Find Poets

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

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Created by Scott Bayer @Lyricalswordz & Melissa Alter Smith @MelAlterSmith

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.

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)	Relationship with father	Def Poetry Jam
Sarah Kay	The Type	The type of woman you are — advice/inspiration/ empowerment	Button Poetry
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	LTAB
Jose Olivarez	You Get Fat When You Fall In Love	Love poem	The Firehouse Space, Brooklyn NY
Idris Goodwin	Say My Name	Names / microaggressions	BreakBeat Spoken Word
Sy Stokes	The Black Bruins	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
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
Rachel Wiley	For Fat Girls Who Considered Starvation When Bulimia Wasn’t Enough	Eating disorders / body image	Button Poetry
Rachel Wiley	Fat Joke	Body image / self love	Button Poetry
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
Denice Frohman	Accents	Family / language	Nuyorican Poets Cafe performance
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
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
Blythe Baird	When the Fat Girl Gets Skinny	Eating disorder / recovery	National Poetry Slam 2015
Blythe Baird	Relapse	Eating disorder / recovery	Button Poetry
Elizabeth Acevedo	For Us Girls	Women empowerment / writing	PBS News Hour
Mahogany L Brown	Black Girl Magic	Self love / Black girls	PBS News Hour
Rebeca Mae	Dear God of Hiccups	Hiccups / losing someone	National Poetry Slam 2015
Emi Mahmoud	People Like Us	War / genocide	WOWPS 2016
Carlos Andres Gomez	If a Princess Tries to Kidnap Your Daughter	Fatherhood / Raising a daughter / Stereotypes	Nuyorican Poets Café performance