Yuuri Miki reads her poems with a fierceness and softness — deep breaths and an edge to her voice that cuts like a knife. Reading poetry aloud is an art, a skill that made her Japan national slam poetry champion twice, in 2017 and 2018.
Today, she is a board member of the World Poetry Slam Organization. She is also a co-founder and managing representative of Kotoba Slam Japan, the country’s national slam poetry organization that runs the regional competitions to select a winner to represent Japan at the annual World Poetry Slam Championship.
Miki writes and performs freewheeling poems about sex and motherhood with a feminist bent, seemingly standard poetry fare, but that’s a rarity in a country where sexuality and politics are rather unlikely themes in poetry — Japanese poets open up emotionally instead to show their deepest feelings in a culture that’s largely reserved and private.
