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On this investigatory episode Donney and Desiree talk through the demise of Poetry Slam Inc., what that means for the spoken word community, and the next steps on the path forward.

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Coming from New Orleans, Tank and the Bangas are surrounded by plenty of grand musical traditions. And the five-piece group has a rare knack for combining various musical styles—fiery soul, deft hip-hop, deep-groove R&B and subtle jazz—into one dazzling, cohesive whole that evokes the scope of New Orleans music while retaining a distinctive feel all its own.“It’s music that can’t really be put in a box,” says singer and poet Tarriona “Tank” Ball. She fronts the band with vivid charisma that helped Tank and the Bangas win NPR’s 2017 Tiny Desk Concert.Contest by unanimous acclaim, standing out among 6,000 entrants because of what Bob Boilen called “the depth of their lyricism and the versatility of their players.” Ball’s lyrical depth has been years in the making. She came up in the strong local slam poetry scene before meeting her bandmates: Merell Burkett on keyboards, Joshua Johnson on drums, Norman Spence on bass and synth keys and, eventually, Albert Allenback on alto sax and flute. “Growing up, I always could sing, but I wrote better than I sang, so I focused on writing,” she says. After her team won the National Poetry Slam Championship two years in a row, Ball turned her full attention to Tank and the Bangas.What started as a loose collaboration at an open-mic night in 2011 has grown into a mesmerizing musical force that’s only picking up speed. After a featured set at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival early in the band’s career, the musicians built a reputation outside their hometown by grinding it out on the road, honing their live show and releasing the 2013 album Think Tank, all the while converting audiences into passionate fans and garnering critical acclaim, from the New Orleans Advocate to The New York Times. “It made us work hard,” Ball says of playing Jazz Fest. “It made us want to feel deserving of it.”Their hard work is paying off: The Huffington Post says Tank and the Bangas defy description onstage, adding, “It’s music that you have to experience.” The experience is subject to change from one night to the next. “One show will feel very electronic, or hip-hop, and another show will feel slow and vibe-y and jazzy, and then another show will just be poetry and off-the- cuff riffs,” says Johnson. “As a band, we don’t like to hear ourselves do the same thing for too long, so we might change a small thing here or there, and if we change enough small things, it seems like a big change.”Tank and the Bangas won the Tiny Desk contest with “Quick,” a riotous single they released in 2017 (and soon accompanied with a cheeky, not entirely safe-for- work video). There’s more new music where that came from as the group works on the follow-up to Think Tank. “It’s going to be awesome,” Ball says. “It’s going to be fun, and a little vulnerable at the same time.” The band’s ongoing evolution involves more than just music: Ball continues to grow and develop as a performer and writer. Even back in the open-mic days, she was a force of nature. “I don’t know if there’s such a thing as too free, but it was totally uninhibited. She was inspired,” Spence says, laughing at the memory. More recently, Ball has become less of a dervish onstage—“I was running around so much I didn’t have time to sing at all,” she say—while finding new ways of expressing herself as a writer.“I don’t just think about myself when I write now,” she says. “Just being with my bandmates taught me to think more about other people. And when you have an audience of people ready to listen to you, you’re excited to connect with them, you really are.”

Forward Arts is a multi-generational collective of youth, artists, and educators who are committed to providing learning opportunities in Southeastern Louisiana.

Sasha Banks is a Pushcart nominated-poet whose work has appeared or is forthcoming in RHINO, Kinfolks Quarterly, Alight, Poor Claudia, Zocalo Public Square, B O D Y Literature, and The Collagist. She received her MFA at Pratt Institute.

Jonathan Samuel Eddie is a spoken word comedian hailing from Columbus, GA. This alumnus of Georgia Southern University represented the city of Atlanta at the National Poetry Slam competition as a member of the 2012 and 2014 Art Amok Poetry Slam Teams. He was also the 2012 and 2014 Grand Slam Champion at Art Amok. Jonathan was also a member of the 2015 Java Monkey Slam Team (Atlanta), ranking among the top 20 slam teams in the nation that year. At the 2014 and 2015 Southern Fried Regional Poetry Festival, he was among the top 10 individual competing poets. This teaching artist travels the country leading poetry workshops and performing his original work.Jonathan was recognized for his work as an "artivist" as a recipient of a 2013 Spoken Word Gala Community Service Award. With support from Alternate ROOTS, he most recently penned and staged the one man show, Journey Here, which candidly chronicled his life as a writer/performer, black man, teaching artist, and caregiver for his mother, whom was living with Alzheimer's. He published a chapbook of his work entitled "A Whole Notha Kinda Missing" that is available on Amazon.As an actor, he has graced stages in productions such as the world premiere of ACE: The Eugene Bullard Story, Blues For An Alabama Sky, The Foreigner, and Clybourne Park to name a few. He portrays Crispus Attucks in an interactive video display at the African American Military History Museum in Hattiesburg, Mississippi. As a director, Jonathan has overseen numerous productions, including three of his original works to stage, STIMULUS, Blues For Mama, and WORDS through his company, Yellow Mojo Productions. He has opened up for the likes of comedians such as Bruce Bruce and Earthquake, and was a featured stand up comic at the 2014 Black Box Comedy Festival in Atlanta, GA. His poetry has been featured on the digital platforms of Write About Now and All Def Poetry. He most recently was a featured performer on "The Golden Mic" hosted by Sunni Patterson on The Congo Television Network.He currently serves as the founder/director of the Fountain City Teen Poetry Slam, an organization that inspires youth to use their creativity as a positive outlet in their daily lives. From his work as a wellness instructor with the Muscogee County Juvenile Drug Court and Aaron Cohn Regional Youth Detention Center,he has also designed an effective and fun-filled curriculum that teaches students life skills through creative writing. Students have experienced the benefits of this auxiliary arts education in their intellectual, personal, and social development. Through weekly workshops, poetry slams, national/regional/local performance opportunities, and community service, he’s blessed to watch the future take shape one word at a time.

Chelsea Lynne Murry has been writing poetry for quite a while. (She never keeps count.) She is a Jack of all trades. Chelsea is a teacher, basketball coach, poetry writer, world traveler, and vocalist. Chelsea left her hometown of Houma, Louisiana to pursue her degree in education from Southern University and A&M College, where she graduated with her Bachelor's of Music Education and her Master's in Educational Leadership. While pursuing her degree, she met Poetry Slams, and fell in love. After a two year hiatus to grieve and learn to love again, she is finding solace in foreign places. She was a 2013 and 2016 Women of the World rep and her team was 2017 National Poetry Slam Group Piece Finalists. She is a mother of two four-legged children, LeeLee LeeJohn Lewis and Sir Duke Ellington Murry-Pierre.

Hailing from Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Taylor Scott is a writer, performance artist, and director. She found a love for performance when she joined the youth spoken word scene in high school through Forward Arts, where she is now a teaching artist. Taylor graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison with a BA in Communications. She received a full-tuition scholarship from UW’s First Wave program, the only collegiate hip hop and spoken word community of its kind in the country. Taylor has graced many stages including the Little Amsterdam Theatre on Broadway, Contacting the World Theatre in Manchester, England, and Queen Elizabeth Hall in London. She directed the Bellhops, a Madison-based blues and hip hop theatre ensemble, for two and a half years. In 2014, the Bellhops premiered Honey In My Tea, a 45-minute production that centers the narratives of black women, at the Overture Center for the Arts. The following year, the Bellhops released a 6-track EP, Hero of My Own Tale, which you can find on Bandcamp. Currently, Taylor is a graduate student in LSU’s English program, and is a recipient of the Perkins Fellowship. Her research interest includes global Shakespeare and the performative study of black literary practices/texts.

Glori B is the stage name of Austin poet Gloria C. Adams. Adams moved frequently as a child, living in Louisiana, Colorado, Texas, and Florida, but for more than half of her life she has lived in or near Austin, TX. She considers Austin her home town.Currently, Adams lives in Leander and works as a 7th grade English and ESL teacher at a middle school in Austin. She graduated with a degree in English Language Arts Education from St. Edward’s University. She has a 6 year old daughter named Sylvia.With her business partner, Skylar Landsee, Adams has been writer, producer, or director on three short films: Hard Bargain, With Child, and Ghost Pants. With Child took third place at the 2011 Sorin Reel Film Festival, and Ghost Pants took second place at the same festival in 2012.Adams has had poetry published in Sorin Oak Review, Open Ear of the Universe, and J-SOURCE. She has presented collections of original poetry at the Symposium for Undergraduate Research and Creative Expression, as well as the Sigma Tau Delta English Honor Society Annual Convention, at which she was awarded “Best Poetry Collection on Convention Theme.”In 2012, Adams discovered Austin Poetry Slam and began to compete. She quickly became a part of the Austin slam community as a poet and host, and in the fall of 2012 was elected Austin Poetry Slam secretary. She was the year-end points total system for the APS 2012-2013 slam year. She competed in the finals for both Austin Poetry Slam and Neo Soul Poetry Lounge, making the Neo Soul team which defended its title as Group Piece Champions at the National Poetry Slam.Gloria won the personal honor of Haiku Champion both at the 2013 National Poetry Slam and at the 2013 Individual World Poetry Slam. She also competed in the 2012 and 2013 Individual World Poetry Slams, and in 2013 ranked 26th.

