By China Boynton
“This is who I am! “proclaimed poetess Blaq Wildflower as she finished her poem at the final round of the 5th annual Exit 36 Slam Poetry festival. The 3-day festival included writing workshops, artist talks on December 8 and December 9, and a slam poetry competition at the Pompano Beach Cultural Center on December 10.
The festival was created by poet Sharonda Richardson who goes by the name ‘Eccentrich’ in slam poetry circles. In 2018 and 2019 the City of Pompano took over producing the annual festival which welcomes premier spoken word artists, promotes literacy and community engagement, and celebrates the arts.
“When I founded the festival in 2018 my goal was to create a culture of slam and poetry in Pompano Beach,” said Richardson. “I was traveling worldwide competing in competitions and I just thought why not my city?”
Richardson, who was ranked 9th in the world in 2017 continues to coordinate and direct the event for the City of Pompano Beach which welcomes poets from all over the country like the winner of the 2022 festival, Blaq Wildflower.
“The week after my grandfather passed away, I started competing in poetry slams and I won,” said Wildflower who is from Tampa, Florida. “I started writing poetry because I would go through some deep dark hurtful things, and I would just go and do a poetry slam or write a poem about whatever I was dealing with at the time.”
Wildflower was tied with Richmond, Virginia native ‘Breeze’ who wanted to split the $2500 prize however Wildflower requested a tie-breaker round where she won.
“Competing in Pompano Beach has been such a heartwarming and beautiful experience because I had poets who were my fellow competitors rooting me on in the final rounds which made it a very special experience,” said Wildflower.
Eddie Figures from Orlando rounded out the third place slot and went home with $1000 while 2nd place poet ‘Breeze’, ranked #1 in the world, took home $1500.
“I started doing slam because I’ve always been creative with writing and it just grew with me,” said 12-year slam poetry veteran ‘Breeze’. “Movement is movement no matter which way you’re going so sometimes you have to take a step back and just do things for the art of it and that’s the way I compete.”
‘Breeze’ along with many other poets are looking forward to next year’s competition which will be on December 7-9th 2023. If you would like to participate poet registration will begin July 1st, 2023, on the website www.pompanobeacharts.org
