Tongue on Flames

Tongue on Flames is a nocturnal journey through New York’s vibrant poetry scene, moving through iconic spaces such as the Nuyorican Poets Cafe, St. Mark’s Church, Fez Cafe, and the Bowery Poetry Club. Rooted in the Nuyorican’s mission to champion underrepresented voices, the city’s weekly Poetry Slams became electric gatherings where performance, competition, and community collided. Led with wit and audacity by slam-master and poetry activist Bob Holman – who would later establish the Bowery Poetry Club – these events echoed the movement first sparked in Chicago in 1986 by Marc Kelly Smith. Poetry Slams offered a free, improvisational arena where celebrated artists and emerging voices shared the stage, embracing diverse styles, cultural lineages, and high-spirited audience participation. As Holman famously noted, judges drawn from the crowd rated poems anywhere from “0” to “10!,” depending on the intensity of the response. Featuring Pallotta’s evocative photographs alongside contributions from Bob Holman, Paul Beatty, Patricia Smith, Janice Erlbaum, Pedro Pietri, Sapphire, John Giorno, and an essay by Michele Bertolino, Tongue on Flames captures the heat, humor, and raw immediacy of a defining era in spoken word.