KingsOfPoetry

Welcome To The Black Planet Home of The Kings Of Poetry, Sekou "Tha Misfit", The Twin Poets, Lamar Hill, and Taalam Acey. These phenomonal spoken word artists will be coming to a city near you!











Poet: Taalam Acey

Accolades: 2000 & 2002 International Slam Champion, London, England, 2001 & 2002 Essence Music Festival, New Orleans, LA, 2000-2001 NJ National Team Slam Master, NJ, 1999 Nuyorican National Slam team, NY,

Bio:



Spoken word recording artist Taalam Acey is an internationally known performance poet. Acey was one of four poets from around the US selected by Essence Magazine to feature at the 2001 Essence Music Festival in New Orleans. Previous to that he was chosen to open up for activist Dick Gregory for a live PBS broadcast from the University of Texas at Austin. He was also one of five poets from around the US selected to feature in the New Jersey Performing Arts Center`s ground breaking "Theater of the Spoken Word."

His poetry has been featured in several publications including Essence Magazine. Acey has also lectured on performance poetry for the University of California at Berkeley`s Center for Urban Education. His first video "When the Smoke Clearz" was shown in film festivals in Los Angeles, New York, Amsterdam and Rotterdam and was one of only 22 films nominated for a 2002 Sundance Film Festival On-line Award.

Taalam was the 2000 Grand Slam Champion of London`s Paddington Int`l Poetry Festival. He was also the 2000-2001 NJ Slam master and the Washington DC Black Words Grand Slam Champion. He`s won slams in both the Nuyorican and the Green Mill Cafe in Chicago (both considered to be the int`l meccasof slam poetry). Acey was also a member of the 1999 New York City slam team representing the world famous Nuyorican Cafe. BBC Radio One (London) also featured Taalamin their documentary on slam poetry.

Bleeding edge spoken word has brought this Newark, NJ native everywhere from Los Angeles to Amsterdam. He has toured extensively throughout the continental United States, Canada, Germany and the U.K. Taalam has produced several spoken word CDs for national level poets and recently completed his 3rd CD: "Morally Bankrupt Volume Final: Mood Demistify."

Prior to becoming a full time performance poet, he earned a BS in Accounting and an MBA in Finance and was a full time lecturer in senior level accounting at Rutgers University and a principal partner in a small business consulting firm.







Poets: Twin Poets

Accolades: 2002 Russell Simmons Def Poetry Jam for HBO, NY, Collin Powell¿s Presidential Summit, 1999 & 2000 Philadelphia National Poetry Slam Team,

Bio:



Tutors, mentors, big brothers, community activist, leaders, scholars, summa cum laude grads, allies, soldiers, father-figures, artist, teachers, camp directors, counselors, historians, social workers, brothers, friends, fathers, sons, - all of theses titles can be summed to one: The Twin Poets Truly their work reflects their lives. Not many who have witnessed a performance or have read a poem by the Twin Poets (Al & Nnamdi) would deny that they have seen or felt the power. Their compassion and commitment for their work is stated simply in their mission statement: To awaken the revolutionary spirits buried deep within the souls of an oppressed people. For the past decade and a half these two Philadelphia based wordsmiths have been warriors on the frontline for our community. Placing the needs of the community before their own. Founders of GOALS- Getting Organized Always Leads to Success- a tutoring and mentoring program run out of their home in North Wilmington. The teach children about the importance of self-expression and learning to write down your thoughts to help themselves and others who have the same struggles and challenges.

Inspired at an early age to write and express themselves throughverse, Al & Nnamdi have become two of the most recognizable and respected poets on the modern poetry scene. Performances with such poetic legends as The Last Poets, Amiri Baraka, Sonia Sanchez, Lamont Steptoe, New York¿s Slam master Keith Roach, Philly slam master Kevin O`Neill, and Del Jones have paved the way to repeated captivating performances at NY¿s Nuyorican Poets Caf¿, Apollo Theater, PA¿s Painted Bride, DE¿s Grand Opera House, and NJ¿s Atlantic City Uptown Complex.



The Twin Poets have visited many colleges/universities, jr. and high schools. From the Ivy Leagues Princeton, and Swarthmore to local pre-schools, orphanages and tri-state area group homes. A host of colleges and Universities such as: Rider, Rutgers (NJ), Savannah State (GA), Penn, Temple, Lincoln, Cheyenne (PA) Syracuse (NY), Radnor (VA), Delaware, Delaware State (DE), Bowling Green (OH), Missouri (MO), Bethune-Cookman (FA), and Washington DC¿s Howard University have used the Twin Poets as a part of their multi-cultural programming. The Twin Poets have also made international performing visits to Jamaica, France, London, Germany, and Azikiwe University in Akwa, Nigeria West Africa. Other special performances include: Collin Powell¿s Presidential Summit, Philadelphia 1997 United Nations Security Council World Peace Day, New York 1998 Governors National Summit on Fatherhood, Delaware, 1999 Featured Readers at Gospel Explosion, Norfolk, VA 2000, 2001 Def Poetry Jam -Philly Featured artist, 2002 Russell Simmons Def Poetry Jam for HBO, 2002 Power 99FM Sistahs- Featured Artist Philly Convent Center



