About the Artist

Marc Smith is the legendary founder of the Poetry Slam movement, performing jazz and poetry simultaneously. Marc single-handedly brought street poetry into the bars and back into the streets for which he’s hailed all over the world. He’s still at this marvelous combination with the brilliant The Last Word, a combination of Marc’s incendiary verbal creativity and some of the most killer jazz musicians in Chicago! We can’t tell you exactly what’s going to happen – and that’s the point: Marc and his crew will ride the ephemeral psychic waves of the moment to create some kind of musical magic. People ask us all the time for show recommendations, so don’t miss The Last Word!

Marc Smith was born in Chicago in 1948. He hosted his first poetry event in 1984 and his first poetry slam in 1986. That event started at the Get Me High Lounge which later migrated for a long run at The Green Mill.