The Philly Pigeon aims to elevate and popularize the art form of performance poetry, while serving the people. We strive to foster a sense of community across gender, color, religion, sexuality, and class. We believe in empowering both poets and our audience to participate in shaping the art form.
Mission
Collective
The Philly Pigeon is organized and run by Kai Davis, Jasmine Combs and co-founder Jacob Winterstein. We are friends, cultural organizers and creative collaborators. We're from Philly.
Kai Davis is a writer, performer and teaching artist from Philadelphia. She has performed for TEDX Philly, CNN, BET, PBS, and NPR, among others.
She is a two time international grand slam champion, winning Brave New Voices in 2011 and The College Union Poetry Slam Invitational in 2016.
She is a 2017 Leeway Transformation Award Recipient. When she is not in Philly, she tours colleges and universities across the country, performing her original work and facilitating writing workshops.
Right now she spends most of her time working as Poetry Editor for Apiary Magazine and as a Co-Host & Artistic Director for The Philly Pigeon.
Jacob Winterstein is an artist, event producer and educator from Philadelphia. Through performance art, poetry and events, Jacob's work explores how we have been separated from and how we can joyfully connect with each other and our environments.
Jacob is the co-founder and managing director of The Philly Pigeon.
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Jasmine L. Combs is a writer, performer, and event organizer from Philadelphia, PA. She was the 2015 Grand Slam Champion of The Philly Pigeon Poetry Slam, a 2015 National Poetry Slam semi-finalist, and a 2016 College Union Poetry Slam Invitational champion.​
Her work has been published in Apiary Magazine, Vagabond City Lit, Luna Luna, WusGood, and her performances have been featured on Button Poetry, SlamFind, Blavity, and The Huffington Post.
In 2014 she published her first chapbook Universal Themes.
Alumni
Philly Pigeon co-founder & author of Carnival (NOT A CULT media), Alyesha Wise is a poet, teaching artist & TEDx speaker from Camden, N.J. Alyesha currently resides in Los Angeles, CA and is the co-founder of Spoken Literature Art Movement (S.L.A.M.) - an organization providing poetry education and extensive programming for poets. Alyesha served as the Hollywood (Da Poetry Lounge) Slam Team head coach, leading the team to finals both years, most recently to 2nd place. She also served as the Los Angeles (Get Lit) Youth Slam Team co-coach from 2014-2017.
Along with other slam highlights, she is a 2-time Women of the World Poetry Slam finalist. Alyesha has been featured on different platforms and publications such as Huffington Post, Bustle, Afropunk, PBS, POPSUGAR, Buzzfeed, Free Speech TV and more. She has collaborated with Brave New Films and additional media platforms, having featured in the Google Interstellar Project, in conjunction with the hit film Interstellar. Ron Howard once wrote about Alyesha's work, "Very Powerful."
