Congratulations to this week’s Nuyorican Bowery Slam Winner Phil C. Alexander! After attending for several weeks in a row, he is the first member of the phenomenally talented Connecticut Slam Team to catch a Monday win. It has been a long term goal of the Nuyorican Poets Cafe to take what we do in New York City and bring it to the rest of the country and (hopefully) the rest of the world someday.

Phil has not only shown his unfettered determination and skill to succeed in the poetry scene, but also helped us in taking the Nuyorican Poets Cafe to the National stage! Thank you so much @philcalexander_ !We look forward to seeing you kill it in the future!

Shout out to UGBA for blowing away this week’s competition and securing an undisputed win at April’s second Nuyorican Bowery Slam! As the second member of the Nuyorican’s National Slam team to get a win this month, we are extremely proud to claim UGBA as an integral member of our family of talented poets. One of his poems this Monday brought the crowd to a standing ovation from his pairing of the complex themes of sexuality and Black identity; and he used blood as the medium for his awakening into an epic conclusion!

Whether it’s performance style, or the central ideas of his poems, UGBA is untouched in skill and creativity. Not to mention, he does this all while uplifting and assisting his beloved poetry colleagues. UGBA is a rare talent, and we’re so glad to have the opportunity to house his art. Please check out @call.me.ugba to see and get involved with his other artistic endeavors!

The Nuyorican Poets Cafe is HONORED to crown Sola Kush as this week’s Nuyorican Bowery Slam winner! It was with a mix of “new sh!t” and time-tested classics that she swept away the competition. Her poems this Monday mainly focused on womanhood and the stresses that come with it; and they were so good that everyone in the crowd resonated deeply with both the content and manner in which her ideas were so perfectly delivered. Despite being a national spoken word poetry champion, Sola Kush has remained humble, amicable and is consistently driven to make her work even better!

We congratulate @solakush not only for her win in this week’s slam, but also for being an awe-inspiring and amazing person all around. We look forward to seeing more of her incredible performances in the future!

Ethan Kim is this week's Monday Night Slam winner! In an incredibly close final round (five poets with scores nearly .1 away from each other!), Ethan’s pieces had the crowd laughing, shouting, and stomping along. If anyone knows how to get the crowd hype, it’s Ethan.

It’s been a pleasure to watch Ethan’s poems transform from New Sh!t to fan favorites– almost every audience member screamed “It’s kimbap!” in a triumphant roar with him at the end of an incredible slam. Make sure to catch Ethan’s performance at the Final Friday Slam, and follow his Instagram @ethanjkim

March’s Final Friday Slam happened to be the most competitive and close-scoring bracket the Nuyorican Poets Cafe has seen in a long while! The margin of scores between poets from the second round onward didn’t extend beyond 0.1 points, showing how close the matches were all night.

Ten’s smooth sonorous tenor sound and gospel-like delivery pushed him out over his opponents! He came on stage as the night’s lottery-slot poet, which made his victory all the more amazing and was a historic first for the Cafe! The Nuyorican Poets Cafe congratulates our March Final Friday Winners! Check out his IG: @Fireline888

Kai has returned to the winner’s circle following their second Nuyorican Bowery Slam win! What more can we say about this phenomenon of a poet; maybe that listening to their work may just change your life as it did for so many others this week!

It is with great pleasure that we at the Nuyorican Poets Cafe have been able to witness Kai’s transformation from a talented poet to an absolute force of a performer! Now that they’ve won two Monday Slams in a row, you could go as far as to say that we’re doubly excited to see them battle it out with our other slam competitors March 28th at the Final Friday Slam. Please visit their Instagram page @kaidgpoet and see what other artistic and poetic endeavors Kai’s up to!

Our recent Nuyorican Bowery Slams have been some of the closest and most entertaining ever! Following a dead-heat finish, Kai Diata Giovanni was chosen by the audience to head into the next round and compete at the Final Friday Slam on March 28th!

