Rudy Francisco
Born (1982-07-27) July 27, 1982
San Diego, California
EducationAlliant International University
OccupationPoet

Rudy K. Francisco (born July 27, 1982) is an American spoken word poet and writer.[1][2][3][4] He has won several poetry slams and written six books of poetry: Getting Stitches, Scratch, No Gravity, No Gravity Part II, Helium, and I'll Fly Away.[5] He made an appearance on TV One's Verses and Flow and performed his spoken word poems "Complainers" and "Rifle" on the Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.[6][7][8][9]

Early life

Rudy Francisco was born and raised in San Diego, California and is of Belizean decent.[10][11] He wrote a love poem as part of a writing assignment in his senior year of high school and received high marks for it.[3][12]

Francisco was inspired watching HBO's Def Poetry Jam. He began to go to open mics in his area until they were closed due to gentrification.[8] With a group of local poets and activists called "Collective Purpose", he opened an open mic known as Elevated in San Diego, which has been open for over ten years.[3]

Francisco attended Alliant International University in San Diego. He completed a Bachelor of Arts degree in psychology and pursued a master's degree in industrial and organizational psychology.[13] Francisco was a resident assistant at his school and started hosting open mics.[12] He was invited to other open mics and met other poets through them.[13] He worked as a statistical analyst and completed three years of a Ph.D. program before quitting to do poetry full-time.[1][13]

Poetry career

Francisco first got into performance poetry after going to open mics and watching a show that featured the poet Shihan and falling in love with the style.[13] He says that reading The Music Lesson by Victor Wooten was pivotal moment in his life as a poet.[14] Francisco has performed in competitions as well as shows around the world.[12]

Francisco wrote his debut poetry book Getting Stitches in 2013, then Scratch in 2014, No Gravity in 2015, and his first full-length book Helium in 2017, which was published by Button Poetry. It took Francisco a year and a half to write the collection of 58 poems.[13] Helium received positive reviews.[5][15][16] When asked what Helium means in an interview, Francisco states that "helium allows you to defy gravity" and “in a lot of ways poetry always gave me that temporary escape.”[13] Themes for Helium include race, class, gender, love, and self-reflection.[13] His style for his poems encompasses "personal and political narratives through an honest and humorous approach."[10]

Francisco is the founder and current coach of the San Diego Poetry Slam Team, which won the 2017 National Poetry Slam Championship.[17][18]

Francisco performed his spoken-word poem "Complainers" on his first appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon on March 1, 2018.[6][7] Rudy Francisco is the first to perform a full-length poem on the show. Many of his poems are on YouTube, some of which, like "Scars/To the New Boyfriend" have accumulated over two million views.[19] He has also grown a large following on Instagram with over 250,000 followers.[20]

Personal life

Francisco has said that the slam community allows one be a part of a family, saying “some of my closest friends are people I have been on teams with or competed against. It is what keeps me coming back around.”[13]

Francisco has a five-year-old daughter.[13]

Tours and events

Francisco toured the UK in May and June 2018.[21] In early June of 2018, Button Poetry announced on Facebook that performances scheduled for India with Sabrina Benaim were cancelled due to "scheduling and organizational issues."[22] He performed at the August 2018 slam poetry competition in Chicago, representing the San Diego team.[13] Francisco went on tour in October in the UK with fellow poets Neil Hilborn and Sabrina Benaim.[21] On April 30, 2019, he performed at Beltway Poetry Slam in Washington, D.C. He was the host city coordinator for the May 13, 2019 Individual World Poetry Slam in Southern California.[13]

Books of poetry

  • Getting Stitches (2013)
  • Scratch (2014)
  • No Gravity (2015)
  • No Gravity Part II (2016)
  • Helium (2017)
  • I'll Fly Away (2020)
  • Excuse Me As I Kiss The Sky (2023)

Filmography

Television
Year Title Notes
2013 Verses and Flow[9] Season 3 Episode 8
2018 - 2019 The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon 2 episodes
2021 The Bachelorette[23] Season 18 Episode 3
Spoken Word Videos
Year Title Channel Notes
2012 Scars/To the New Boyfriend speakeasynyc
A Lot Like You Marc Bacani
2013 Sons Button Poetry With Terisa Siagatonu
2014 Complainers
2015 My Honest Poem

