Alvin Lau is a Chicago native and professional performance poet . A son of immigrant Chinese, he’s always wondered where Asia-America really is, though he often spends more time wondering why no one’s looking for it anymore. The product of a strict Catholic and a left-wing Buddhist, he believes poetry is about balance: you can entertain without pandering, be cultural without being ethnocentric, be lyrical without being esoteric, and be simultaneously political and deeply personal.
Extremely competitive thanks to an "Asian" upbringing, Alvin has had regional and national success playing chess, Magic: The Gathering, and Street Fighter, though he abandoned these interests when he discovered poetry slam. With some of his first poems, he captained a team from Young Chicago Authors to a championship at Louder Than A Bomb: The Chicago Teen Poetry Slam, and in his second year he helped the team capture the national title at Brave New Voices 2002. The following year, he captained a team from the Gwendolyn Brooks Center for Black Literature and Creative Writing to local and national championships, becoming the first back-to-back national youth champion.
At the age of twenty he burst on the adult scene, placing seventh at the Individual World Poetry Slam and sixth at the National Poetry Slam in the same year. Since then, he has ranked among the top seven poets in the country four times in four years -- placing as high as 2nd in 2006-- and won more high-stakes poetry slam invitationals and money slams than any other poet, including ANTHEM! at Cal Poly in San Luis Obispo, one of the most prestigious invitationals in the country. Alvin has also been the first grand slam champion of both the Mental Graffiti poetry slam and the historic Green Mill, a three-time Midwest Regional champion, and in 2007, he was named the official "Poet of Conscience" for Amnesty International.
His work has been featured on National Public Radio, the Poetry Foundation online, dozens of newspapers, anthologies, and literary journals, and he filmed for the fifth and sixth seasons of HBO's Def Poetry Jam. When not writing, he often performs, holds creative writing workshops, and speaks on social justice issues at high schools and universities across the country, including Sarah Lawrence College, the University of Chicago, Columbia University, and Yale. Alvin is also a member of the Bullhorn Collective, composed of the thirty highest ranking performance poets in the world.
Favorites include tequila, mangos, and Kanye West.
For booking information, e-mail: alvin.c.lau@gmail.com
"Alvin Lau carves blizzards out of granite, releasing flurries of words that make you step back, catch your breath, and marvel at the craft and concentration humming underneath."
-Jeremy Richards, co-editor of the 2005 National Poetry Slam Anthology
"Alvin Lau is young, sharp, and freakishly talented. A manic intellectual, Lau provides metaphorical bricks to his readers and listeners, asking them to launch them through the dirty window of apathy."
-Rachel McKibbens, SlamMaster for the louderARTS project
"Billy Collins meets Kanye West."
-The Chicago Tribune.
"A poetic prodigy."
-The Georgetown Voice
"Alvin Lau flips it. You won't get cliches and butter here. You'll get someone who is reaching for that shiny thing behind the ribcage."
-Buddy Wakefield, two-time Individual World Poetry Slam Champion
Not a whole lot here. Well, my cousin and his lady are coming into town tonight, so this weekend will be busy with them. I don't have any homework to do next week, so I can Smash anytime then.
You are one of the most inspiring poets ever to be heard by my ears. You make me want to pick up a pen and write until my thoughts are clear and well articulated. Thank you for being so wonderful!
The first time I read your comment, I thought it said you had "new york" you were debuting.... To which my response would've been "Well, at least we'll all know where Brooklyn at." Unfortunately it's now irrelevant. Will you be peddling any merch at IWU?
remember I told you that story about how my name sounds identical to a Ewe word that means "on the path"... as in doing what you're meant to do with your life... yeah, I got that!
I saw the place... and it was nice. I think 625 is too much. I want to travel some more this year, so I'm trying to be extra cheap. Like 400... 5 at most. Sorry! I got a tattoo today.
HEY! I am in Ireland! Ive been here since JAnuary...it is so nice. Brilliant, even. Whats up tell me of life! you doing readings in new york and what not? I'll be back in june or so... blah..it is never sunny here... I am so sick of rain...
I was at the Slam at North Harford High School, in Maryland a few months back. I was the one with the safety-pinned glasses. (that's how most people remember me lol)
