The Dallas Poetry Slam Team will be performing a two-hour feature on Feb. 18 at 2011 Bistro, beginning at 10 p.m. The event, Black Love, is focused on celebrating the month of love and Black History Month. 

Dallas Poetry Slam Team focuses on art and spoken word as more than just a show to entertain guests. With so much going on in the world each day, members said it’s important to have an outlet for authentic, honest expression.

“It’s more than just a mic. It’s a movement,” Antuan Simmons, promoter, said. “The movement of spoken word is to actually give people a voice. It’s a whole mantra, a whole aura. Especially to give a voice to the voiceless.”

Dallas Poetry Slam Team has been active for 22 years and its mission is to provide an opportunity for people to express themselves.

“The ultimate goal is to provide a platform for poets and writers in our community,” Sherrie Zantea, executive director of Dallas Poetry Slam organization, said. “To involve everyone in our community to be a part of the literary movement.”

Using spoken word is more about just the words that are said, but how they’re said and why they’re said. Much can be accomplished through using words correctly, to heal instead of hurt, to help instead of hinder. Constantly focused on progressing instead of becoming stagnant as an organization, Dallas Poetry Slam Team seeks to share its words with people near and far.

“It’s actually a collective force to have the community move with us and progress with us in terms of enhancing the literary arts in our area,” Zantea said. “We tour around the country and we have national competitions we go to every year, at least three of them. So it’s definitely not just a Dallas thing.”

Dallas Poetry Slam Team is determined to make sure its words and work leave positive impacts and become gifts to people in the audience.

“I want them to feel empowered, motivated and overall just happy about life,” Zantea said.

Event admission is $10 and is sponsored by the Wichita Falls Art-Entertainment and Culture Center.