Rudy Francisco

Last updated
Rudy Francisco
Born (1982-07-27) July 27, 1982 (age 41)
San Diego, California
EducationAlliant International University
OccupationPoet

Rudy K. Francisco (born July 27, 1982) is an American spoken word poet and writer. [1] [2] [3] [4] He has won several poetry slams and written six books of poetry: Getting Stitches, Scratch, No Gravity, No Gravity Part II, Helium, and I'll Fly Away. [5] He made an appearance on TV One's Verses and Flow and performed his spoken word poems "Complainers" and "Rifle" on the Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon . [6] [7] [8] [9]

Contents

Early life

Rudy Francisco was born and raised in San Diego, California and is of Belizean decent. [10] [11] He wrote a love poem as part of a writing assignment in his senior year of high school and received high marks for it. [3] [12]

Francisco was inspired watching HBO's Def Poetry Jam. He began to go to open mics in his area until they were closed due to gentrification. [8] With a group of local poets and activists called "Collective Purpose", he opened an open mic known as Elevated in San Diego, which has been open for over ten years. [3]

Francisco attended Alliant International University in San Diego. He completed a Bachelor of Arts degree in psychology and pursued a master's degree in industrial and organizational psychology. [13] Francisco was a resident assistant at his school and started hosting open mics. [12] He was invited to other open mics and met other poets through them. [13] He worked as a statistical analyst and completed three years of a Ph.D. program before quitting to do poetry full-time. [1] [13]

Poetry career

Francisco first got into performance poetry after going to open mics and watching a show that featured the poet Shihan and falling in love with the style. [13] He says that reading The Music Lesson by Victor Wooten was pivotal moment in his life as a poet. [14] Francisco has performed in competitions as well as shows around the world. [12]

Francisco wrote his debut poetry book Getting Stitches in 2013, then Scratch in 2014, No Gravity in 2015, and his first full-length book Helium in 2017, which was published by Button Poetry. It took Francisco a year and a half to write the collection of 58 poems. [13] Helium received positive reviews. [5] [15] [16] When asked what Helium means in an interview, Francisco states that "helium allows you to defy gravity" and “in a lot of ways poetry always gave me that temporary escape.” [13] Themes for Helium include race, class, gender, love, and self-reflection. [13] His style for his poems encompasses "personal and political narratives through an honest and humorous approach." [10]

Francisco is the founder and current coach of the San Diego Poetry Slam Team, which won the 2017 National Poetry Slam Championship. [17] [18]

Francisco performed his spoken-word poem "Complainers" on his first appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon on March 1, 2018. [6] [7] Rudy Francisco is the first to perform a full-length poem on the show. Many of his poems are on YouTube, some of which, like "Scars/To the New Boyfriend" have accumulated over two million views. [19] He has also grown a large following on Instagram with over 250,000 followers. [20]

Personal life

Francisco has said that the slam community allows one be a part of a family, saying “some of my closest friends are people I have been on teams with or competed against. It is what keeps me coming back around.” [13]

Francisco has a five-year-old daughter. [13]

Tours and events

Francisco toured the UK in May and June 2018. [21] In early June of 2018, Button Poetry announced on Facebook that performances scheduled for India with Sabrina Benaim were cancelled due to "scheduling and organizational issues." [22] He performed at the August 2018 slam poetry competition in Chicago, representing the San Diego team. [13] Francisco went on tour in October in the UK with fellow poets Neil Hilborn and Sabrina Benaim. [21] On April 30, 2019, he performed at Beltway Poetry Slam in Washington, D.C. He was the host city coordinator for the May 13, 2019 Individual World Poetry Slam in Southern California. [13]

Books of poetry

Filmography

Television
YearTitleNotes
2013Verses and Flow [9] Season 3 Episode 8
2018 - 2019 The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon 2 episodes
2021 The Bachelorette [23] Season 18 Episode 3
Spoken Word Videos
YearTitleChannelNotes
2012Scars/To the New Boyfriendspeakeasynyc
A Lot Like YouMarc Bacani
2013Sons Button Poetry With Terisa Siagatonu
2014Complainers
2015My Honest Poem

Poetry awards

Related Research Articles

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Performance poetry</span> Poetry composed for live performance

Performance poetry is a broad term, encompassing a variety of styles and genres. In brief, it is poetry that is specifically composed for or during a performance before an audience. During the 1980s, the term came into popular usage to describe poetry written or composed for performance rather than print distribution, mostly open to improvisation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Spoken word</span> Type of performance art

Spoken word is an oral poetic performance art that is based mainly on the poem as well as the performer's aesthetic qualities. It is a 20th-century continuation of an ancient oral artistic tradition that focuses on the aesthetics of recitation and word play, such as the performer's live intonation and voice inflection. Spoken word is a "catchall" term that includes any kind of poetry recited aloud, including poetry readings, poetry slams, jazz poetry, pianologues, musical readings, and hip hop music, and can include comedy routines and prose monologues. Unlike written poetry, the poetic text takes its quality less from the visual aesthetics on a page, but depends more on phonaesthetics, or the aesthetics of sound.

