Archive of the Spoken Word Poetry Movement
in Trinidad and Tobago
“Time creeps over the patient who are too long patient.”
– Derek Walcott, Prelude
The Spoken Word Memory Forum: Archive of the Spoken Word Poetry Movement in Trinidad and Tobago is a digital collection curated by amílcar peter sanatan. The collection was established in 2026 in celebration of his 20th anniversary as a spoken word poet and organiser. Since the 2000s, the spoken word poetry movement has emerged in Trinidad and Tobago as part of the wider national youth movement, where young people created stages for spoken word performance and social justice activism in their communities, university campuses, and secondary schools. Open mics became the initial hubs for spoken word poets who blended local oral traditions – such as calypso, rapso, ragga soca, and Speech Band – and traditional carnival speech characters like the Midnight Robber and Baby Doll with the global influence and media visibility of North American and European spoken word poets. Today, the movement stands as a mass-based, popular cultural art form that has developed its own unique poetics, performance modalities, politics, social justice pedagogies, aesthetics, and sonic expressions. This digital archive preserves selected aspects of the movement’s development and social context while prompting critical discussions on its history and futures.
amílcar peter sanatan
Founder and Chairperson, BATCE Culture Club (2007-2008)
Co-founder and Chairperson, JINGAY (2007-2008)
Chairperson, U.WE SPEAK (2008-2011)
Host, U.WE SPEAK (2016)
Advisor, U.WE SPEAK (2018)