Board of Directors

Marc Kelly Smith, President

Marc Smith is creator/founder of the international Poetry Slam movement. As stated in the PBS television series, The United States of Poetry, a "strand of new poetry began at Chicago's Green Mill Tavern in 1987 when Marc Smith found a home for the Poetry Slam." Since then, performance poetry has spread throughout the world exported to over 1000 cities large and small. Chalking up more than a 2000 performances in nightclubs, concert halls, libraries, universities, and on top of the occasional hot dog stand. Smith continues to host and perform every Sunday night at the Green Mill to standing room only crowds. He has staged a multitude of poetry related productions including Chicago's 1991, 1999, & 2002 National Poetry Slams, Slam Dunk Poetry Day at Chicago's Field Museum, Summer Solstice Poetry Shows at the Museum of Contemporary Art, The Poetry Hot Dog Cart for Chicago's 2005 "Stirring Things Up Festival", Looptopia 2007, and numerous high school and college events. He currently guides and directs Chicago's Speak'Easy Ensemble an innovative performance poetry troupe. He counseled and collaborated with Mark Eleveld to create Spoken Word Revolution volume one and Spoken Word Redux, two of the most important and best-selling book/CD anthologies of spoken word artists and performance poets. His collection of poems Crowdpleaser and his CDs It's About Time, Quarters in the Juke Box, and Love & Politics are available through his website www.slampapi.com.

Jim Swinerton

Jim Swinerton, a California native, graduated from Drake University in 1972. He worked with a San Francisco general contractor from 1975 until 1997. His final position was VP for strategic planning. He then worked with two technology companies developing internet based applications for the construction industry until 2002. After another two years as the manager of a top of the line design and build contractor, he retired in 2004 and moved to Chicago. His least favorite English teacher introduced him to poetry his sophomore year in high school with a lecture on John Donne's The Sun Rising. Since then, he has followed with varying degrees of intensity. In 1996, he joined a poetry recital group and has been working on his poetry skills since. His last public performance was at an open mike session in the 2010 Cowboy Poetry Festival. Jim Swinerton has been a committee member of Human Rights Watch since 2000. In 2005, he became a board member of the Heyday Institute, a non-profit organization that supports Heyday Press, a California specific book publisher. Jim Swinerton likes bike riding and being outdoors.

Richard Prince

Richard Prince has been a college English professor for nearly forty years and recently retired from Lewis University in 2007. He is a graduate of Calvin College the University of Chicago, and the University of Michigan. He has loved and respected performance poetry since its very beginning in the 1980's. He was born and raised on the South Side of Chicago and has lived in Hyde Park for the past 25 years.

Joseph N. Welch, II

Joe currently is the Managing Partner of the Chicago intellectual property law firm Pattishall, McAuliffe, Newbury, Hilliard & Geraldson. At earlier stages in his life he managed bookstores in Chicago and Ann Arbor, and Assistant-managed one in New York City. His poetry was published during his college years at Harvard, and he continues to write on weekends. He learned the difference between "page poetry" and spoken word thanks to his daughter Becca and son Jesse, who both graduated from the Young Chicago Authors program, with Jesse performing as a member of YCA's national slam team. Joe has provided pro bono legal assistance to a number of local performers, artists and organizations. He taught as an adjunct professor at Northwestern university School of Law for more than 20 years and has co-authored two books on intellectual property law. He tells people unfamiliar with performance poetry that once they attend a Poetry Slam, and experience all the energy and creativity, they're likely to get hooked.

Brent Mesick

Brent Mesick has more than 15 years of executive and senior level management and consulting experience within I.T. and service environments. Highlights of his career include leading his own consulting company, contract work for Motorola, a Director of Training position for Grand Premier Financial, and Organization Development management and consulting positions at Discover Financial and Oracle.

