Kai Davis is a performer, teaching artist, and Black Queer writer. Kai Davis received her BA from Temple University in both English and Africana studies with a major in Creative Writing. Kai’s work explores womanhood, Queerness, Blackness, and how these identities converge. Her work also explores how power works internally, interpersonally, nationally, and globally. Kai speaks on Black love, Queer love, intersectionality, mental health, ancestral trauma, Black womanhood, misogyny, structural racism, and more. Kai Davis has performed for NPR, PBS, BET, CNN, and TEDx Philly among others. Ms. Davis has also given speeches and readings in several key venues, including The Nuyorican Poets Cafe, The Kimmel Center, Gramercy Theater, and the San Francisco Opera House. She has delivered keynote speeches and facilitated workshops at many conferences such as the Black Students Alliance Conference at Smith College, IvyQ, and The Diversity Inclusion and Fairness Conference at Georgia Southern University. Kai Davis has won the International Grand Slam Championship twice. In 2011, she won the Brave New Voice, and in 2016, The College Union Poetry Slam Invitational. Due to Kai’s contribution to social change through art, Kai was awarded the Leeway Transformation Award in 2017.

Jasmine Combs is a spoken word performer, writer, and educator. Jasmine’s work has been published in literary journals such as Painted Bride Quarterly, Apiary Magazine, and Vagabond City Lit. Ms. Combs has participated in poetry slams both on the local and national stage. In 2015, Ms. Combs made it to the semi-finals of the National Poetry Slam. In the same year, she won the prestigious Philly Grand Slam Championship, and in 2016, the College Union Poetry Slam Invitational. Jasmine was drawn to literature from a young age which inspired her to pursue creative writing at the Philadelphia High School for Creative and Performing Arts.

Ms. Combs graduated from Temple University with a BA in English. During Ms. Comb’s college years, she served as Babel Poetry Collective’s event coordinator and Undergraduate Literary Magazines creative editor. Her work explores the personal as the universal, and the intersecting relationships between home, love, mental illness, girlhood, womanhood, and Blackness. As an author, Jasmine Combs has written two books, This Drowning Was A Baptism and Universal Themes. In addition to writing, Ms. Combs is also passionate about resource infrastructure for artists and community building in Philadelphia. Ms. Combs presently works as a teaching artist and freelance editor, performing her original work, and facilitating performance and writing workshops. Jasmine Combs is also a manuscript editor at Good Ground Publishing and a slammaster at The Philly Pigeon Poetry Slam.

Poets who participate in The Philly Pigeon poetry slam event are hilarious, passionate, and vulnerable. Experiencing live poetry is a unique art form since it gives you a special opportunity to be immersed in another person’s universe. The Philly Pigeon poetry slam event has a strong community feeling, and it is not uncommon to see members of the audience laughing, cheering, and crying during the event. Members of the audience are encouraged to respond when they are moved by a poet’s work by clapping, snapping, etcetera. The Philly Pigeon poetry slam event attracts a variety of poetry lovers, as well as those looking for an exciting Friday night adventure. On a typical slam night, you will find date-night couples, tourists, elders, college students, artists, and local poets.