SpokenWord Paris

Matt Mauch is the author of five books of prose and poetry, including the hybrid memoir A Northern Spring, We’re the Flownover. We Come From Flyoverland., Bird~Brain, If You’re Lucky Is a Theory of Mine, as well as the chapbook The Brilliance of the Sparrow. He founded the Great Twin Cities Poetry Read and the journal Poetry City, and has organized and hosted many other poetry readings and events. A recipient of a Minnesota State Arts Board grant, Mauch’s work has been recognized as a finalist for National Poetry Series and other national and international contest and has appeared in numerous journals, including Conduit, The Journal, DIAGRAM, Willow Springs, The Los Angeles Review, Forklift, Ohio, Sonora Review, Water~Stone Review, and on the Poetry Daily and Verse Daily websites. Mauch lives in Minneapolis and teaches in the AFA in Creative Writing program at Normandale Community College. He and his books can be found online at  http://www.mauchmauch.com/

Andrej Kapor (b. Sarajevo, 1989) is an artist, writer, and creative producer working across disciplines. As an author, Andrej’s work is driven by rebellion, sensuality and the divine, underpinned by dark humour and informed by his multicultural background. As a curator, publisher and broadcaster, he is focused on community-building and the platforming of marginalised voices as a means for affecting social and cultural change. Currently based in Utrecht, his work has been published, exhibited, and toured internationally.

Joseph Michael Torrijos is an aspiring Filipino poet and songwriter based in Paris. He has published several songs such as Your Love, which he wrote together with his partner Kit and performed by International Filipino Artist Alisah Bonaobra. He has also collaborated with Filipino artists based in the Philippines and Singapore and written the beautiful lyrics of Home At Last which was performed by Filipino artist Myko Manago. Both songs have a growing number of plays in Spotify: 140,000 and 240,000 respectively.He’s recently collaborated and worked on the verses of the song Sayaw by international Filipina artist Muri. In July 2025, he also published his first book, a poetry collection entitled: Where Love Poems Grow On Mango Trees which is available on Amazon.He continues to be inspired by the talented communities of Spoken Word Paris and the Franco-Filipino music association Pinoy Jam Paris.

Kara Schneider is a poet and human-rights researcher whose work braids together memory, womanhood and the quiet violences that shape becoming. Her writing explores the intersections of love, lineage, and the body – what it endures, what it carries, and what it refuses to forget. Kara’s poetry has been featured in Oberon and the One Page Poetry anthology, with additional work forthcoming. She is currently pursing an MSc in Human Rights & Data Science in Paris, where she writes about law by day and poems by night.  

Śivani Howe is a poet and teacher obsessed with eco-poetry, spiritual poetics, good food, and trees.  She is author of the poetry collection – THIS Is Written in the Stars, and the eco-novel Land’s Breath. She’s studying for her Masters in Poetry at Pacific Oregon University and has been featured in The Poetry Lighthouse II, and Upon Learning That anthologies in 2025, and IHRAM Press: their Enduring Voices journal (2025, Quarter 3).  She resides with her family in the Purcell Mountains of British Columbia, Canada and believes that reconnecting and coming into right relationship with Land’s spirit is the fastest way to heal the human heart.

Nica Selvaggio (she/they) is a Chicago born, Indiana made, Seattle formed poet/writer/therapist who is still trying to find their place in the story of all things. They are a non-binary and queer human who finds healing writing about the things that often go unspoken. Grief. Trauma. Spirituality. Sexuality. Addiction. Adoption. Eating disorders. Gender. Race. Power. Nica’s deepest hope in sharing their writing is to create safe spaces to explore the darkness that resides within us all, thereby igniting the light found in connectedness. Nica’s full length poetry collection, “i should give you a ladder,” is now available for purchase, and you can find more of their poetry and essays in the pages of Papeachu Press, For Women Who Roar, This is Jane Project, Wussy Magazine, and Project Heal.

Zac Graves is a multidisciplinary artist whose work bridges the worlds of spoken word, music, and storytelling. A poet, songwriter, voice-over artist, and teacher, he brings a rare versatility to the stage, drawing audiences in with performances that balance raw emotion with well honed craft.With a varied history of live appearances, Zac has performed everywhere from intimate venues such as the legendary Passim Coffee House in Cambridge to large outdoor festivals across New England. His artistry extends beyond the stage into the studio, where he has recorded as a musician, voice actor, and spoken word contributor for a wide range of creative projects.What sets Zac apart is his ability to weave narratives that feel both personal and universal. His spoken word is rooted in authenticity and emotional depth, while his music carries a lyrical and melodic power that lingers long after the final note. Audiences often remark on his compelling delivery, humble presence, and his capacity to create genuine moments of shared emotion.