Kai is a dedicated poet who shows up to nearly every single one of our Monday slams and it is clear that their intention is to qualify for this year’s Grand Slam! Noticing how the crowd rallied behind them to earn them the Bowery win must have been encouragement for them to continue their path to the Grand Slam. We are so proud of this young poet and we hope they continue to feel comfortable enough to continue performing at all our events as they work to change the world with their art. Thank you and congratulations to Kai!

BIG shout out to this week's Nuyorican Bowery Slam winner, Paul con Queso! He’s not only a super talented poet, but he’s a massive contributor to New Jersey and New York City’s arts communities!

Paul’s poetic works are flowing epics that fuse media, the nonsensical patterns of political strife, and nominal world events. The results are poetic pieces that captivate crowds as much as they cause them to gasp and laugh. Each poem is a wild ride that always arrives at an unknown but exciting destination! We wish him the best of luck at this month’s Final Friday Slam! Check out some of his poetry on his IG page: @paulconqueso

Welcome back to the Winner’s Circle Jayden! In a well-deserved second win in our 2025 Slam Season, Jayden performed his crowd favorites to win by a 0.1 margin in the closest second round of the Nuyorican Bowery Slam so far! His work at this week’s slam consisted mostly of indignant repudiations of modern America, spanning from his evolving fear of school shootings as a teacher to the lie that is the American dream.

Jayden’s work has grown this year to masterfully mix of the story told by his physical body while performing, and his lush diction and wordplay. As the poems he performs near their end, the physical and the verbal overlay upon each other, providing an almost impossible-to-replicate depth to his work! The Nuyorican Poets Cafe is proud to knight Jayden this weeks’ Nuyorican Bowery Slam Champion, and we look forward to seeing him in the Final Friday Slam.

If you couldn’t make it to our February 2025 Final Friday Slam you missed out on one of the best slams of the season! Our invited competitor Ramya came back from a 1st round defeat to win it all, a historic first for the Nuyorican Poets Cafe.

In what can only be compared to a reverse 3-0, Ramya came triumphantly back to perform after the crowd cheered her back into the competition as our Second Chance Poet. She refused to let her loss in the first round determine her fate and brought out the big guns, performing four poems in total!

Her victory showed all in attendance that our poets are not only the best and brightest in their class but also prepared for any eventuality. We are so glad to be the ones to reintroduce Ramya to the Slam scene in NYC, and we look forward to seeing her at the Nuyorican Bowery Slam and (hopefully) this year’s Grand Slam!

The most amazing part about being present at the Nuyorican Bowery Slam week after week is the gradual and noticeable growth to the work of our regulars. Jamal stands on business and never stops pursuing greater heights even though he already performs amazingly every slam! Small adjustments to his spoken word performance style have taken his poems from stunning to powerful enough to induce tears from those in attendance.

Though he scored a near perfect 59.8/60.0 on the night, he will not be attending the February Final Friday Slam in order to spend time with his family. His presence at our most important slam of the month will be sorely missed, but we at the Nuyorican Poets Cafe wish him and his the best in the meantime! Check him out on social media @SagetheRacer

Brian The Motel Guy locked in his second Nuyorican Bowery Slam win of the 2025 season in an exciting match that was close up until the very finish! This week's competition had him facing off against equally skilled poets and a trio of tough judges who didn't give any perfect 10's throughout the entire night of the competition.

We at the Nuyorican Poets Cafe understand that these slams are not 100% skill based and require that extra 1 or 2%  of "luck" to win, mostly due to the fact that any form of art cannot be objectively quantified. No matter how you strategize or how good your poem is, sometimes it's just not your night. This has never been a detractor to Brian's confidence though, and he comes to nearly every one of our slams with the same amicable demeanor and an outlook focused on winning.

We're hoping other poets looking to take part in our 2025 Grand Slam see the benefits of the 'repeat attendance' strategy as a method to curb the bias of luck. In our humble opinion, the willpower to repeatedly try again despite past losses is what makes talented artists of any medium successful! Congratulations, Brian—not only for your awesome poems that stun the crowd every time, but for having the heart to never stop believing in yourself!

