Giddy Perez is a nationally touring spoken-word poet and teaching artist originally from Brooklyn, New York. Some of her competition accolades include ranking 10th in the world at the Women of the World Individual Poetry Slam in 2014 and placing 2nd with her team in 2011 and 2013 at The Southern Fried Poetry Slam, the 2nd largest poetry slam competition in the country. In addition to performing, Giddy is an active teaching artist with the Arts Council of Hillsborough County and a program director at the Gustavus Adolphus College Institute of Spoken Word and Slam Poetry, an annual writing summer camp for high school students.

"Razor Sharp Words" (Giddy Perez)

Drawl is a weekly podcast about Southern poets by Southern poets. Follow along as we feature poetry performances, conversations with poets, and lots of laughs in between. Hosted by Desireé Dallagiacomo & Donney Rose also known as Donney Rose & Desireé Dallagiacomo. Come thru.

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Forward Arts is a multi-generational collective of youth, artists, and educators who are committed to providing learning opportunities in Southeastern Louisiana.

"The Youth Shall Set You Free" (Kalvin Marquiz & Bianca Colette)

Jonathan Samuel Eddie is a spoken word comedian hailing from Columbus, GA. This alumnus of Georgia Southern University represented the city of Atlanta at the National Poetry Slam competition as a member of the 2012 and 2014 Art Amok Poetry Slam Teams. He was also the 2012 and 2014 Grand Slam Champion at Art Amok. Jonathan was also a member of the 2015 Java Monkey Slam Team (Atlanta), ranking among the top 20 slam teams in the nation that year. At the 2014 and 2015 Southern Fried Regional Poetry Festival, he was among the top 10 individual competing poets. This teaching artist travels the country leading poetry workshops and performing his original work.Jonathan was recognized for his work as an "artivist" as a recipient of a 2013 Spoken Word Gala Community Service Award. With support from Alternate ROOTS, he most recently penned and staged the one man show, Journey Here, which candidly chronicled his life as a writer/performer, black man, teaching artist, and caregiver for his mother, whom was living with Alzheimer's. He published a chapbook of his work entitled "A Whole Notha Kinda Missing" that is available on Amazon. As an actor, he has graced stages in productions such as the world premiere of ACE: The Eugene Bullard Story, Blues For An Alabama Sky, The Foreigner, and Clybourne Park to name a few. He portrays Crispus Attucks in an interactive video display at the African American Military History Museum in Hattiesburg, Mississippi. As a director, Jonathan has overseen numerous productions, including three of his original works to stage, STIMULUS, Blues For Mama, and WORDS through his company, Yellow Mojo Productions. He has opened up for the likes of comedians such as Bruce Bruce and Earthquake, and was a featured stand up comic at the 2014 Black Box Comedy Festival in Atlanta, GA. His poetry has been featured on the digital platforms of Write About Now and All Def Poetry. He most recently was a featured performer on "The Golden Mic" hosted by Sunni Patterson on The Congo Television Network. He currently serves as the founder/director of the Fountain City Teen Poetry Slam, an organization that inspires youth to use their creativity as a positive outlet in their daily lives. From his work as a wellness instructor with the Muscogee County Juvenile Drug Court and Aaron Cohn Regional Youth Detention Center,he has also designed an effective and fun-filled curriculum that teaches students life skills through creative writing. Students have experienced the benefits of this auxiliary arts education in their intellectual, personal, and social development. Through weekly workshops, poetry slams, national/regional/local performance opportunities, and community service, he’s blessed to watch the future take shape one word at a time.

"Funny Thing About Branding" (Jonathan Samuel Eddie)

Chelsea Lynne Murry has been writing poetry for quite a while. (She never keeps count.) She is a Jack of all trades. Chelsea is a teacher, basketball coach, poetry writer, world traveler, and vocalist. Chelsea left her hometown of Houma, Louisiana to pursue her degree in education from Southern University and A&M College, where she graduated with her Bachelor's of Music Education and her Master's in Educational Leadership. While pursuing her degree, she met Poetry Slams, and fell in love. After a two year hiatus to grieve and learn to love again, she is finding solace in foreign places. She was a 2013 and 2016 Women of the World rep and her team was 2017 National Poetry Slam Group Piece Finalists. She is a mother of two four-legged children, LeeLee LeeJohn Lewis and Sir Duke Ellington Murry-Pierre.

“The Return of The Real” (Chelsea Lynne Murry)

Hailing from Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Taylor Scott is a writer, performance artist, and director. She found a love for performance when she joined the youth spoken word scene in high school through Forward Arts, where she is now a teaching artist. Taylor graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison with a BA in Communications. She received a full-tuition scholarship from UW’s First Wave program, the only collegiate hip hop and spoken word community of its kind in the country. Taylor has graced many stages including the Little Amsterdam Theatre on Broadway, Contacting the World Theatre in Manchester, England, and Queen Elizabeth Hall in London. She directed the Bellhops, a Madison-based blues and hip hop theatre ensemble, for two and a half years. In 2014, the Bellhops premiered Honey In My Tea, a 45-minute production that centers the narratives of black women, at the Overture Center for the Arts. The following year, the Bellhops released a 6-track EP, Hero of My Own Tale, which you can find on Bandcamp. Currently, Taylor is a graduate student in LSU’s English program, and is a recipient of the Perkins Fellowship. Her research interest includes global Shakespeare and the performative study of black literary practices/texts.

"Razor Sharp Words" (Giddy Perez)

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