User Profile

Big Poppa E is the stage name for Eirik Ott, a three-time HBO Def Poetry alum and National Poetry Slam champion. His website can be viewed at www.bigpoppae.com.

BPE has been performing poetry in front of live audience since 1992, when grunge was king, coffeehouses were church, and finding a pair of wide-welt corduroy pants with sewer pipe legs and cheesegratered hems at a thrift store was cause to rejoice and write a poem right then and there while sitting on the curb as traffic blurred past, back when Kurt Cobain was still the spokesman of his generation and Generation X was simply an excellent book by Douglas Coupland.

He slammed his first poem in 1996 at the Taos Poetry Circus in New Mexico and made his National Poetry Slam debut as part of the 1999 San Francisco poetry slam team, co-champions of the 1999 National Poetry Slam in Chicago.

Big Poppa E's slam poem ¡The Wussy Boy Manifesto! garnered a lot of attention in 1999-2000, catapulting BPE into the national consciousness through the pages of The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times, The Utne Reader, Ms. Magazine, and Bust Magazine.

He even went international with appearances in The Sydney Morning Herald, The Ottowa Citizen, and The London Daily Express. And all this from a little poem about empowering boys to express themselves creatively while avoiding toxic displays of masculinity and misogyny.

Here are some things people have said:

Revenge of the Wussy Boys!
The Washington Post

Leader of the new Wussy Boy Movement!
The Los Angeles Times

Exuberantly defiant!
The New York Times

An icon for effeminate males!
Ms. Magazine

BPE has toured the country ever since his 1999 win at the National Poetry Slam, and in that times, he's headlined at nearly 100 colleges, universities, and high schools. In addition, he was worked extensively with Amnesty International to spread the word on their extremely important mission through slam poetry.

To date, Big Poppa E has performed in 40 of the 50 United States (including Alaska and Hawaii), and hopes to check off all 50 within the next year or so. Once he does that, he will head for Europe and Australia.

Big Poppa E has published numerous zines and chapbooks using his bare hands since 1992, and he's recently compiled the best of his work into two perfect-bound volumes: Big Poppa E's Greatest Hits; and Big Poppa E's Greatest Misses. Both are available for order at www.lulu.com.

BPE has also compiled the best of his recorded work in front of live audiences into two volumes: Big Poppa E's Greatest Hits; and Slam Tour 2007. Both are available for order at www.cdbaby.com.