Union Square Slam is excited for our Summer reading series, featuring an extended open mic and a phenom featured artist.

We have been committed to exposing all the poetry this city has to offer. We want communities to merge and form into bigger communities. For this show we are happy to have the great poets of La Sopa.

Here’s a little more about La Sopa:

La Sopa (School of Poetic Arts) is a community-based arts program with its intellectual roots in the poetics of the Nuyorican, Black Arts, and Beat movements. From its home base at Loisaida Inc., a historic enclave for artists and people of color on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, La Sopa serves as an incubator for poets, performers, and other creatives to explore and expand their artistic selves, develop their voices, distribute the works in live performance and exhibition, and promote their works in various media.

This week, we welcome the poets of La Sopa (School of Poetic Arts)

7:30pm: Sign-ups and Socialize
8:00pm: Open Mic
8:45pm: La SoPA

All Ages // Wheelchair Accessible
Open Mic // $5

About our Features:

“Nessa” Acevedo is a Colombian American Artist and Social Worker who aims to serve as a catalyst for therapeutic and authentic expression; exposing her heart, mind, and spirit as an invitation for you to do the same and live to tell about it. She has been expressing herself through the written word since childhood, breaking through to the open mic in early 2012 at Capicu Culture’s: People’s Open Mic. She has since performed and/or featured at open mics and events including: La SoPA, The Nuyorican Poet’s Café, The New York Poetry Festival, Word at 4F, The DoJo, Great Weather for Media’s: Spoken Word Sundays, El Fogon, and Smokin’ Word and Drum.

Eric Acevedo is a very young man with an old soul who has been writing and performing poetry since 2008. He loves writing about Puerto Rican history, his abuelita, and what he sees going on in his hood and around the globe. He strives to influence his generation and is an aspiring English teacher. In his goal toward exploring what makes us who we are, he released a self-published chapbook, El Rice Is Cooking, in 2012. Acevedo has performed at universities including Columbia and Fordham and has been featured at Muevete, Queensboro Lit Crawl, Brooklyn Gypsies: Ghetto Hors d’Oeuvres and 35 poets for Oscar López Rivera. Eric hopes to obtain an MFA in the near future as he continues to be an artivist.

Sarah Serrano is a Puerto Rican educator, poet, writer, visual artist, actress, singer and voice actress. Pulling strength from adversity, she strives to connect with and educate her audience using personal experiences with domestic violence, mental health, mortality, social issues and cultural identity.

Known for her powerful spoken word poem entitled “Boricua,” Sarah was recently featured in the upcoming film Project Ñ (link), a documentary about Latino cultural awareness and identity. She has been featured and performed at the historical Nuyorican Poet’s Cafe, WHCR Radio 90.3 FM, The National Black Theater feat. Full Circle Ensemble, CAPICU! Cultural Showcase, The Bushwick Starr Theater, Camaradas, Performance & Pints, Areito Live, Bowery Poetry Club, Bridging Boroughs, and I Know Some Tough Girls.

You can connect with her via Twitter & Instagram @cantfightthefro