I fell in love with spoken word poetry two years ago when I stumbled upon YouTube channel Button Poetry. They post videos of spoken word poets performing their original work at the National Poetry Slam (NPS), Individual World Poetry Slam (IWPS), and collegiate slam poetry competitions.

Spoken word poetry in its current form has been around for at least the past five decades. In 1990, the first NPS was held in San Francisco, California, and is now an annual event held in different cities across the United States. IWPS is another large scale event, in which poets from around the world are pitted against each other. There are also countless local and college poetry slams that help to expand the knowledge and appreciation of spoken word.

Here are four poets I love and would recommend that everyone checks out.

Sarah Kay

This woman can make grocery lists sound like profound works of art.

Everything she says will worm their way into your heart. Her TED Talk “If I Should Have A Daughter. . .” will be the most magical poem you’ll ever listen to. She also collaborated with Phil Kaye on a poem called “When Love Arrives” that describes the misconceptions we make when it comes to finding and losing love.

Alex Dang

 If you’re looking to think and laugh at the same time, then Alex is your man.

His poem “What Kind of Asian Are You?” reprimands those who ask that exact question to Asians, as if we’re some sort of puzzle that needs to be cracked open. His poem reminds you that being Asian doesn’t mean we’re exotic and smarter/cooler/drive worse/etc. than everyone else.

In one of his poems “Everything Must Go,” Alex makes student loans and the struggle of paying them back hilarious. He opens with “so I’m in college, realizing that the Internet meme “forever alone” has two typos in it. There should be a space between a and lone, and lone should be spelled l-o-a-n. Understanding that I need money, I start my Google search.”

Anna Binkovitz

If you don’t like the harsh truth told in an extremely blunt way, then you sure won’t like Anna Binkovitz.

To address the “she asked for it because she’s very skimpily dressed” excuse that is often used to excuse rape, she performs a poem “Asking For It,” which describes a dystopian society where all wants and needs are depicted via clothing. At any moment when a person is partially naked and is seen by someone else, they must have sex.

The entire point of her poem is, in her words, for people to “stop asking people’s clothing to have sex with you, and start asking people!” 

Victoria Morgan

Victoria Morgan’s poem “How to Succeed in Heartbreak” is misleading: she’s not telling you how to succeed in breaking someone’s heart, but how to succeed in healing from a broken heart and come out of the ordeal stronger. She tells you to remind yourself that “you were okay before!” This poem starts off loud and funny, but halfway through, it changes to serious. By the end, you’ll find yourself in a puddle of tears.