What do you get when a physicist walks off a lab bench and onto a slam stage? You get Filippo Capobianco a poet who doesn’t just perform verses, he detonates them. He’s where galaxies collapse into metaphors, where humor kneels beside heartbreak. He didn’t find slam. He cracked it open like a supernova.
Early Life and Scientific Background
After graduating in physics from the University of Pavia, Filippo Capobianco devoted himself to artistic training until he developed a performative research style that combines poetry, theater, and science communication. This dual background in science and theater set the stage for Capobianco’s unique approach to performance poetry where intellectual concepts collide with emotional gravity and dramatic storytelling.
Poetry Slam Journey and Achievements
Capobianco discovered poetry slam the competitive art of performance poetry during his student years. “One day I found out a venue near home was hosting slam evenings open to anyone; you just had to write something and jump in, “he recalls. His first attempt went well and sparked a passion for slam poetry. Inspired by hearing UK poet Harry Baker’s famous piece “A Love Poem for Lonely Prime Numbers” at a TED Talk, Capobianco felt a “strange feeling in his gut”that signaled he had stumbled upon something important.
From that moment, he dove into writing slam pieces relishing the playfulness of rhythms, rhymes, and tension. His rise in the slam scene was meteoric. He became National Poetry Slam Champion in 2022 and represented Italy at the 2022 WPSO European Championship in Rome. He also competed in the 2023 WPSO World Championship in Rio de Janeiro. His crowning moment came when he won the 17th edition of the World Cup of Poetry Slam in Paris.
Notable Titles:
- 2022: Italian Poetry Slam Champion (LIPS)
- 2022: European Poetry Slam Championship – 2nd Place
- 2023: World Cup of Slam Champion (Paris)
In Paris, at the 17th World Cup of Slam Poetry, he stood center stage no props, no music, just a smirk and a notebook. He delivered “Mia mamma fa il notaio…” with the finesse of a theatre veteran and the timing of a comic sniper. The judges didn’t clap they exhaled, slow and stunned. That night, the audience didn’t witness a poem. They watched a man fold science, comedy, and soul into 3 minutes of artistic combustion.
Having reached the pinnacle of slam competition, Capobianco now treats slams as a creative lab. “It’s always a workshop of research… there’s something of the game more than the competition,” he says, celebrating slam’s power to invite curiosity and connection.
Theatrical Style and Science-Infused Art
Capobianco’s roots in theater run deep over a decade of acting before he ever picked up a mic. That presence shows in his slam delivery: dynamic gestures, tonal shifts, character embodiment, and carefully choreographed movement. “In slam you have a stage and an audience so it’s inherently a theatrical practice,” he reflects.
What sets him apart is how fluently he speaks both science and poetry. Branded a “science storyteller,” Capobianco draws on physics to explore the emotional universe. Pieces like “Divergenze storia di un cosmologo innamorato” use cosmological language to unpack heartbreak. He often says he uses “laughter to gain impunity,” creating safe ground to smuggle in deeper truths.
He’s constantly experimenting merging poetry with music, crafting genre-bending narratives, and stepping far beyond the classic image of the lone poet on stage. His hybrid work “Arrivano i Barbari” (The Barbarians Are Coming) is one such multimedia blend of music, verse, and theater.
Major Works and Performances
His first solo show, “Mia mamma fa il notaio, ma anche il risotto” (“My mama notarizes & also makes risotto”), earned national and international acclaim, winning the 2024 Milan Fringe Festival (FRINGEMI) and touring across Europe, the USA, and Italy. The show defies categorization: part poetic monologue, part theater piece, part scientific fever dream.
In July 2024, Capobianco published his debut book: “Le Supernove non fanno rumore / e tu tossisci a teatro?”(“Supernovae don’t make a sound / and you cough in theatres?”), with Baldini+Castoldi. The work bridges verse and narrative, science and satire, human longing and cosmic metaphor. It reads like a conversation between equations and emotions — a textual universe where a playwright writes galaxies and a poet names black holes after broken hearts.
Capobianco has performed at major venues: BookCity Milano, Università Cattolica, and the Fondazione Corriere Della Sera. He’s headlined literary stages in Norway, the U.S., and across the EU. In 2025, he performed at the Italian Cultural Institute in Washington, D.C., delivering his bilingual poetry to thunderous response from a mixed crowd of scientists, writers, and poetry lovers.
Media Presence and Community Engagement
Capobianco’s journey has been profiled in Italian national media Il Giorno, La Lettura, Radio Number One as a new breed of poet who “brings physics into the pub, and poetry back from the ivory tower.” His message is clear: “Poetry belongs to everyone.”
He teaches workshops to students, collaborates at science festivals, and mentors rising slam voices. He breaks down the myth that art and intellect must live apart. For him, slam is a lab one where poems are tested, broken, and reborn.
Within the global slam community, Filippo Capobianco is no longer just a national champion. He’s an architect of a new voice: one that dares to be strange, smart, funny, and soul-deep.
Closing Reflection
Capobianco doesn’t just perform poetry he engineers it. He plays with language like a physicist bends particles: with precision, awe, and danger. In his hands, slam becomes more than a competition. It’s a field experiment in emotion, theory, and truth-telling. And as long as there’s a mic, a mind, and a moment to rupture Filippo will be somewhere pushing poetry past its edge.
“Poetry is a language, a way of using our human communication faculties to reach remote emotional and rational places.” ~Filippo Capobianco
From timid physicist to world-class slam alchemist, Capobianco reminds us: the most powerful performances often begin with a single question “What if…?”