Photos by Justin Elliott @ JEL Media.

Community potluck: 5–7pm
Open mic and drum circle: 7–9pm
Screening of SLAM: 9–11pm

Chidera Ikewibe

CHI.IKE (Chidera Ikewibe) is an Igbo-Nigerian Canadian-born multidisciplinary artist and poet based in Windsor, Ontario. Her work combines her Igbo heritage with anything that sparks her imagination that month, day, or hour. Driven by curiosity, CHI.IKE will try any medium at least once. This has led her to mould poems from clay, write a play, and produce digital political posters. She has hosted workshops at Art Windsor-Essex and the Youth Wellness Hub Windsor-Essex. Her poetry takes inspiration from artists like Emily Dickson, FKA Twigs, Kendrick Lamar, and Joy Crookes, among others. She has read her poems for audiences big and small. In recent years she has read her poetry at Poetry in the Manor and at CJAM events at the University of Windsor.

Erik Johnson

Erik Johnson is a local hip-hop lyricist, vocalist, and slam poet from the Windsor-Essex area. Erik has been writing and performing poetry for a number of years. He draws his poetic inspiration from his Afro-Indigenous culture and experiences as an artist of colour and physically disabled creator. His goal as an artist is to highlight the BIPOC experiences through storytelling, a theme that is deeply ingrained in all of his poetic endeavours.

Mbonisi Zikhali

Mbonisi Zikhali is a poet/spoken word artist and storyteller born in Makokoba, Bulawayo, Zimbabwe. He has loved poetry since he was a child. He won his first poetry certificate when he was 8 years old. His spoken-word/storytelling name is Zomkhonto, which happens to be his bloodline’s totem. He is also a trained journalist, youth mentor, qualified community services worker, grassroots community organizer, and mental wellness advocate. He considers himself an afro-empath and is driven to ensure that people find joy in the power of words and story-telling. Some of the recent publications he has appeared in include: winner of Off Topic Publishing's August 2022 Poetry Contest, Best New African Poets 2019 Anthology by Mwanaka Media and Publishing, Ipikai Poetry Journal's inaugural and second edition (initiative of the Zimbabwe Poets Society), among others. His work is also showcased at the World Poetry Slam Championships (September 26–30, 2022) in Brussels, Belgium. In 2021, he was part of Artcite Inc.'s “Emancipate the Landscape”, a month-long exhibition that ran from August–September and was meant to celebrate the resilience and elegance of everyday Blackness, deconstruct dominant culture, and turn stereotypes about Black people on their head. He also holds workshops on writing for mental wellness.

SLAM

Marc Levin
United States
1998

103 mins

A talented Black poet, Ray (Saul Williams), is arrested on a petty drug possession charge and thrown into a D.C. jail. As he navigates prison and two rival gangs, Ray befriends Lauren (Sonja Sohn), who teaches a writing class for inmates and takes an interest in his poetry and his pending legal hearing. Refusing to accept the “options” given to him by a racist system, Ray finds salvation in his rhymes.

Marc Levin’s charged testament to the transcendent power of art and scathing indictment of the criminal justice system, SLAM won the 1998 Sundance Grand Jury Prize, gave voice to emergent artists like Williams, Sohn, Bonz Malone, Beau Sia, and Liza Jessie Peterson, and contributed to a growing criminal justice reform movement. A documentarian, Levin sought creative collaborators in co-writers Williams, Sohn, and Richard Stratton (editor/publisher of Prison Life magazine), and many roles were played by inmates and non-professional actors.