More Than A Literary Festival

Isaiah John

Isaiah John

Age: 22
Area: San Juan
Year: 2023
I started spoke word at the age of 15 Due to me giving trouble in school my teacher sent me to poetry club as a punishment, I was a bit hesitant at first trying my best to figure out things in my life I settled in perfectly and then from there it was only up, I was apart of the first 2 Cents Movement junior core which was called the poetic justice league at the time but while I was at 2 Cents Movement I also worked heavily with the Roots Foundation. Roots Foundation is another NGO which uses spoken word poetry as a catalyst for social change. They also gave me the opportunity to travel using spoken word poetry where in 2017 I was the vice captain of the Trinidad and Tobago youth poetry slam team in my first (Brave New Voices) where we made it to the semis. In 2018 I was the vice captain once again where the team placed second in the world at BNV where we lost by 0.1 In 2019 I achieved one of my major goals which was making the first citizens national poetry slam semifinals I thought it would’ve ended there but I also made the finals I didn’t place but it was a very emotional final for me, as I always said if I make the finals the poems would be dedicated to my mother who passed due to cancer. 2019 also saw me take up a teaching artist position at the Roots foundation where I would help create curriculums, host open mics and teach the art of spoken word poetry. In 2021 was promoted from a teaching artist to the community interventions coordinator, where any projects workshops that needs to be done go through me. 2022 I accomplished another dream of mine performing at the Nuyorican Poetry Cafe in New York My main goal is to win the Grammy for the best spoken word album so I’m working on that as well but this is just a little insight into my journey.
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