Keith “Blu” Warfield is a spoken word performance artist as well as a teaching artist who hails from Chicago’s South Side. Blu was inspired to write at an early age after reading Bronx masquerade by Nikki Grimes. Blu then began competition in LTAB. He competed his entire high school career as part of Team Englewood, winning the inaugural Louder Than a Bomb Indy Poet Award in 2012. His poem, “Whatever you are be a good one” was recorded at WBEZ studios and featured in many publications including The Huffington Post following his 2012 win. Blu has been fortunate enough to perform for and alongside Jay Ivy, Roger Bonaire Agar, Patricia Smith, and even the Dalai Lama. He is currently working as a Teaching Artist and in 2015 led projects with Young Chicago Authors Community Partners including Nike, True Star, Kumba Lynx, The Freshman Urban Program at Northwestern University and The Chase Fellowship Initiative. He was selected this summer to lead workshops for University of Chicago Summer Lab Write On Program.

Kush Thompson is a political-romantic poet, author, womanist, & teaching artist. A celebrated Louder Than a Bomb individual finalist & alumni, runner-up best local poet of 2014 by The Chicago Reader and one of The Root’s 2015 Young Futurists, Thompson’s contributed to showcases with TEDX Chicago, The Chicago Jazz Festival, and The John F. Kennedy Center’s What’s Goin’ On Now tribute to Marvin Gaye featuring John Legend and Sharon Jones & The Dap Kings for First Lady, Michelle Obama. In the fall of 2014, Kush Thompson joined, as a German consulate, the Berlin-based Wort.Word.Lich collective for its first ever bi-lingual showcase tour. Kush is the co-founder of The Lady Church initiative where she hosts monthly meetings devoted to womyn empowerment and healing. Her debut chapbook, A Church Beneath the Bulldozer, has been recently published with New School Poetics.

Some of the illest up and coming artists in Chicago have hung out and performed at WordPlay. Alumni include: Chance The Rapper, Mick Jenkins, No-Name Gypsy, Saba, Donnie Trumpet, M&O and many others!