Tara Betts

Tara Betts is a feminist poet who uses her art for activism. Originally from Kankakee, Illinois, she's an award-winning slam poet and Brave New Voices National Youth Poetry Slam champ. She founded the Young Chicago Author’s GirlSpeak and was a writer-in-residence at Cook County Juvenile Temporary Detention Center for two years. She is also a fellow at Cave Canem, an African-American poets' retreat and teaches Creative Writing at Rutger’s University. Betts co-hosted and organized the women's performance space/open mic series Women OutLoud and has performed on HBO’s def poetry jam, a Southwest VDay staging of Vagina Monologues and the Black Family Channel’s series Spoken. Her collection of poems, Can I hang? was published in 1999.

Tara Betts reading "Block Party"

"Making Kookaid"

"One More Chance"

More on Tara Betts

GirlSpeak

Cave Canem

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