Sarah Kay

I had never seen a poetry slam.

I had never heard of a poetry slam.

I'm an elder millennial, so we didn't have YouTube back then, so I couldn't look it up.

All I knew about this event was that it was for teenagers in New York City who liked poems, and that was me.

And so I went to this event, and it was a room full of teenagers sharing poems that they had written.

and listening to each other and applauding each other and making room for each other.

And I had never experienced something like that.

And the lightning moment was in discovering that poetry, which had previously been a solitary, secret,

Could also be a communal experience.

And that is what lit my wick.

This particular event, they had rented out a dive bar on the Lower East Side for this teen group.

competition.

And I was so taken with the whole event.

I thought this is the best thing I've ever seen.

I want to come back next week.

And the week after I want to keep coming back and keep seeing more and keep doing this forever.

And there was a little bar flyer on the way out that said Thursday night poetry slam.

And I said, perfect, perfect.

I'll come back.

But I didn't understand that 364 days a year, it was a dive bar.