Asia Samson
Poet Laureate of Northwest Florida 2024 - 2027
Asia Samson was officially inducted as the ninth Poet Laureate of Northwest Florida on March 22nd, 2024 at the Authors Social at the Pensacola Museum of Art the evening before the Books by the Bay Festival. He is the first spoken word poet to receive the honor.
Samson may call Pensacola Beach home, but he has been featured on several different poetry programs around the United States including HBO Def Poetry Jam, Button Poetry, TEDx, NPR's Tiny Desk Contest, SoFar Sounds, Story Conference, and Entrepreneur's Organization.
In addition to these featured performances, Samson is also the most booked poetry act in the college market having toured over 2,000 colleges with his acoustic music poetry act. These performances have earned him several accolades including APCA College Performer of the Year and three-time APCA Spoken Word Artist of the year.
Timeline
2024
Induction as Poet Laureate
At the Pensacola Museum of Art, Asia Samson is inducted as the ninth Poet Laureate of Northwest Florida. This event was part of the Author's Social the evening before the Books By the Bay (BBB) Festival.
Fall 2025
Burn Beautiful
In collaboration with local poetry group Pensacola Poetry, Asia reinstates Northwest Florida's Slam Poetry team under the name "Burn Beautiful". While this group is not directly associated with Emerald Coast Writers (ECW), his efforts in putting this group together did strengthen ties between ECW and other local writing groups.
June 2026
Compete at Southern Fried Poetry
On June 9-13th, Southern Fried Poetry Slam came to Orlando, Florida. Samson's team "Burn Beautiful" made the trek to South Florida to compete.
Performances
To hear some of Asia Samson's poetry, you can check out these videos from his YouTube Channel.