The Annual QUEER SLAM is open to self-identified QUEER poets only.Hosted by TARA HARDY. for more info email info@seattlepoetryslam.org Ela Barton cannot sleep. When she is not feeding elementary school children their lunches, or feeding brunch to the Tri-Deltas and University of Washington, she is wearing, and communicating her art on t-shirts via an urban street wear brand, Chicharon Adventures, all the while, she is a queer poet on a mission to spit, write, breathe and communicate poetry wherever she can. Being a lunch chef, brunch chef, marketing manager/graphic apparel designer and poet does not allow for too much dozing off. Originally from Los Angeles, California, her first home slam being “Da Poetry Lounge”, she fell in love with the word almost instantly. After joining the United States Navy, she was stationed in Everett, Washington but kept her love for the word on notes and pages kept locked away in her space onboard ships. After becoming separated from the Navy, she attended the Bumbershoot Music and Arts Festival on September 2, 2007 and it brought her back to life and back to the word. With the poetry at Bumbershoot, in combination with the Poetry Explosion, the Seattle Poetry Slam as well as Youth Speak Seattle events, Ela was inspired to stay in Seattle for the community that she so desperately fell in love with.

Since then, Ela has been heard on the internet radio show - spokenfunk.tv - and has featured at the Youth Speaks Seattle Open Mic and Wired and Unplugged Poetry Night in Snohomish, Washington and is the 2008 Bainbridge Performing Arts Second Annual Poetry Slam Champion and has been heard and seen at many other events in and around the Seattle area. She has currently published one chapbook, entitled “Quarter-Life Crisis”, she also is the Spoken Word Programming Director for the Bend-it-Extravaganza of 2008, which is a weekend of arts and education to rally queer youth and their allies, and a member of Pinay Sa Seattle, which is a collective of Filipino women invested in educating, defending and advocating for the human rights of Filipinas globally.