Urban Word recently doubled its workspace by moving across the hall in its building in Chelsea. But on any given afternoon you'd never know it. Teens hum and buzz from every inch of the crammed space. Their "expanded" space exudes the stuffed, thick giddiness of a hot summer house party.

This afternoon, celebrated New York poet Willie Perdomo is holding court, pacing around a set of long, skinny tables around which 24 kids and their notebooks are crammed. "Today is all about definition," Perdomo says. He hands out a sheet that begins with a quote by Etheridge Knight, the famed Black poet who composed much of his poetry while in solitary confinement. "He memorized them two lines at a time, like Lynn here," he says, nodding toward a tall African American teen known for not writing during class.

"I see poets basically as singers, as preachers, as prophets," Knight's quote reads. "The poems I look at, the poems that I see, the things that I call poetry—you know—speak about big things in human life—death, war, freedom, and birth. These kinds of things can only be spoken about in a way that you can feel them. They can only be spoken about in symbols, in myths."

The students—all of color, most from low-income backgrounds, all fierce spitters on the mic, and all simply ecstatic to be here—murmur their approval. "Here was a poet who defined himself," Perdomo continues. "Some of you are getting a lot of shine in the spoken word game. That can blind you. So it's important to define yourself."

Each year, the popularity of spoken word poetry seems to reach new heights. Urban Word NYC is a leading indicator. Through the core of its program, the 2,000 hours of writing workshops it runs a year free for its participants, Urban Word serves 15,000 youths, many in crowded spaces like this one. Its 50+ events, at places like the Apollo Theatre, Hammerstein Ballroom, and BAMcafe, feature over 2500 young performers, and are invariably standing-room only affairs. (Organizational literature boasts that, in its entire history, 95% of its events have been sold out.) The top young poets, as grizzled Nuyorican café vet Perdomo recognizes, become instant celebrities in the city and around the world, attracting culture industry execs and, sometimes, groupies. Urban Word's 2008 national slam team was prominently featured on the HBO series "Brave New Voices", which had an audience in the millions.

"It's absolutely crazy how much this organization grows every year. It's borderline scary," says 19-year old Youth Board member Carvens Lissaint, who has been with the organization since attending an Urban Word open mic 3 years ago. Before he found Urban Word, Lissaint had transferred to an alternative high school because he was failing in school. He made the 2009 slam team, and is now a college student who volunteers in his spare time coordinating high school visits.

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