Porsha Olayiwola is the 2014 Individual World Poetry Slam Champion and 2015 National Poetry Slam Champion. She bested more than seventy of the highest ranked slam poets in the world to earn these titles and is now one of the most sought after spoken word artists on the national circuit. Black, poet, dyke-god, hip-hop feminist, womanist: Porsha separates herself from the field of issue-based performance poets by applying advanced political analysis to examine injustice while providing perspective on concrete solutions. A native of Chicago, Porsha now resides in Boston where she organizes, writes and teaches.
In July 2014, Porsha co-founded The House Slam with poet Janae Johnson. The House Slam is Boston's first poetry slam venue. Under the duo's leadership, the venue placed first at their first national competition and placed third in their second competition in 2016. As an educator, Porsha Olayiwola works as the Lead-Teaching Artist & Program Manager at Mass Leap, a youth literary organization . Porsha's grand passion exist at the intersection of youth and poetry and as a result, her most profound moments exist when in the classroom or kicking back with a few youth poets. As an artist, Porsha challenges herself to tell the stories that are silenced, or erased, the stories that are difficult to release from the tip of our tongues, the stories that bring together communities, and maybe, in some small way, change the world. Her goal is maintain a cipher of self that is uncontrollable, undocumented and just plan ole dope.
