2026 Fall Fest and Slammin' Rhymes Challenge XX

Fall Fest returns to the Central Library on Saturday, November 21, an all-ages afternoon of poetry, dance, speakers and performance put on by the Indianapolis Public Library African American History Committee. It's an annual event they stage in support of the Center for Black Literature & Culture, and this year's guest list is a heavy one: Dr. Mae Jemison, the first Black woman in space, and J.R. Edwards.

Running alongside the main program is the Slammin' Rhymes Challenge XX, the festival's poetry contest for poets, rappers and spoken word artists in grades 6-12. This is the twentieth edition of the competition, and the theme for this one is "Hope." The young writers perform their work, it gets judged, and the theme changes every year, so this is a fresh start for anyone who's written for it before. If you know a student in that age range who's into spoken word or rap, this is their stage.

To get a sense of the company the festival keeps, you only have to look at the names that have stopped by in the past. Maya Angelou, Gwendolyn Brooks, Nikki Giovanni, Kwame Alexander, Terry McMillan, Walter Mosley and Dr. Henry Louis Gates Jr. have all been part of Fall Fest over the years. It's a long-running tradition that brings a lot of different voices into the same room, and this year's edition is made possible by The Indianapolis Foundation Library Fund, the J. Steve & Donna D. Talley Fund and the Dr. Michael R. Twyman Endowment Fund through gifts to The Indianapolis Public Library Foundation.

It's free and open to the public, so you can just show up. Fall Fest and the Slammin' Rhymes Challenge take place on Saturday, November 21, at the Central Library.