Jayden was this Monday slam winner—a well-earned first win of the year for him. No stranger to the Nuyorican, Jayden has long been a crowd favorite for his ability to pull the audience in; the entire room is in the palm of his hand within moments of stepping to the mic.

His second-round poem told the story of his grandfather’s passing and the profound emotional toll this grief took on him. A heartfelt tribute, he begins and ends the poem with “I can feel the rumble in my feet,” first evoking his grandfather’s love of trains, then to the spiritual presence he still feels. When Jayden speaks, you can hear a pin drop. Congrats Jayden, and don’t miss his performance at this month’s Final Friday Slam!

Beating the competition by a full point (we consider this a rare feat), E’Lee James is February’s first Bowery Slam Winner. Singer, poet, and painter, James performed a new piece in the second round, captivating both the audience and her peers with raw, wordplay. "I’ve learned to never dance with the devil without your devices of defense."

In her performance, James grapples with the bravery it takes to speak even when it feels like the world is against her. She argues that her voice is everything to her because that bravery is what inspires all of us going through hardships to keep pushing forward. Obviously, she succeeds in inspiring us all. Be sure to check out E’lee at this month’s Final Friday Slam!

The first Nuyorican Final Friday Slam Winner of the 2025 Grand Slam Season is Marcus Stokes! We are so glad to congratulate him with his first Final Friday Slam win and a nomination for this year's Grand Slam because he revealed an uber-polished flow and style of dictation that brought his impressive wordplay and communication of perspective to the next level!

His winning poem begins and ends with the "primordial ooze" within which life was first conceived; taking us through a drawn out and semi-comical history of the world that repudiates the position people of color find themselves in today. Marcus tells us that the modern struggles we face are specifically placed there by those who are afraid of what people of color would do should they not face the systemic difficulties we do. His poetic excursion enraptured the crowd, leaving them no choice but to grant him his well deserved Final Friday win. We hope to see you at the Grand Slam, Marcus!

The work Daniel performed this week that earned him his spot at our Final Friday Slam was closely tied to his youth as a hispanic male contending with America's modern landscape of ostracism and thinly veiled racism. With a delivery that can only be qualified as brave and unapologetic shout for equal treatment and sentiment; mixed with the clever wordplay that only comes with years of poetic ponderance and polishing, Daniel is quickly finding himself amongst our strongest and most talented 2025 Grand Slam Season Poets.

In their first time ever slamming, Ali-Ben Dan edged out a victory by a .1 margin. Unfortunately, they are unable to participate in their earned Final Friday Slots, but we are looking forward to future performances to this upcoming trailblazer in the poetry scene! The Nuyorican Poets Cafe is ecstatic to highlight and congratulate this week's Nuyorican Bowery Slam Winner @Imalwaysali - please check out their page and show them some love!!

Despite the fact that she lives in a certain northern neighbor of ours, Titi has traveled the distance to several of our Nuyorican Bowery Mondays and even won against some of the most competitive spoken word poets NYC has to offer!

After not one but two back to back ties against another of our Bowery Winners, Brian, Titi was specially chosen by that night's crowd to take the chip because they were smitten with her nonchalant delivery and hard hitting one-liners! Her work that focuses on romance and her experience as a woman resonates deeply with her audience, and though she's not participating in this month's Final Friday Slam, we are glad she took the time to show us her prodigious skill with spoken word! Thanks Titi!

Congratulations to another of our Nuyorican Bowery Slam winners: Marcus Stokes. As an artist, he is among the most multifaceted poets we have had the pleasure of working with. He's a rapper, a spoken word poet, and most importantly, a committed artist; making him a phenomenal writer in many forms!

Marcus is a master of flow who brings a certain brand of nonconformity to his spoken word that just makes the crowd go wild! For this reason and many others, we are so glad to introduce Marcus Stokes to those of you interested in our 2025 Nuyorican Grand Slam Season! We wish Marcus the best of luck in his future bouts!