We were lucky to catch up with Ghost Poetry Show recently and have shared our conversation below.

Ghost, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Can you talk to us about a project that’s meant a lot to you?

Ghost Poetry Show in its entirety has been the most meaningful project we’ve worked on. It did not start out that way; however, it has grown into something far beyond what we could have imagined in a year’s time. It started from a place of necessity, when a dozen poets just wanted to have a place to perform and share their work but has blossomed into a community that has impacted far beyond the 12 individuals that initially came together. As of publishing, we have had 84 unique poets share their work on our stage as well as over 1,000 tickets sold. It has become an entry point into spoken word poetry for people that were skeptical of the art form. We have created a place where non-performing writers can come together and share during our writing nights and, of course, the poetry slam event itself by showing off the immense amount of talented poets we have in Phoenix.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

Ghost Poetry Show is the state’s largest poetry slam. We currently hold our event at The Rebel Lounge, where twice a month we have a 3 round competition to determine who goes home with the cash prizes. 15 poets compete each slam where 5 randomly selected audience members give a numerical value to their art from 0.0 to a perfect 10. We drop the low score and the high score, to determine the poets score for that round. The top 5 poets advance to the second round and then the top 3 advance to the finals. It is a completely uncensored event. Poets are free to share their personal experiences, humor, storytelling or political beliefs with as colorful language as they’d like. There are a few poetry slams across the state, the 2 other predominant slams are in Flagstaff and Sedona and there are slams across the country. Summer of 2021, we realized that there was a hole in the poetry scene in Phoenix that could reasonably be filled. The pandemic, of course, put an end to all in-person events for a period and coming out of that (now looking back) the city was looking for connection through words and shared experiences. September 30, 2021, was our very first poetry slam and we have grown faster and created more opportunities for poets than we all could have imagined in a year.

What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?

Knowing the amount of talented individuals that reside in Phoenix, Ghost Poetry’s goal from day one has been to create a platform for those talents to be shared and made known. All skill levels are welcome to take our stage-from poets that have never shared their work to poets that have competed on the national level. No matter what level of creator they want to become, we want to foster a space to meet their needs. From poets getting over their fear of public speaking (it is the number one fear), to our top competitors receiving prize money at our poetry slams, the events themselves have become the starting point for sharing Phoenix’s talented poets. This past summer we were given the opportunity to travel to Salt Lake City, Utah with a team of poets to compete regionally. This next coming year we would like to do more of that and continue to be a resource and community for all things poetry in the greater Phoenix area and beyond.

We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?

Social media is really what has been the driving force behind our growth and opportunities these past 12 months. Prior to Rebel Lounge, we were at a different location at the end of 2021, and social media is what made it possible to sell out all 5 of those slams. We have been able to grow beyond that previous capacity at Rebel Lounge, were featured in a local arts festival, and (as previously stated) traveled to Utah for a large arts festival all thanks to social media. Often, when we have a conversation with someone that has never been to one of our slams before they tell us they found us through Facebook or Instagram. Beyond having the social media platforms, we have been consistent on posting content and making it digestible for our followers. Also, we believe being able to share videos of what someone can expect at our poetry slams is a big part of our success. Finally, taking that connection offline and in person at our events is another opportunity for building your social media presence. It may sound counterintuitive, however, making those connections in person and putting on a good show that people want to come back to has also helped us grow. Our followers will share their own poems or poems they like from our other poets and that then reaches an audience we couldn’t have had on our own. There is a stronger level of trust when a friend shares something rather than when a “brand” is just promoting their event and asking you to buy tickets. Beyond that, there are plenty of great resources online for the technical aspects of social media like setting up accounts and making the most of each post with captions and hashtags.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ghostpoetryshow/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ghostpoetryshow
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCb_-2AV5Cpp_MgTXSO6pjWg
• Other: TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@ghostpoetryshow