Quang Do, coordinator of Fraternity and Sorority Life for UAB Student Involvement and Leadership, is a Student Affairs professional by day and a renowned poet by night. He will be the featured at the Poetry Out Loud state finals in Montgomery on Monday, Feb. 20 at the Alabama Shakespeare Festival. High school students from across Alabama will compete and perform poetry by notable poets such as Langston Hughes, Dudley Randall and Edgar Allen Poe. Poetry Out Loud is part of a national program that promotes the mastery of great poetry by offering educational materials and a dynamic competition to high schools throughout the country.

“Poetry can help us understand each other a little bit better,” Do said. “It can help us listen a little bit better, and can help mold people like communities.”

Apart from his day job in Student Affairs, Do is a spoken poet, the slam master and director of Iron City Slam and has also organized Poetic Justice: Words for Change at UAB. He has been a TEDxBirmingham speaker, a National Endowment for the Arts panelist, and was recognized as the 2016 White House Champion of Change. Do’s work, from his poems to day-to-day interactions with students, is focused on inspiring growth, empowerment, and facilitating change and understanding of others, he said.

His devotion to poetry began with an assignment given in speech class during his senior year of high school. The assignment prompted him to immerse himself in the world of poetry after realizing that the same emotions he was feeling were also felt by others.

“For the first time in my whole entire life I spoke and I felt like people wanted to hear me, and not only that, they connected with me,” he said. “I was addicted to the spoken word and the ability to connect with someone, not only through metaphors, similes, and alliteration, but through your soul, through your voice, and through your emotion.”

This realization has led Do to become a speaker traveling to more than 100 high schools, colleges, and conferences across the country performing poetry and leading workshops.