We get asked often how and where we find poets. We hope this will be a resource for you in finding poets and poems to share with your students.
A perfect place to explore poets is the #TeachLivingPoets Digital Library
Created by Scott Bayer @Lyricalswordz
Also, check out the #TeachLivingPoets Twitter chat archive page.
If you click here, you will find a links to poems that poets love to teach. The list was originally curated on Twitter by poet Rosebud Ben-Oni.
I have a MASSIVE LIST of poets that I’m always adding to. It’s certainly not a finished, complete, or perfect list, but it has about 350 poets on it currently– with their Twitter handles if they have one, and a link to access their work. I know I’m missing a ton of poets, so I’ll try to keep adding to it every so often!
Here’s a list of favorite spoken word and slam poems curated by Joe Paris @ParisBMS:
| Author | Title / Link | Topic | Type |
| Sarah Kay | Hands (performance at Apollo) Hands (video with images) |
Relationship with father | Def Poetry Jam (solo) |
| Sarah Kay | The Type The Type |
The type of woman you are — advice/inspiration/ empowerment | Urbana Poetry Club (2013) Button Poetry (2015) |
| Sarah Kay | If I Should Have a Daughter | Anticipating raising a child / advice | TED Talk |
| Sarah Kay | Love Poem from the Toothbrush to the Bicycle Tire | Extended metaphor / love poem | NYC Urbana Slam; Bowery Poetry Club |
| Sarah Kay | Useless Bay | Relationships / extended metaphor | Sheen Center for Thought and Culture |
| Sarah Kay and Phil Kaye | When Love Arrives | Love / misconceptions / understandings | Button Poetry |
| Rudy Francisco | My Honest Poem | Autobiographical
Self analysis |
Button Poetry |
| Rudy Francisco | Complainers | Stop complaining over trivial stuff | Jimmy Fallon Show |
| Rudy Francisco | Rifle | Gun violence, toxic masculinity | Jimmy Fallon Show |
| Rudy Francisco | Adrenaline Rush | Police brutality / racism | Button Poetry |
| Phil Kaye | Repetition | Effects of divorce on kid | Button Poetry |
| Phil Kaye | Before the Internet | Childhood nostalgia | Button Poetry |
| Phil Kaye | Unalienable | Politics / race relations | Button Poetry |
| Clint Smith | How to Raise a Black Son in America | Racial hatred / fear for the ones you love | TED Talk |
| Jose Olivarez | Ode to the First White Girl I Loved | Being isolated for being Mexican | |
| Jose Olivarez | You Get Fat When You Fall In Love | Love poem | The Firehouse Space, Brooklyn NY |
| Sy Stokes | The Black Bruins | UCLA students criticizing racial inequality on campus | UCLA / personal video |
| Sekou “Tha Misfit” Andrews | When I Grow Up | Aspirations / dreams | Stage performance |
| Melissa, Zaria, Rhiannon | Somewhere in America | Social commentary on America / school | Queen Latifah Show / Get Lit |
| Sabrina Benaim | Explaining My Depression to My Mom | Depression | National Poetry Slam 2014 |
| Sabrina Benaim | Unrequited Love Poem in Nine Acts | Love / relationships | Button Poetry |
| Prince EA | I’m Not Black, You’re Not White | Race | Personal video |
| Prince EA | Can We Autocorrect Society? | Overuse and reliance on technology | Personal video |
| Sierra DeMulder | Today Means Amen | Inspirational / anti depression | Button Poetry |
| Suli Breaks | Friends | What our friends say about us | Personal video |
| Suli Breaks | Ode to the Millennial Generation | Misunderstood millennials | TED talk |
| Suli Breaks | Why I Hate School But Love Education | Learning / education | Personal video |
| ? | Muslim Girl / Jewish Girl | Stereotypes | Brave New Voices quarterfinals |
| Alex Dang | What Kind of Asian are You? | Racial stereotypes | Button Poetry |
| Lemon Anderson | Please Don’t Take My Air Jordans | The lengths we go to for style | TED Talk |
| Daniel Beaty | Knock Knock | Incarcerated fathers | VICE News / The American Justice Summit |
| Taylor Mali | Totally Like Whatever You Know | Speak with conviction | Def Poetry Jam |
| Melissa Lozada-Olivia | Like Totally Whatever (after Taylor Mali) | Toxic masculinity / white male privilege | Button Poetry |
| Steve Connell | All In | What it takes to excel | Farmers Insurance commercial |
| Clementine Von Radics | For Teenage Girls | Women’s empowerment | Soap Box Poetry Slam |
| Savannah Brown | Poem for Ohio | Tribute / ode | Personal video |
| Xero Skidmore | A Tribute to the Resilience of New Orleans | Tribute / ode | Personal video |
| Bianca Phipps | Open Letter to the Mother of Michael Dunn | Racism / gun violence | Button Poetry |
| Dominique Christina & Denice Frohman | No Child Left Behind | Social commentary on education | Button Poetry / Boulder, CO |
| Shane Koyczan | To This Day | Bullying | Animated video |
| David Bowden | The Inner Net | Divided and/or disengaged society | College student’s final project |
| Mike Rosen | When God Happens | 9/11 – God | NYC Urbana Slam / Bowery Poetry Club |
| Malcolm Landon | High School Training Ground | Systemic problems in education | TED talk |
| Team…
Beltway Poetry (?) |
The American Dream | Social commentary / inequality | National Poetry Slam 2014 |
| Hanif Abdurraquib | OK, I’m Finally Ready to Say I’m Sorry for that One Summer | Gender roles/expectations / friendship | Button Poetry |
| Hanif Abdurraquib | All the Ways I Kept Myself Alive Today | Finding inner strength | Button Poetry |
| Hanif Abdurraquib | When I say that Loving Me is Kind of Like Being a Chicago Bulls Fan | Self awareness / explaining ourselves to someone | Button Poetry |
| Hanif Abdurraquib | At My First Punk Rock Show Ever | Accepting yourself when others don’t | Button Poetry Live |
| Hanif Abdurraquib | Summer of 2009 | Where do I even start with this one? | Button Poetry |
| Blythe Baird | When the Fat Girl Gets Skinny | Eating disorder / recovery | National Poetry Slam 2015 |
| Rebeca Mae | Dear God of Hiccups | Hiccups / losing someone | National Poetry Slam 2015 |
| Emi Mahmoud | People Like Us | War / genocide | WOWPS 2016 |