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References

  1. 1 2 Jones, Zoe (2016-05-26). "Rudy Francisco Shares Truth in Poetry". The Daily Nexus. Retrieved 2017-05-13.
  2. ↑ Reed, Parker (2014-11-18). "Rudy Francisco performance review". Iowa State Daily. Retrieved 2017-05-13.
  3. 1 2 3 Henderson, Edward (11 April 2016). "Rudy Francisco Takes Spoken Word to New Heights". Voice and Viewpoint. Archived from the original on 2017-12-31. Retrieved 2017-05-13.
  4. ↑ Rudy Francisco - My Honest Poem (video), Button Poetry, 2015-11-23, retrieved 2018-07-30
  5. 1 2 Chaney, Sam (2018-04-04). "National Poetry Month: must-read contemporary poetry". UNF Spinnaker. Retrieved 2018-04-17.
  6. 1 2 Spoken-Word Poet Rudy Francisco Performs His Poem "Complainers", NBC, 2018-03-01, retrieved 2018-04-17
  7. 1 2 Cantor, Brian (2018-03-01). "Darren Criss Appears On "The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon"". Headline Planet. Retrieved 2018-04-17.
  8. 1 2 Spoken-Word Poet Rudy Francisco Performs His Poem "Rifle" (video), The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, 2019-04-18, retrieved 2019-05-12
  9. 1 2 WALTON ISAACSON (2013-10-24), Lexus Verses and Flow Season 3: Fiveology's Performance , retrieved 2019-05-13
  10. 1 2 "From a Stutter to 'Tonight Show': How Rudy Francisco Became a Poetry Slam Champion". L.A. TACO. 2018-08-29. Retrieved 2019-05-12.
  11. ↑ Hurley, Naomi (2017-09-26). "Poet Rudy Francisco Visits SMCM". The BayNet. Retrieved 2018-04-17.
  12. 1 2 3 "Interview: Rudy Francisco, The Artist Room - CMYK". CMYK. 2016-04-15. Retrieved 2018-08-05.
  13. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 Book Circle Online (2018-03-29), Rudy Francisco discusses "Helium" | Book Circle Online , retrieved 2018-08-05[ dead link ]
  14. ↑ Evan Sanford (2016-04-09), Inside the Studio with Evan Sanford - Rudy Francisco Interview , retrieved 2019-05-12
  15. ↑ Westbrook, Georgia (2017-11-27). "Reaching an emotional high with "Helium"". Pipe Dream. Retrieved 2018-04-17.
  16. ↑ McDonald, Sara M. (2018-01-29). "Button Poetry's Rudy Francisco's first book triumphs". The Crow's Nest. Retrieved 2018-04-17.
  17. ↑ "Congratulations to San Diego Poetry Slam, the 2017 National Poetry Slam Champions!". Poetry Slam Inc. Archived from the original on 2018-04-18. Retrieved 2018-04-17.
  18. ↑ Diele, Jonina (2017-08-02). "6 Teams You Don't Want To Miss At the National Poetry Slam". 303 Magazine. Retrieved 2018-04-17.
  19. ↑ speakeasynyc (2012-03-18), Rudy Francisco "Scars/To the New Boyfriend" , retrieved 2019-05-12
  20. ↑ "Rudy Francisco (@rudyfrancisco) • Instagram photos and videos". www.instagram.com. Retrieved 2019-05-13.
  21. 1 2 "Rudy Francisco". www.facebook.com. Retrieved 2018-08-05.
  22. ↑ "Button Poetry". www.facebook.com. Retrieved 2018-08-05.
  23. ↑ Dobin, Marenah (2021-11-03). "All the Details on The Bachelorette Season 18 Episode 3 Fashion". E! Online. Retrieved 2021-11-05.
  24. ↑ Henderson, Edward (24 August 2017). "San Diego Poetry Slam Team Celebrates National Championship Win". Voice and Viewpoint. Archived from the original on 2017-08-28. Retrieved 2018-04-17.
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