Poet-Athlete April Barrios-Escobar Wins National Poetry Slam
April Barrios-Escobar, a fifth-grader at E.R. Taylor Elementary School in San Francisco has won the top prize in the America SCORES National Poetry Slam. April was honored for her powerful words and passionate poetry slam performance.
In normal years, The National Poetry Slam is held live in New York City or Washington DC. Finalists receive an all-expenses-paid trip to perform in the event. 2020 has been anything but normal, and this year’s event is a virtual one for the first time.
But a pandemic couldn’t prevent April from receiving her prize in person, and KTVU was there to capture the scene. A Bay Area SCORES contingent including April’s coach Manny Anaya descended on April’s home to help her celebrate.
April was one of three finalists from San Francisco to compete in the SCORES National Poetry Slam, an event that draws young poet competitors from San Francisco, Seattle, Vancouver, Los Angeles, New York, Boston, St. Louis, Washington D.C., Cleveland, Milwaukee, and Chicago. Isabelle Tam and Ryan Ham, both of Moscone Elementary School, were the other two San Francisco finalists. More than 13,500 young poet-athletes competed in the event, representing 311 schools.
The three San Francisco poets secured their spots in the national competition after performing in the first annual SCORES West Coast Poetry slam in 2019.
The journey of the 12 National Poetry Slam finalists through local and regional competitions to the virtual national poetry slam stage will be captured in the upcoming documentary, *Our World Our Cities, to be shown on Amazon Prime Video. The poetry performances of April, Isabelle, and Ryan can be seen here.
April has been involved in the America SCORES Bay Area program since she was in first grade and has thrived under Coach Manny’s guidance. “I call her my little firecracker,” Coach Manny says. “She’s very self-driven with an analytical imagination. I can give my SCORES students an assignment on a theme, and right away you can see her brain working and wheels turning, trying to put things together. She’s a perfectionist.”
April and Isabelle have received accolades for their poetry before. The two are among the four Bay Area SCORES 2020 Poet-Athlete Laureates. These exceptional poets were this year’s winners of their regional poetry slams and were selected for their outstanding poetry and inspiring spoken word performances. Both presented their poetry during National Poetry Month on KALW.
