Milo quickly found his way to the now legendary bohemian ONYX coffeehouse on Vermont Avenue where he met many like-minded writers, musicians, and artists and soon found himself performing his work at poetry readings.  Taken immediately into the fold, he was asked to read and then to co-host a weekly reading.  He was then offered the gig to host and curate his own weekly reading where the Projector series was born.  Milo made an instant local name for himself organizing literary events and performing his unique style of stoic monk jazz poetry with a quasi-hip hop delivery, celebrating urban dysfunction and mystical synchronicity, all the while being “intoxicated with God” and countless other sundry items.

With the advent of Slam Poetry, Milo reluctantly entered the arena (originally thinking it was an inane literary competition) but was convinced by fellow poets that it was a valid literary vehicle elevating the spoken word to a populist artform.  With New York poet Ben Porter Lewis, he co-founded the first Hollywood slam team.  Including Yvonne De La Vega (RIP), Chris Tannahill, and Nathan Green, the team set about to do highly-charged performances and competitions within the Southern California scene.  They ended up representing Hollywood (with five other LA teams, the highest concentration in the US) at the 1997 National Poetry Slam in Middletown, CT with stops and readings in Boston and New York.  Milo took the second incarnation of the team to Austin TX the subsequent year where CNN covered the event with over 1200 people in the audience at the finals.  After sending the third team to Chicago the following year, Martin handed off the team baton to the younger generation of poets in LA, to instead attend the graduate writing program at USC.  Subsequently the Hollywood team would go on to win back-to-back national slam titles in 2004-2005.