Poet: Lamar Hill

Accolades: Philly def Poetry Jam Slam Champion, 2001 Essence Music Festival, New Orleans, LA, 1999 Nuyorican National Poetry Slam Team, 2001 New jersey National Slam Team,

Bio:



Lamar Hill was the recent winner of Def Poetry Jam Philly. He was one of only four poets in the country to be personally invited by Susan Taylor to perform at the Essence Music festival in New Orleans. He also was a member of the legendary 1999 Nuyorican National Poetry Slam Team. He returned to the nationals the very next year as a member of the inaugural New Jersey national team, in 2001 he took a break from slamming at the nationals and decided to coach his hometown team to a birth in the semi-finals. Born in Newark New Jersey, Lamar`s love affair with poetry and performance began at Arts High School where he majored in Dramatic Arts, and was also fortunate enough to have roles in several Broadway and off Broadway plays.

He continued his studies at South Carolina State University where he minored in theater arts. He is the author of the chap book "I Got Issues", as well as four spoken word CDs Torrential, Man Child, The Diary, Confessions of an Egomaniac, and Critical Mass all selling well into the thousands with no distribution. He is currently working on self-publishing his first novel "Girls Kiss for Fun Women Kiss for Foreplay".

Lamar Hill is simply the most electrifying performer spoken word has ever seen, his voice and stage presence cannot be matched. Lamar takes the audience on an emotional roller coaster and does not let them off until the set is over. If you have never seen Lamar perform you have truly missed a blessing he is able to fuse politics, relationships, and sex like no other poet performing today. These along with many other reasons explain why Lamar Hill has become a favorite in poetry venues all over the country.

¿I believe in Spoken Word, for the first time in my life it¿s like I can call something my own. It has become like an oxygen mask for me¿

After four years of doing poetry for a living Lamar Hill has performed in just about every major venue in the country. His following reaches into Canada where he has performed several times to standing ovations. He has also proven himself as a wonderful poetry show host running and hosting venues in several different cites, but his first love is his poetry, and he has worked as hard or harder then anyone to perfect his craft. Recently he has stated workshops as a way of giving back some of his vast knowledge of the Spoken word community to young poets who want to make a living doing what they love.



Poet: Sekou ¿Tha Misfit¿

Accolades: 2002 National poetry Slam Champion, 2002 Russell Simmons Def Poetry Jam for HBO, NY, 2001 Los Angelos National Poetry Slam Team,

Bio:



Sekou`s two solo, self-produced, independent CD releases - the maxi-single "I Love U (b/w For The Rest of My Life)," and the EP "Therapy"- have been critically acclaimed, earning him awards from the second largest music organization in the country, Just Plain Folks, for Best Hip-Hop Song and Best Hip-Hop Album, and the acclaimed Best Producer award, as well as nominations at the Los Angeles Music Awards for Best Hip-Hop Artist. He has also showcased his talents in other genres through his latest release, which also won Best Holiday Album, entitled "Seven: A Kwanzaa Soundtrack" - a compilation album featuring various local artists in R&B, soul, and pop music, entirely written and produced by Sekou. One of his most esteemed accomplishments is the filming of a captivating music video, which won the Los Angeles Music Award for Outstanding Music Video.

But you have not seen Sekou in his prime until you have seen him rock a crowd. This artist is an incredible performer who commands attention on any stage with effortless presence and energy. Sekou is a lyricist, a poet first, and can keep an audience entranced even without music, as evidenced by his strong reputation on the spoken -word poetry circuit. As one of four members of the Los Angeles Poetry Slam Team, Sekou`s intoxicatinglyrics helped his team defeat 55 other teams from across the nation to take 2nd place at the 2001 National Poetry Slam Competition. His marketability expands far beyond the underground and kids. Be it a hip-hop or a spoken word show, rarely are we left unmoved by pieces like "Insecurity","I Dunno" or the erotic hit "Puddles On Your Belly."

Sekou is part of a larger collective that includes an incredible live band for performances and his crew of MCs - the M.P.D. Ward (Multiple Personality Disorder), based in in both southern and northern California. They have embraced and re-defined the concept of "being crazy." Verbally Disturbed, his video track, represents the proximity to insanity that so many historical artists maintain while engulfed in their artistic pursuits. "The name of my enterprise is Sanitarium, because that`s where crazy people go to get sane and that`s what art, whether, music, poetry, whatever, does for this crazy world - it provides sanity. I`m not trying to be like the ballers of today. I try to fashion myself after the true artistic genius-sickos in history, the Van Goghs, the Beethovens - the immortal players."

For some, keeping it real is nothing more than an overused, meaningless phrase. To Sekou (tha misfit), keeping it real is about staying true to artistic expression, innovation and growth. In the sprit of Outkast, Common, Mos Def, and De La Soul, Sekou`s music is the definition of true poetry. It is highly interpretable, powerfully moving, and invokes limitless images in the listener. It is the kind of hip-hop that underground heads bump, yet it possesses a sophistication that few so-called MCs can parallel. It is what music is supposed to be - emotional.

You will listen to it¿but you will also feel it.

Expect not to expect what you expect to come next¿