FLORENCE — Organizers of the Student Alliance for Equality and Boxcar Voices spoken word and poetry group are hosting a poetry brawl featuring two of the best word slingers the West Coast has to offer.

Internationally touring female slam poetry duo Shadowboxers Anonymous, comprised of poets Kim Johnson and Laura Yes Yes, will be appearing at the University of North Alabama today for a poetry workshop and performance.

Before their evening performance, Shadowboxers will conduct a writing workshop for anyone interested in writing and performing spoken word poetry.

It will begin at 1 p.m. in the Stone Lodge on the UNA campus.

The live performance will begin at 8 p.m. in the Guillot University Performance Center with a Boxcar Voices open-mic session.

Then, the Shadowboxers will take the stage.

Both events are free and made possible by Student Allocated Funding via the Office of Student Engagement.

The public is invited.

Today will be Shadowboxers’ first visit to Alabama. They have toured throughout North America and Europe performing at poetry slam venues, clubs, colleges, festivals and performing arts centers.

The duo met in 2007 as members of the San Francisco national poetry slam team and joined forces to create the Bay Area Women’s Collective, a group dedicated to helping emerging female writers and performers develop their talents.

Individually, they have been finalists at the Individual World Poetry Slam and Women of the World Poetry Slam competitions and have been members of multiple national poetry slam teams.

Both are poet mentors and have taught writing and performance workshops throughout Chicago and the San Francisco Bay area, as well as at universities across the country.

The duo share openly about a range of topics, and some content may be suitable for a mature audience only.