Robin Bobo is a Chicago based spoken word artist, poet, and author whose voice has been featured on stages across the world. A multiNational Spoken Word Award winner and member of The Collective slam team, Robin is known for her powerful performances and commitment to building community through poetry. She is one of the founders of Padded RoOm, host of Rhythm and Breathe and Pen and Pour open mic, and the creator of the Midwest regional and national slam Wise Words: Great Lakes Griots. Robin is the author of six books, including Love Thy Selfie and Train of Thought, which showcase her signature style rooted in layered metaphors, double meanings, and the heartbeat of lived experience. Her work celebrates Black womanhood, resilience, and connection, establishing her as an unforgettable voice in contemporary spoken word. Learn more at RobinBoboArts.com.  

William Walrond Strangmeyer was born in Roanoke, Virginia, and grew up in Brooklyn, New York, and Brofus, New Jersey, where he went to Rugrats University, starting out as a classics major, changing to musicology and finishing with an abnormal psychology, all of which he declined to follow up on or to practice due to a certain inappropriate nostalgia for the evanescent present, that virtual curry of import, pleasure, pain and fat.He has worked in many different fields of endeavor, including Palisades and other amusement parks as a caller, as well as banks, book stores, the cinema, the theater, door-to-door vacuum cleaner sales (alternating between the Abbott and the Costello roles), two failed marriages, restaurants, retail and – God forgive him! – insurance sales, taxi driving, telephone sales (light bulbs and the San Francisco Chronicle), warehouses and as a tour guide and was also co-editor of Upstairs at Duroc, a Paris literary review – thereby blowing his chances at working-class hero status – around the U.S. and in Copenhagen, Athens, Crete, London and Switzerland. Now a resident of that same Paris since 1977, he continues to earn his living as an English language trainer, formatting young adults and other undesirables so that they can produce growth in business, and as a translator, as if he were a young James Joyce.He is also the author of several other volumes of angrily sentimental and vulgarly picturesque Rococomantic poetry (all slim), his other principal interests being various forms of boxing and marshalling Art, bull fighting and aged music. He is Archon of Paris for the Moorish Orthodox Church and a member of various other organizations embracing a few essential beliefs and having even fewer doctrines.He has read all over Paris over the years and in London, NY and Florida.His main influences are science fiction, doo-wop and psychedelic (as we said in those lost and heartfelt days) music and a mis-spent youth, along with the usual Eliot, Pound, Wallace Stevens, Poe, Catullus, Larkin, Elroy, Doctor Seuss, Forugh Farrokhzad, Beaudelaire and also Emmylou Harris, Roy Jones Jr., Stoya, Leonard Cohen, Fedor Emilianenko, Bartok, Rodney Crowell, Nolan Strong, Leroy Griffin, Roy Orbison and other sadly missed voices that often come and go. His motto this year is, “All dust is gold,” but sometimes he forgets and thinks to himself, “A life in exile comes to feel like home but still home gnaws and eats away at the bone.” He usually tries to keep a straight face

Kim B Miller is a multi-disciplinary performing artist. She is Prince William County, Manassas & Manassas Park, Virginia US Poet Laureate Emerita and the (first and only) Black Poet Laureate for that region. Her poems have been published in an international haiku anthology, Washington City Paper (DC newspaper), Prince George’s Community College Literary & Arts Magazine and several books. Kim has graced the stage at phenomenal venues such as The National Black Theater in New York, The Atlas Per- forming Arts Center in Washington, D.C., Ashford & Simpson’s Sugar Bar in New York, the University of Pikeville in Kentucky, La Peña Cultural Center in California, Northern Virginia Community College, Busboys & Poets and many others.She is a formidable spoken word poet, captivating audiences with her bold words and sparking change through her passionate delivery. Kim delivered her first TEDx Talk in May 2025 titled 17 Syllables To Stop The Blame Game. In 2025, Kim received the Orchid Award from the TLOD–Dale City & Prince William Chapter in recognition of her exceptional leadership and com- munity work. That same year, she was also named InsideNoVa’s 2025 Best of Prince William Author of the Year. In 2024, Kim was honored with an official Proclamation from the Town of Dumfries, recognizing her contributions to the arts and her positive impact on the community. In 2023, she earned her third consecutive Haikuist of the Year title at the DMV (DC/Maryland/Virginia) Renaissance Awards, and received the DMV Best Business Award in the Arts & Entertainment category for the second time. Additionally, Kim received the Vivien H. Hansbury Award in 2023 for her pioneering contributions to women in the creative arts. She was previously named Haikuist of the Year at the DMV (DC/MD/VA) Renaissance Awards in both 2022 and 2021, and earned her first DMV Best Business Award in 2021.Kim won the title of Southern Fried Haiku Champion in 2019. Southern Fried Poetry Slams, one of the largest Spoken Word tournaments in the US.