Neil Hilborn, a slam poet from Houston, TX, is the most-viewed slam poet on YouTube and his poem, "OCD" is Button Poetry's top viewed video. His poems often detail personal experiences and battles with mental illness or other disorders. He is best known for his poem "OCD", which has garnered critical acclaim online with 75 million views. Hilborn regularly tours to perform his poetry at colleges and other venues.He became interested in creative writing at an early age, writing his first poem when he was eight years old. As a child, he was diagnosed with obsessive–compulsive disorder (OCD), and was additionally diagnosed with bipolar disorder while in college. Though he did not originally use poetry as a coping mechanism, when he was a teenager his work shifted toward helping him deal with his disorders. Hilborn continues to perform with Button Poetry, as well as in competition, including the National Poetry Slam (NPS).Hilborn's first chapbook, Clatter, was self-published in 2012 before being picked up by Button Poetry and re-published in 2013. The book is best known for the poem also entitled "Clatter" These poems have all been performed in previous slam poetry events.Hilborn's second book, Our Numbered Days, was released on May 14, 2015. The book is a collection of 45 poems. "Our Numbered Days", specifically, is divided into six different sections spanning the entire collection. Our Numbered Days features some of Hilborn's most well-known poetry, including "Joey" and "OCD". Arianna Miller is cited in her critical review as stating, "Hilborn wants readers to question his work, to use his pieces as a means of learning not only about oneself, but also about the world around him/her/them". Additionally, she states that the book raises more questions rather than answers, asking readers to look at themselves and force themselves to read heavy topics previously avoided. All of this has earned the book the title of Amazon bestseller with more than 50,000 copies in print.The Future, Hilborn's third book is due for release on April 17, 2018 and is the result of two years of writing while touring.

Sherrie Zantea (Candy) has been writing and performing poetry for over 20 years. Candy made the 2007 Dallas Poetry Slam Team, and to date has been on 10 teams, the first woman to coach 6 and she is the current Executive Director of the Dallas Poetry Slam Organization.Candy is a teaching artist and teaches creative writing in the DFW School Districts. She recently created a teaching artist program for Dallas Poetry Slam and works for and/or partnered with Young DFW Writers LTAB (Louder Than a Bomb) Program, Rockwall ISD, and Lancaster ISD. She is the current Teaching Artist Lead Instructor and Program Developer for The Writers Garret, Big Thought Youth Development Non-Profit, and the Dallas Independent School District.In addition to her poetry slam experience, she has added to her resume 2017 and 2018 Host City Coordinator of the Women of the World Poetry Slam and Individual World Poetry Slam Coordinator with Poetry Slam Inc.. She maintains a lucrative partnership with WordSpace Non-Profit literary organization where she serves as Administrator and Facilitator of social media affairs.Candy has published a poetry/recipe book "Heirlooms"; a spiritual chap book, "Sherrie's Sanctuary"; poetry CD, "Candy Unplugged"; and a DVD, "The Candy Project". She continues to provide workshops, features, and leadership through literary arts all over the world.

A Scribe Called Quess? is a poet, educator, actor, playwright, and activist in that order. He is a 2-time national slam poetry championship title winner and founding member of Team SNO (Slam New Orleans), New Orleans’ three-time national champion slam poetry team. His accomplishments with Team SNO have earned him honors from the Mayor of New Orleans as well as from City Council. He is a two-time Slam New Orleans Semi-Finals Slam winner and New Orleans Museum of Art Slam Champion. His poetry led him to the classroom where he has served nine years as an educator having served as an English teacher, Humanities teacher, Instructional Coach, and currently a Librarian and Poetry teacher. His work as an educator and youth worker has been highlighted on NPR in the Voices of Educators series and even taken him to Oxford University to speak on school reform.As an actor and theater maker, he has written for and acted in several plays including plays with Junebug Productions (Voices from the Back of the Class, Lockdown, Gomela), ArtSpot Productions (Rumors of War), Urban Bush Women (Summer Leadership Institute 2009), and other esteemed outfits. In summer of 2014 he was awarded a residency at the Contemporary Arts Center of New Orleans as a part of the inaugural class of the DISTILLERY, where he work shopped his first stage play, “Crossroads,” which is still in development. In 2017, he directed and debuted his first one-man show “Sleeper Cell: a stage performance based on the book by A Scribe Called Quess?” in the In Fringe Festival of New Orleans. As an activist, he co-founded BYP100 NOLA, a young adult organization that advocates for the protection of black youth from state sanctioned violence. He also recently co-founded Take Em Down NOLA, a coalition of organizers and activists committed to the removal of white supremacist monuments, school names and street names in New Orleans. As his work as an artist and educator has always explored issues of social justice and systemic racism, his work as an activist has offered the perfect opportunity for his arts and pedagogy to meet action.

