Rudy Francisco

Rudy K. Francisco (born July 27, 1982) is an American spoken word poet and writer. He has won several poetry slams and written six books of poetry: Getting Stitches, Scratch, No Gravity, No Gravity Part II, Helium, and I'll Fly Away. He made an appearance on TV One's Verses and Flow and performed his spoken word poems "Complainers" and "Rifle" on the Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.

Early life Rudy Francisco was born and raised in San Diego, California, and is of Belizean decent. He wrote a love poem as part of a writing assignment in his senior year of high school and received high marks for it.

Francisco was inspired watching HBO's Def Poetry Jam. He began to go to open mics in his area until they were closed due to gentrification. Francisco was a resident assistant at his school and started hosting open mics. Francisco has performed in competitions as well as shows around the world. When asked what Helium means in an interview, Francisco states that "helium allows you to defy gravity" and “in a lot of ways poetry always gave me that temporary escape.”

Francisco performed his spoken-word poem "Complainers" on his first appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon on March 1, 2018. He has also grown a large following on Instagram with over 250,000 followers.

Personal life Francisco has said that the slam community allows one to be a part of a family, saying “some of my closest friends are people I have been on teams with or competed against. It is what keeps me coming back around.” In early June of 2018, Button Poetry announced on Facebook that performances scheduled for India with Sabrina Benaim were cancelled due to "scheduling and organizational issues." He performed at the August 2018 slam poetry competition in Chicago, representing the San Diego team. Season 18 Episode 3

Poetry awards 2007 San Diego Grand Slam Champion 2007 Poet of the People Slam Champion 2008 Member of the Hollywood Poetry Slam Team 2009 National Underground Poetry Individual Champion 2009 3rd place in the Individual World Poetry Slam 2010 La Poloma Slam Champion 2010 Chico Invitational Slam Champion 2010 San Diego Grand Slam Champion 2010 San Francisco Grand Slam Champion 2010 Member of the San Diego Poetry Slam Team (Regional Champion/6th ranked team in the nation) 2010 Individual World Poetry Slam Slam Champion 2017 National Poetry Slam Champion (as part of the San Diego Poetry Slam Team)