Simmons Presents HBO Def Poetry, Kelly’s been involved ...

Suheir Hammad, a Palestinian-American poet, performer and activist, gave an innovative, percussive performance in List 120 Wednesday night. Met with cheers and applause, Hammad turned an apparent ...

(The Root) — Harlem’s MIST Theater welcomed in a familiar sort of artistic renaissance on Wednesday night, one that had begun in 2002 and been centered on featuring the country’s top spoken-word ...

After lighting the fuse for the hip-hop explosion more than two decades ago, Russell Simmons has extended his Defness to the Def Poetry Jam tour, coming straight from Broadway. With rhymes as diverse ...

Students and creatives tuned in for the annual Alpha Phi Alpha Def Phloetry Jam on Thursday, Sept. 24 via Zoom. Those in attendance presented poetry, spoken word and rap that touched on the theme of ...

Does the idea of “poetry” remind you of your tortured teen years of unrequited love and total social rejection? Or maybe Def Poetry Jam comes to mind, with its singsong sounds and its dark themes of ...

To hear the broadcast version of this story, use the audio player at the top of this page. For decades, the Grammys' spoken-word awards have gone to audio books, narrated by people like Barack and ...