Men's and Women's Summit

The event is for men and women or all ages who love poetry and want to either engage or listen to conversation about art. Through spoken word and slam style poetry attendees will be emersed into conversation and dialogue while building community through art.

Breakout sessions for discussion will happen separately for men and women. This event is 18+ and offers free childcare for any parent that registers a child/ children 5 and over.

Featured Poets:

Sunflower Mo (they/them) is a Richmond based performance poet and community organizer, and a proud member of Spellbound, a 2x nationally ranked poetry slam team. They are the 2025 The Writers Den Grand Slam Champion, February 2025 Wildseed Slam Champion, and a 2024 Transformative Justice Calendar Winner, with work featured in the 2025 Darkness Rising Project Calendar.

They host Live in Da Garden, an open mic series on RVA’s Southside, teach poetry with youth centered organizations, and served as a Youth Development Leader with the Peace Corps in Kiev, Ukraine in 2017. A fierce sickle cell and disability advocate, Sunflower Mo uses poetry to challenge medical racism and demand equity

Breeze The Poet is a spoken word artist/ author/slam coach/battle rapper from Richmond VA. He has performed all over the country including venues such as The Broward Center for Performing Arts and the historic Apollo Theater. He is also a TV1 Lexus presents Verses and Flow alum.

He is the current Individual World Poetry Slam Champion (2019), the National Poetry Slam Champion w/SlamCharlotte (2018), the Rustbelt Regional INDIE Slam Champion(2019), the LEAF Slam Champion (2019), 7x King of the South Regional Slam Champion (2012-2016/2018/2019), 2x Bull City Grand Slam Champion (2019/2023), 3x Writers Den Grand Slam Champion. He coached The Writers Den Slam to 3rd in the nation in 2022. In 2023 Breeze has also become the SERNC Poetry Slam Champion, the Griot and Grey Owl Slam Champion, and the Exit 36 National Poetry Slam Champion, and has started 2024 off with becoming the inaugural Grand Slam champion for both The SpellBound Slam Team and the Slam Connection Slam team.

Breeze is also the creator of The Dojo, a mentoring/ Slam coaching service that has accomplished top rankings in many slam competitions

Symay Rhodes is a poet, musician, and teacher from Norfolk, VA. He holds a Bachelor of Arts in English and Creative Writing from Norfolk State University. He is the slam master for Hampton Roads Verb Benders poetry slam team. He published his first book, Poetry is like Medicine, in 2021. He is currently the host of the Monday Night Open Mic at the Venue on 35th St. and Co-curator of Conduit: night of artistic worship.

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Host or Publisher Downing-Gross Cultural Arts Center