An award-winning spoken word artist is slamming Rockford with her first annual national poetry competition.
Sixteen wordsmiths will compete for four rounds during “The Gods and Goddesses Poetry Slam: A National Competition” at 7:00 p.m. Saturday Oct. 23 at the Nordlof Center, 118 N. Main St.
Dianna Tyler -- also known as Goddess Warrior The Poet -- is the owner of Words of a Warrior Productions. She said she is a native of Chicago but wanted to highlight the smaller northern Illinois city.
“So, I'm bringing all of these artists and creating this national platform here in Rockford to kind of you know, put this city on the map,” she said. “You know what I mean? Bring some attention here to Rockford.”
Kara Davis is with the Rockford Area Convention and Visitors Bureau. She said she was excited when she learned Tyler wanted to debut the competition in the city.
“And I'm new on the sales team. So, it was like one of my first wins, if you will, you know, Dianna had already decided to bring this here,” Davis explained. “But us as a Visitor's Bureau. we do servicing. So, whatever we can do to help support.”
Tyler said her manager came up with the vision for the competition. She expressed how she wanted to foster relationships with other artists across the country and said this competition could cultivate those relationships.
“A lot of these slam poets are some of the top slam artists in the nation. So, I'm looking forward to seeing the newcomers,” she said. “I'm looking forward to being surprised and taken off guard, you know, definitely looking forward to the talent. I just know they’re going to bring it.”
She said the event is more than just a contest.
“This art form is very powerful. And we use it for healing,” she added. “We use it for community building, we use it for art. And for this case it’s used for a competition, but it's more than just about the competing.”
The participating spoken word artists paid a registration fee of $150 to take part in the event and are competing for a grand prize of $2000. There are also three other cash prizes up for grabs.
Doors open at 6:00 p.m. Admission is $20 and tickets can be purchased on line.
- Yvonne Boose is a current corps member for Report for America, an initiative of the GroundTruth Project. It's a national service program that places talented journalists in local newsrooms like WNIJ. You can learn more about Report for America at wnij.org.