Brent has been active in the arts of years. He has been published in After Hours, Exact Change Only, the Iodine Poetry Journal, and Samsara magazine. Brent has read for "Poets for Peace and Justice", "Poets for Human Rights", "Epiphany: Poets of Heart and Vision", and for "Poets Against the War", co-sponsored by PoetryPoetry.com. That performance can be heard on PoetryPoetry's website or on the sold out CD from Lulu.com. Brent reads at the Arlington Poetry Project, Coffee Chicago, The Cafe, Molly Malone's, The Exact Change Only Collective, and the Green Mill.

Brent was involved with organizing the 2003 National Poetry Slam competition in Chicago. He is a past board member of The Poetry Center of Chicago.

Emily Calvo

Emily Calvo is a freelance creative director/copywriter who has nearly 20 years experience in writing and creating strategic marketing campaigns for design firms, ad agencies, corporations and non-profit organizations. Since attending her first poetry slam in 1993, she has been a regular at the Green Mill and performed in numerous clubs, festivals, and libraries. In 1999 and 2003, she was the marketing/public relations director for the National Poetry Slam Championships, the national competitions, which were held in Chicago. The events attracted local as well as national media attention from 60 Minutes and The New York Times. She also spent three years as poet-in-residence at the Young Women's Leadership Charter School in Chicago. Her poetry has appeared in the Oyez Review (Roosevelt University Press), Colere' (Coe College, Cedar Rapids, IA) After Hours and others. Calvo also paints and has a series of watercolors incorporating poetry into her visual art. A native Chicagoan, Calvo has a BA in Industrial Psychology from Loyola University - which she uses every day.

Emily Rose

Henry Sampson

Retired teacher of English for 35 years, the last 33 at William Fremd High School in Palatine, Illinois. Primary teaching responsibilities included developer and instructor in District 211 Advanced Placement English courses and Instructor of Creative Writing, and Rhetoric of Cinema courses. Primarily responsible for bringing Poetry Slams into the high school arena. Developed plan for implementing poetry slams into high school curriculum beginning in 1990; presented information on high school slams at the Illinois Speech and Theater Association and at the National Council of Teachers of English Conventions several times. Head coach of Fremd High School's Speech Team for 35 years. Numerous Conference, Regional and Sectional Championships. Chairman of the Illinois Speech Coaches Commission of the Illinois Speech and Theater Association. Commissioner of the coaches association for 6 years. Building Representative for the Illinois Federation of Teachers for 15 years; served a five year term in the same position in the late 1970's. Hosted 1997 regional Poetry Slam in Chicago. Co-organizer of the 1999 National Poetry Slam in Chicago. Non-voting member of the Executive Council of Poetry Slam, Inc. in 1999 and 2000. Elected to Executive Council of Poetry Slam, Inc. 2001 to present. Treasurer of Poetry Slam, Inc. 2000 to 2005. Vice-President of Poetry Slam, Inc. 2005 to present. Henry served as co-organizer of the 2003 National Poetry Slam in Chicago. Henry is proud to have served as Tournament Director for all of the National Poetry Slam events in the last decade. Henry presently works as the Event Coordinator for the National Poetry Slam, is on the board of the Poetry Center of Chicago (Vice-President) and is one of the founding directors of Chicago Slam Works. Henry also teaches writing and literature occasionally at Dominican University in River Forest, Illinois.

Maria Mungai

Maria Mungai recently retired from William Fremd High School in Palatine, IL. where she taught all levels of Spanish including Advanced Placement. Maria was an Assistant Speech Coach for 13 years and the head coach from 2007 - 2010.

Maria studied art at Illinois Wesleyan University and then graduated from Northern Illinois University with a major in Spanish. Maria moved to Madrid, Spain in July, 1990 and graduated from New York University in Madrid in 1991 with a Master's degree in Spanish Language and Culture.

Maria has continued to pursue her artwork. Since 2001, she has worked on non-toxic monotype printmaking in her home studio. She does etching at the Chicago Printmakers Collaborative.

Maria has been a fan of Poetry Slam since 1991. In 1999 and again in 2003, she helped with the planning of the National Poetry Slam in Chicago. It is her belief that every great art form needs people to help nurture and work toward its success.