9 Spoken Word Performances That Will Move You

Spoken-word poetry is an example of how powerful words plus powerful deliveries can make your skin crawl. The expression and passion behind every delivered word is something incredibly amazing, and very hard to replicate. Here I have selected some of my favorite spoken-word poems that have completely blown my mind away. The poems are so powerful in their metaphors and language that is hard not to praise their magnificence. Get your snaps and claps ready for these amazing poets.

1. Katie Makkai, "Pretty"

"This is about the self-mutilating circus we have painted ourselves clowns in. About women who will prowl 30 stores in six malls to find the right cocktail dress, but haven't a clue where to find fulfillment or how wear joy, wandering through life shackled to a shopping bag, beneath those two pretty syllables."

2. Lily Myers, "Shrinking Women"

"It was the same with his parents;
as my grandmother became frail and angular her husband swelled to red round cheeks, round stomach
and I wonder if my lineage is one of women shrinking
making space for the entrance of men into their lives
not knowing how to fill it back up once they leave."

3. Rudy Francisco, "Complainers"

"When my uncle was murdered, we had to send out a search party to find my father’s voice."

4. Mercedez Holtry, "My Blood is Beautiful"

"My character belongs to me. My identity belongs to me. My blood belongs to me.

5. Alex Dang, "What Kind of Asian Are You?"

"Let me tell you all the things you don't want
to know.
Like how chink comes from
the clanking of metal to railroads
as the slaves built train tracks for
this country to be connected."

6. Danez Smith, "Dear White America"

"I can’t stand your ground. I am sick of calling your recklessness the law. Each night, I count my brothers. & in the morning, when some do not survive to be counted, I count the holes they leave."

7. Patrick Roche, "The Perfect Panic Attack"

"A panic attack is a remarkably solitary experience."

8. Akeemjamal Rollins, "Suicide Note"

"tell the other suicide notes their asses weren't poems either."

9. Patrick Roche, "21"

"That maybe if everything else was blurry, I became straight."