Cecily Schuler is a writer, performer and teaching artist currently based in Brooklyn, NY. They repped Seattle Poetry Slam in 2014, coached Union Square Slam’s inaugural team in 2016, and are the 2016 Vox Pop Individual Slam Champion. Their work is featured in the Offing, great weather for MEDIA, Duende and elsewhere. They founded and currently run Union Square Slam, happening every Tuesday in the heart of New York City. Since receiving an MFA in Writing of the Pratt Institute, they’ve been working on a full-length experimental poetic memoir. Cecily is a quintuple Leo, a closet punk-ska rocker, and habitually relocates every time a sportball team in their current city breaks a longstanding curse to win some big deal trophy.

Matthew “Cuban” Hernandez is an international poet, teaching artist and Slam (poetry) coach from Jacksonville, Florida. Hernandez founded Shattered Thought, a youth poetry slam and mentoring organization that eventually contracted with the Duval County Juvenile Court Program to provide writing and performance workshops. He has since been invited to facilitate writing and performance workshops in schools and juvenile detention centers nationally and internationally.His craft training includes a residency with Leeds Young Authors (Leeds, West Yorkshire, England) and teacher training with Youth Speaks, a youth program that creates safe spaces that challenge young people to find, develop, publicly present, and use their voices as tools for social change. Hernandez received Jacksonville’s Youth Mentor of the Year award in 2005.Currently, he serves as a core FLOW instructor and Arts Program Educator at New Earth. He implements FLOW modules at five probation camps throughout Los Angeles County serving close to 500 boys and young men weekly. Additionally he works closely with the New Earth Founder/Lead Instructor to develop and refine curriculum and design and implement the instructor training program.

Bill Moran is a third-year MFA poetry candidate at Louisiana State University and a former medic. He was the 2012 & 2013 Austin Poetry Slam Champion; has performed and taught poetry throughout the US, Australia, and Southeast Asia; and served as president of Mic Check, a non-profit poetry organization in Brazos County, Texas. His work has appeared or is forthcoming in Button Poetry (video), Phoebe, Bird's Thumb, Next Left Press, FreezeRay Press, LUX, Alien Mouth, Pressure Gauge Press, and Drunk in a Midnight Choir. He co-authored his first book of poetry "Wreck / Age" with Simon Kindt, and it is available now through Alien Mouth. His debut book of poetry "Oh God Get Out Get Out" is forthcoming with Write Bloody Publishing in Spring 2017. It is a collection of poems that walk through the haunted house of trauma & illness & loss, organize it, and return us to a self & world that is once again habitable. He appreciates your concern and well-wishes, but swears he is okay. Really.You can find more of Bill's work on his website.

More than a poet, more than a singer, more than an emcee--it's not just what she says, it's how she says it. Emerging from the musical womb that is New Orleans, artist and visionary Sunni Patterson combines the heritage and tradition of her Native town with an enlightened modern world view to create music and poetry that is timeless in its groove.Sunni Patterson has established herself has an internationally known artist and activist, using her gift to reach, teach and learn, and heal all who have the opportunity to be in her presence. She has been a featured performer at many of Nation's premier spoken word venues, and has had the privilege of speaking at the Panafest in Ghana, West Africa. She has worked with several well known artists and performers including Hannibal Lokumbe- singing lead vocals for his score, "King and the Crescent City Moon, " Kalamu Ya Salaam, Sonia Sanchez, HBO Def Poet Amir Sulaiman, Wanda Coleman, Amiri Baraka, Laini Kuumba Afrikan Dance Company, dead prez, Cee-Lo of the famed group Gnarls Barkley, and many more.Sunni has performed her art for a plethora of organizations such as the Children's Defense Fund, Southern Rural Black Women Initiative for Economics and Social Justice, Essence Music Festival, The National Black United Front (NBUF)—Houston Chapter, and New Orleans Women's Artist Collective (NOWAC). She has been recognized by Cornell University, Western Carolina University, Dillard University, Xavier University and Southern University at New Orleans to perform and facilitate workshops.Sunni has been featured on numerous radio and TV spots both locally and nationwide. She will be featured on Sundance film, and BET's Lyric Café, and has been a guest spoken word artist on HBO's Def Poetry. There is so much more to say about her, but words just cannot describe her way, her Spirit, her grace, or gift of healing. In every word/sound she utters, you hear the grit and grime, hope and love, problem and solution, optimism and faith.You can find more of Sunni's work on Facebook and Instagram.

Giddy Perez is a nationally touring spoken-word poet and teaching artist originally from Brooklyn, New York. Some of her competition accolades include ranking 10th in the world at the Women of the World Individual Poetry Slam in 2014 and placing 2nd with her team in 2011 and 2013 at The Southern Fried Poetry Slam, the 2nd largest poetry slam competition in the country. In addition to performing, Giddy is an active teaching artist with the Arts Council of Hillsborough County and a program director at the Gustavus Adolphus College Institute of Spoken Word and Slam Poetry, an annual writing summer camp for high school students.