Poetry awards

  • 2007 San Diego Grand Slam Champion
  • 2007 Poet of the People Slam Champion
  • 2008 Member of the Hollywood Poetry Slam Team
  • 2009 National Underground Poetry Individual Champion
  • 2009 3rd place in the Individual World Poetry Slam
  • 2010 La Poloma Slam Champion
  • 2010 Chico Invitational Slam Champion
  • 2010 San Diego Grand Slam Champion
  • 2010 San Francisco Grand Slam Champion
  • 2010 Member of the San Diego Poetry Slam Team (Regional Champion/6th ranked team in the nation)
  • 2010 Individual World Poetry Slam Slam Champion
  • 2017 National Poetry Slam Champion (as part of the San Diego Poetry Slam Team)[24]

References

  1. 1 2 Jones, Zoe (2016-05-26). "Rudy Francisco Shares Truth in Poetry". The Daily Nexus. Retrieved 2017-05-13.
  2. ↑ Reed, Parker (2014-11-18). "Rudy Francisco performance review". Iowa State Daily. Retrieved 2017-05-13.
  3. 1 2 3 Henderson, Edward (11 April 2016). "Rudy Francisco Takes Spoken Word to New Heights". Voice and Viewpoint. Archived from the original on 2017-12-31. Retrieved 2017-05-13.
  4. ↑ Rudy Francisco - My Honest Poem (video), Button Poetry, 2015-11-23, retrieved 2018-07-30
  5. 1 2 Chaney, Sam (2018-04-04). "National Poetry Month: must-read contemporary poetry". UNF Spinnaker. Retrieved 2018-04-17.
  6. 1 2 Spoken-Word Poet Rudy Francisco Performs His Poem "Complainers", NBC, 2018-03-01, retrieved 2018-04-17
  7. 1 2 Cantor, Brian (2018-03-01). "Darren Criss Appears On "The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon"". Headline Planet. Retrieved 2018-04-17.
  8. 1 2 Spoken-Word Poet Rudy Francisco Performs His Poem "Rifle" (video), The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, 2019-04-18, retrieved 2019-05-12
  9. 1 2 WALTON ISAACSON (2013-10-24), Lexus Verses and Flow Season 3: Fiveology's Performance, retrieved 2019-05-13
  10. 1 2 "From a Stutter to 'Tonight Show': How Rudy Francisco Became a Poetry Slam Champion". L.A. TACO. 2018-08-29. Retrieved 2019-05-12.
  11. ↑ Hurley, Naomi (2017-09-26). "Poet Rudy Francisco Visits SMCM". The BayNet. Retrieved 2018-04-17.
  12. 1 2 3 "Interview: Rudy Francisco, The Artist Room - CMYK". CMYK. 2016-04-15. Retrieved 2018-08-05.
  13. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 Book Circle Online (2018-03-29), Rudy Francisco discusses "Helium" | Book Circle Online, retrieved 2018-08-05
  14. ↑ Evan Sanford (2016-04-09), Inside the Studio with Evan Sanford - Rudy Francisco Interview, retrieved 2019-05-12
  15. ↑ Westbrook, Georgia (2017-11-27). "Reaching an emotional high with "Helium"". Pipe Dream. Retrieved 2018-04-17.
  16. ↑ McDonald, Sara M. (2018-01-29). "Button Poetry's Rudy Francisco's first book triumphs". The Crow's Nest. Retrieved 2018-04-17.
  17. ↑ "Congratulations to San Diego Poetry Slam, the 2017 National Poetry Slam Champions!". Poetry Slam Inc. Archived from the original on 2018-04-18. Retrieved 2018-04-17.
  18. ↑ Diele, Jonina (2017-08-02). "6 Teams You Don't Want To Miss At the National Poetry Slam". 303 Magazine. Retrieved 2018-04-17.
  19. ↑ speakeasynyc (2012-03-18), Rudy Francisco "Scars/To the New Boyfriend", retrieved 2019-05-12
  20. ↑ "Rudy Francisco (@rudyfrancisco) • Instagram photos and videos". www.instagram.com. Retrieved 2019-05-13.
  21. 1 2 "Rudy Francisco". www.facebook.com. Retrieved 2018-08-05.
  22. ↑ "Button Poetry". www.facebook.com. Retrieved 2018-08-05.
  23. ↑ Dobin, Marenah (2021-11-03). "All the Details on The Bachelorette Season 18 Episode 3 Fashion". E! Online. Retrieved 2021-11-05.
  24. ↑ Henderson, Edward (24 August 2017). "San Diego Poetry Slam Team Celebrates National Championship Win". Voice and Viewpoint. Archived from the original on 2017-08-28. Retrieved 2018-04-17.
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