Hal Sirowitz (born 1949) is an American poet. Sirowitz first began to attract attention at the

Nuyorican Poets Cafe Nuyorican is a portmanteau of the terms "New York" and "Puerto Rican" and refers to the members or culture of the Puerto Ricans located in or around New York City, or of their descendants (especially those raised or currently living in the N ...

where he was a frequent competitor in their Friday Night

Poetry Slam A poetry slam is a competitive art event in which poets perform spoken word poetry before a live audience and a panel of judges. While formats can vary, slams are often loud and lively, with audience participation, cheering and dramatic delivery. ...

. He eventually made the 1993 Nuyorican Poetry Slam team, and competed in the 1993

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 ...

(held that year in San Francisco) along with his Nuyorican teammates

Maggie Estep Margaret Ann "Maggie" Estep (March 20, 1963 – February 12, 2014) was an American writer and poet, best known for coming to prominence during the height of the spoken word and poetry slam performance rage. She published seven books and r ...

, Tracie Morris and Regie Cabico.Aptowicz, Cristin O'Keefe. (2008). ''Words in Your Face: A Guided Tour Through Twenty Years of the New York City Poetry Slam.''

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the U ...

: Soft Skull Press. "Chapter 14: First and Always; Graduates from the NYC Poetry Slam's First Wave" Page 122. . Sirowitz would later perform his poetry on stages across the country, and on television programs such as MTV's ''Spoken Word: Unplugged''http://www.tv.com/mtv-unplugged/show/3400/episode_guide.html&printable=1 , MTV's ''Unplugged'' series Episode Guide and PBS's ''The United States of Poetry''.https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1719816/ , Hal Sirowitz on IMDB.com He has written six books on poetry and is arguably best known for the volumes ''Mother Said'', ''My Therapist Said'' and ''Father Said''. Sirowitz is a 1994 recipient of an NEA Fellowship in PoetryAptowicz, Cristin O'Keefe. (2008). ''Words in Your Face: A Guided Tour Through Twenty Years of the New York City Poetry Slam.''

: Soft Skull Press. "Chapter 14: First and Always; Graduates from the NYC Poetry Slam's First Wave" Page 123. . and is the former

Poet Laureate A poet laureate (plural: poets laureate) is a poet officially appointed by a government or conferring institution, typically expected to compose poems for special events and occasions. Albertino Mussato of Padua and Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch ...

Queens Queens is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Queens County, in the U.S. state of New York. Located on Long Island, it is the largest New York City borough by area. It is bordered by the borough of Brooklyn at the western tip of Long ...

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

. He worked as a special education teacher in the

New York public school system The New York City Department of Education (NYCDOE) is the department of the government of New York City that manages the city's public school system. The City School District of the City of New York (or the New York City Public Schools) is ...

for 23 years. He is married to the writer Mary Minter Krotzer.

Sirowitz abroad

Sirowitz is the best-selling translated poet in

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and t ...

, where ''Mother Said'' has been adapted for the stage and turned into a series of animated cartoons. http://homedir-a.libsyn.com/podcasts/66e00c80246a41df4a7ed67f60ae1a4a/4acb3844/indiefeedpp/images/HalSirowitzPic.jpg

References

External links

Hal Sirowitz performing "Chopped Off Arm" (podcast)
1949 births American male poets Living people Jewish American writers Performance art in New York City Place of birth missing (living people) 20th-century American poets 20th-century American male writers 21st-century American Jews {{US-poet-1940s-stub