Nine fi­nal­ists, in­clud­ing five women, have se­cured their places in the Grand Slam of the Na­tion­al Po­et­ry Slam (NPS) 2026, set­ting the stage for a high-stakes fi­nale at one of the re­gion’s most an­tic­i­pat­ed spo­ken word events.

The po­ets ad­vanc­ing are Re­nal­do Brig­gs, Colleen Cleghorn, Ali­cia Psy­che Haynes, Rick­ibah Isaac, Jo­hchele John­son, Shimi­ah Lewis, Der­ron Sandy, Alexan­dra Stew­art and Seth Sylvester.

They will go head-to-head with 2025 de­fend­ing cham­pi­on Shaquille War­ren, as they com­pete for the coun­try’s most pres­ti­gious spo­ken word ti­tle. Ronal­do Mo­hammed and Geron Ruiz re­main on stand­by.

Their pro­gres­sion fol­lows a com­pet­i­tive semi­fi­nal round held on Sun­day March 29 at the Cen­tral Bank Au­di­to­ri­um, where 18 per­form­ers bat­tled for a place in the fi­nal stage.

From that group, on­ly nine were se­lect­ed to move for­ward, re­flect­ing the in­ten­si­ty and cal­i­bre of this year’s field.

The Na­tion­al Po­et­ry Slam Grand Slam is sched­uled for Sun­day May 3 at the Na­tion­al Acad­e­my for the Per­form­ing Arts (NA­PA), where au­di­ences will wit­ness per­for­mances that blend rhythm, sto­ry­telling and so­cial com­men­tary.

The event will once again close the Bo­cas Lit Fest, Trinidad and To­ba­go’s an­nu­al fes­ti­val of sto­ries and ideas.

Since its in­cep­tion in 2012, the Na­tion­al Po­et­ry Slam has grown in­to the largest spo­ken word plat­form in the An­glo­phone Caribbean. It has be­come a key space for po­ets to ex­plore iden­ti­ty, cul­ture, pol­i­tics and per­son­al nar­ra­tive, while al­so shap­ing the re­gion’s evolv­ing spo­ken word land­scape.

Marielle Forbes, Youth Pro­gram­ming Man­ag­er at Bo­cas Lit Fest, de­scribed the semi­fi­nal stage as more than a com­pe­ti­tion, high­light­ing it as a space where young voic­es de­vel­op con­fi­dence and artis­tic ex­pres­sion.

She not­ed the in­creas­ing pres­ence of younger per­form­ers as ev­i­dence of a grow­ing cre­ative pipeline with­in the art­form.

With prize mon­ey set at TT$25,000 for first place, TT$15,000 for sec­ond and TT$8,000 for third, an­tic­i­pa­tion is build­ing for a fi­nal show­down that promis­es in­ten­si­ty, emo­tion and pow­er­ful per­for­mances on the NA­PA stage.