Da Poetry Lounge is the largest weekly open mic performance space for poetry in the US. It is located in Los Angeles at the Greenway Court Theatre.
History
Da Poetry Lounge was founded in 1998 as "Dante's Poetry Lounge" by poets Dante Basco, Ron "Shihan" VanClief, Devan "Poetri" Smith and "Brutha" Gimmel Hooper. Da Poetry Lounge was originally hosted in Basco’s living room for three years before expanding to the Greenway Court Theatre.
The DPL has a slam poetry team that performs in national poetry competitions. Performers have to show up to the Tuesday night readings early to sign up to perform. The artists then perform on a first-come-first-served basis.
Da Poetry Lounge inspired “
Def Poetry Jam
''Russell Simmons presents Def Poetry'', better known as simply ''Def Poetry Jam'' or ''Def Poetry'', is a spoken word poetry television series hosted by Mos Def and airing on HBO between 2002 and 2007. The series features performances by estab ...
” on
HBO and on
Broadway
Broadway may refer to:
Theatre
* Broadway Theatre (disambiguation)
* Broadway theatre, theatrical productions in professional theatres near Broadway, Manhattan, New York City, U.S.
** Broadway (Manhattan), the street
**Broadway Theatre (53rd Stree ...
.
In 2010, Javon Johnson published “Manning Up: Race, Gender, and Sexuality in Los Angeles' Slam and Spoken Word Poetry Communities”, an essay addressing the prevalence of sexism at Da Poetry Lounge.
In 2018, Da Poetry Lounge was hosted by
Edwin Bodney.
From March 2020 to November 2021, DPL held their events virtually in order to keep workers, performances, and audience members safe during the
COVID-19 pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...
.
On December 30, 2022, Tonya Ingram, a poet who frequented Da Poetry Lounge and performed on DPL’s 2015 team at the
National Poetry Slam The National Poetry Slam (NPS) is a performance poetry competition where teams from across the United States, Canada, and, occasionally, Europe and Australia, participate in a large-scale poetry slam. The event occurs in early August every year an ...
, passed away from kidney failure.
Notable performers
Da Poetry Lounge has featured performances from
Yesika Salgado,
Walela Nehanda,
Elizabeth Acevedo
Elizabeth Acevedo is a Dominican-American poet and author. In September 2022, the Poetry Foundation named her the year's Young People’s Poet Laureate.
Acevedo is the author of the young adult novels ''The Poet X'', '' With the Fire on High'', ...
,
Alyesha Wise,
Tonya Ingram
Tonya Ingram (September 1, 1991 – December 30, 2022) was an American poet, author, speaker, Disability rights movement, disability activist, and mental health advocate.
Ingram died on December 30, 2022, waiting for a kidney transplant.
Life ...
,
Olivia Gatwood,
Rudy Francisco,
Kevin Coval,
Dante Basco
Dante R. Basco (born August 29, 1975) is an American film, television and voice actor. He is best known for his role as Rufio, the leader of the Lost Boys in Steven Spielberg's ''Hook'', and Julian Lee in '' Fakin' da Funk'', and for his many vo ...
, and
Javon Johnson
Javon Johnson is an American spoken word poet, writer, and professor. He is the director of African American and African Diaspora Studies in the Department of Interdisciplinary, Gender, and Ethnic Studies at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, an ...
.
References
{{Reflist
Slam poetry
Poetry organizations