J.W. Basilo

Teaches at Slam University

J.W. Basilo is a writer, performer, director, and musician. His work lives at the intersection of the poignant and perverse, the hilarious and heartbreaking. Basilo is a National and Individual World Poetry Slam finalist, Pushcart Prize nominee, Artistic Director and founder of Chicago Slam Works Ensemble Theatre, and a company member with Red Theater Chicago. Over the last 10 years, he has coached numerous slam poets and teams to the National Poetry Slam and Louder Than a Bomb. His work has appeared in local and national TV and radio, literary journals, and in hundreds of theaters, dive bars, prisons, and comedy clubs across the world. In 2015 Basilo was named to Newcity’s LIT 50, a yearly list of Chicago’s most notable literary figures. All things considered, he’s doing pretty well for a guy who failed Creative Writing in high school. Currently, you can catch him every Sunday at the Green Mill, where he serves as Co-Host and Resident Sassmouth of the world famous Uptown Poetry Slam.