Central Library to Host Word Up! Festival Poetry Slam on December 9

What: The Word Up! Festival, a poetry slam featuring high school students from all 7 Birmingham High Schools

Who: The Flourish Alabama in partnership with Birmingham Public Library to host the 2022 Word Up! Festival. The Flourish Alabama is a local arts and arts education nonprofit organization dedicated to helping artists Bloom.

When: Preliminary Rounds begin at 5:00 pm, followed by the Final Round (featuring the top 4 schools) at 7:00 p.m.

Where: The Central Library, 2100 Park Place, Birmingham, Ala. 35203

About the Event: This festival is a culmination of The Flourish's Word Up! Program, a city-wide poetry competition featuring high school students from across Birmingham. The public is invited to attend this free event to cheer on the young student poets. ADDITION: Jermaine FunnyMaine Johnson will be a guest judge for the final round.

Birmingham, Ala. – Come see the top poets from Birmingham’s seven high schools compete for $5,000 in cash prizes at the 2022 Word Up! Festival. This poetry slam is sponsored by The Flourish Alabama in partnership with The Birmingham Public Library (BPL), the Alabama State Council on the Arts, the Magic City Poetry Festival and Birmingham City Schools. 

Founded by Eric Marable Jr. and Jahman Hill, The Flourish Alabama is a nonprofit organization dedicated to planting seeds that allow young people's talents to bloom. Marable and Hill are veteran performers of BPL's Bards & Brews spoken word poetry/craft beer event. 

The 2022 Word Up! Festival will culminate with poetry slam between teams The Flourish Alabama helped build this year at the seven Birmingham high schools – Woodlawn, Jackson-Olin, Parker, Ramsay, Carver, Wenonah, and Huffman. 

“We demonstrate proper technique in Slam Composition, Slam Performance, Building the Squad, and Poetry as Competition, and the focus is on the importance of using your voice to speak your truth,” said Marable and Hill in a statement. 

Word Up! is made possible with support from Birmingham City Schools, the Alabama State Council on the Arts and Magic City Poetry Festival.

A year ago, BPL partnered with The Flourish Alabama and Birmingham City Schools to host the 2021 "Word Up" poetry festival online on the BPL Facebook page virtually. That competition was won by Huffman High School.