“Hand in hand with the beauty of these poems is their resiliency, as they capture the desire of the spirit to overcome and to connect with others, whether it is another person or a flower.”

“Slam poetry – poetry that combines performance, writing, competition and audience participation. It’s raw, emotional, and radiates a certain energy that you might not find with traditional poetry. One can almost say it’s the ‘punk rock’ of literature. It’s heavy hitting in nature, and whether or not there’s a connection with subject matter, one can certainly connect with the passion that’s casted out from the speaker’s lips. In In the Shadow of the Mic: Three Decades of Slam Poetry in Pittsburgh, edited by Jesse Welch and Adriana Ramirez, you’ll feel just that. The book contains a wide array of slam poetry from different artists touching on topics from mental health, to drug abuse, and gender dysphoria, with a dash of interviews scattered throughout. It encapsulates the magic that is the Pittsburgh slam poetry scene.”

“'In the Shadow of the Mic: Three Decades of Slam Poetry in Pittsburgh’ is more than a simple history of spoken-word performances in our city. It documents the shaping of a community and shares the voices of those Pittsburghers who worked the mic and also those who worked behind the scenes keeping things going. It's a chronicle of how disparate people come together and build something greater than themselves, something necessary, something that lasts.”