I've been writing poetry all my life, but writing slam, or performance poetry, since 2007. I am a member of the Waterloo, Iowa-based Voices in Poetry or the VIPs, a slam poetry group that hosts slam poetry twice a month as well as a weekly radio show on KBOL 100.1 FM and is live-streamed on Ustream under Voices of Poetry. All of my poetry is available at amzpoet.blogspot.com.
I have a wide array of authors and poets I adore, at different times in my life and even different times of day, for different reasons. When it comes to slam, I love Saul Williams, The Last Poets, Nikki Giovanni and anyone who is on HBO's Def Poetry Jam.