Da Poetry Lounge is the largest weekly open mic performance space for poetry in the U.S. 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'', was 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 Home Box Office (HBO) is an American pay television service, which is the flagship property of namesake parent-subsidiary Home Box Office, Inc., itself a unit owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The overall Home Box Office business unit is based a ...

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 Stre ...

. 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 and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

. 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) was 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 occurred in early August every y ...

, passed away from kidney failure.

Notable performers

Da Poetry Lounge has featured performances from Yesika Salgado, Walela Nehanda,

Elizabeth Acevedo Elizabeth Acevedo is an 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'', and ''Clap W ...

, 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 transplantation, ki ...

, Olivia Gatwood, Rudy Francisco, Kevin Coval,

Dante Basco Dante Roman Basco (born August 29, 1975) is an American actor. He is known for his role as Rufio, the leader of the Lost Boys, in Steven Spielberg's ''Hook'', Dolph in the cult film '' But I'm a Cheerleader'', the lead character Ben Mercado in th ...

, and Javon Johnson.

References

External links

*{{official, https://www.dapoetrylounge.com Slam poetry Poetry organizations