By Daniel Paiz

Somehow April is here again and you know what that means: NaPoWriMo 2019, or, National Poetry Writing Month 2019 for those of you new to the acronym. Normally, that means about 30 or so poetic offerings from myself over the course of the month of April; that’s changed this year. To be honest, this is our most ambitious project yet!

What’s changed

Well, there are a LOT of dope slam poets and spoken word artists in the world. Heck, you don’t even have to leave my local area of Denver, Colorado to find some poetic heavy hitters. So, that means this year…those poets are the focus. About a dozen or so local poets either from Denver or at one time based in Denver will be getting their very own videos that you all will be watching here!

The videos won’t be too long, about the length of a spoken word piece (about three minutes or so). There will be a multitude of stories told and experience shared. Get ready for amazingness!

What’s stayed the same

During the days between videos, I will be writing and sharing different poetic offerings as I have in the past. Some will be haikus, some will be rhymes, and some will be good old fashioned spoken word pieces. None* of them will be in video form, purely the written word for you to read and (hopefully) enjoy. There will be a surprise at the end of the month however, as indicated by the asterisk above.

And now, our feature presentation…

Today is April 1st and as indicated in the teaser video above, the day of our first poet. If you’ve paid attention to either the spoken word realm or the music scene in Denver over the past decade or so, then you will be somewhat familiar with Jozer Guerrero. If not, then you are in for a treat! Here’s Jozer’s piece below: