oxanna ‘Roxy’ Azari is an Iranian-American Poet, Performer, Writer and Educator who breathes and works towards transformational social change through language. Raised in NYC, Azari grew up listening to her grandmother’s inspiring poetry, which instilled in her the power that language holds for altering realities and injustices. From a very young age, Azari has used poetry as a tool to redesign the world around her and continues to live her passion of combining art with activism.
Azari’s journey began in 2006, when she won both the New York Knicks Poetry Slam and the Urban Word NYC Poetry Slam. Her NYC slam team went on to compete in the Brave New Voices International Poetry Slam Festival. Azari has performed at the Nuyorican Poets Café, the Bowery Poetry Club and at Madison Square Garden. She has also appeared at NYU, Columbia, Brown, Middlebury, Duke, and Emerson. Azari has been featured in two TV commercials, and published in The New York Times, Elementz of Life, Rushlight, The Greater Boston Intercollegiate Poetry Festival, and the Youth Anthology: Connect. Politic. Ditto. In 2007, she founded iSpeak!, Wheaton College’s Spoken Word Poetry Group, which has provided a constructive space for budding poets passionate about expression, freedom of speech, and social justice. In addition, she served as a coach for BNV and CUPSI Slams.
Azari combines her two passions of gender equality and artistic expression by leading poetry workshops for young adults to find and utilize their voices at various schools, universities, and organizations within the US and abroad. In 2010, Azari was awarded the distinguished Thomas J. Watson Fellowship, which enabled her to facilitate poetry and performance workshops with young women in the Middle East, North Africa and South-East Asia. As a Watson Fellow, Azari was a featured poet at Culture Rapide in Paris and held numerous performances in Morocco, India, Indonesia and Turkey. Azari’s work has recently been featured in KPFK Public Radio Podcasts for Feminist Magazine, The Times of India, and Mumbai Mirror. She most recently performed at the United Nations for a Ministerial side-event during the General Assembly. Holding a BA in English Literature: Creative Writing and Women’s Studies from Wheaton College (MA) and a Masters Degree in Gender, Development and Globalization from the London School of Economics, Azari infuses her academic background with her visions of challenging social, political, and economic inequalities.