Atlanta poet Ryan Jones may have felt defeated coming off of the stage for night two of the 2018 National Poetry Slam in Chicago in August. His slam team Art Amok didn’t place as well as they’d hoped and Jones was on an emotional rollercoaster after learning a friend had just passed away. But as the saying goes, every cloud has a silver lining, and Jones reasoned if the team did well, his friend’s belief in him as a poet became real. In the end, the four-member team won the group piece finals and brought a renewed admiration for Southern artists.
Poetry in Atlanta Shows Another Side of City Culture
The poetry scene in Atlanta has been growing for over a decade and local poets have made it their mission to make the scene more inclusive. Video by Kimeko McCoy for The AJC.