Poetry off the Shelf: French Slam Connection

Experience an international evening of poetry, translation, and performance in a collaborative event between One Poetic Voice and Ligue de Slam, UPPERCUT, and the New Uptown Poetry Ensemble.

Chicago’s own New Uptown Poetry Ensemble worked with the French poets of UPPERCUT to create a balanced translation that incorporates language and movement. The result is a captivating, simultaneous, dual-linguistic performance.

Antoine Faure, AKA TÔ, is a poet, musician and performer who launched UPPERCUT in 1999 with Damien Noury and Sandra Bechtel. After winning the Big Slam in 2004, he has gone on to tour with POESIE-UNITED, an international collective of poets. Faure and the other members of UPPERCUT created one of the first ensemble shows inspired by the French slam scene, “AC! In our Souls and Consciousness,” as well as “On the Boxing Ring” and “In the Ropes.”   

Damien Noury began his career in theatre before co-creating UPPERCUT and Pulse Poetry, a form of individual and choral words.. In 2016 he created a new spoken word epic, “The Crossing” with other members of UPPERCUT. His poems are published in several slam anthologies and he has released a compilation, Any Fire Any Slam.

Yas, lead writer of UPPERCUT, is a poet performer and has been a slam movement activist for more than 10 years. In 2015, she joined UPPERCUT and created new shows that combine poetry and the cello. Yas was a finalist in the 2005 individual competition in Nantes, and in  2007, she created the rock, hip-hop band “Yas and The Lightmotiv,” becoming a Grand Zebrock finalist. She runs slam performances and workshops with a focus on craft and community-building.

Cosponsored with One Poetic Voice, Ligue de Slam, and Guild Literary Complex