Slam Poet Mayda Del Valle Makes Oprah Winfrey’s Power List

The September 2009 issue of Oprah Winfrey’s O Magazine contains her first-ever “Power List” and, surprisingly, it consists of more than “Oprah, Oprah, Oprah, some memoirist whose story turns out to be completely fabricated, a quack doctor, and Oprah.”

One of the names generating a lot of buzz on the list is a Chicago-based slam poet named Mayda del Valle. Mayda’s work often deals with themes that, while drawn from her own Latina heritage, hit close to home for people regardless of background - food, love, heartbreak, family.

Here’s her write-up in O:

Mayda del Valle doesn’t waste words. Or time. In 2001, at the age of 22, the Chicago native became the youngest poet and first Latino to win the Individual National Poetry Slam. Since then, her bracing style—informed by Latin jazz and hip-hop—has set off sparks on Russell Simmons’s Def Poetry HBO series and Broadway show; in May she performed at the White House at the invitation of the president and First Lady.

Here’s a taste of Mayda in action:

Here’s another set by Mayda. We advise not to watch this on an empty stomach:

And here’s Mayda performing at “An Evening of Poetry, Music & The Spoken Word” at the White House:

O’s First-Ever Power List [Oprah.com]