Angela Paladino, an administrative assistant in the UALR Graduate School and a student in College of Education’s College Student Affairs master’s degree program, won the Spoken Word Live! Poetry Slam sponsored by the Mosaic Templars Cultural Center and the National Park Service last week.

The poetry slam is one of the opening events of the Arkansas Literary Festival.

Paladino started participating in poetry slams as an undergraduate at Henderson State, and her work frequently focuses on racism and sexism in today’s society.