Every now and again, Hampshire College has the pleasure of booking one of Slam Poetry's best known voices. It's always fun to see these pillars of spoken word perform, because it gives us a sense of where slam came from and where slam can take you if you work hard enough.
Taylor Mali is one of a handful of slam poets who have made a name for themselves outside of the spoken word community. Those who frequent open mics across the country have invariably heard his name mentioned at least once - he was a featured character in the most popular documentary about slam poetry (SlamNation), and has been a driving member of the slam scene for longer than some of us have been alive.
If you'd like to read more about him, you can check him out at his website, www.taylormali.com. If you're lazy, you can read this bio, shamelessly stolen from his "mission statement" page:
Taylor Mali is a teacher and poet. Generally considered to be the most successful poetry slam strategist of all time, having led six of his seven national poetry slam teams to the finals stage and winning the championship itself a record four times before anyone had even tied him at three, Mali was one of the original poets to appear on the HBO original series "Russell Simmons Presents Def Poetry." He was also the "golden-tongued, Armani clad villain" of Paul Devlin's 1997 documentary film "SlamNation," which chronicled the National Poetry Slam Championship of 1996, the year of Mali's first national team championship.
A native of New York City and vocal advocate of teachers and the nobility of teaching, Mali himself spent nine years in the classroom teaching everything from English and history to math S.A.T. test preparation. He has performed and lectured for teachers all over the world. Mali received a New York Foundation for the Arts Grant in 2001 to develop "Teacher! Teacher!" a one-man show about poetry, teaching, and math which won the jury prize for best solo performance at the 2001 U. S. Comedy Arts Festival.
Formerly president of Poetry Slam Incorporated, the non-profit organization that oversees all poetry slams in North America, Taylor Mali makes his living entirely as a spoken-word and voiceover artist these days, traveling around the country performing and teaching workshops as well as doing commercial voiceover work. He has narrated several books on tape, including "The Great Fire" (for which he won the Golden Earphones Award for children's narration) and is also the author of several books and cds of original poetry and spoken word.
Taylor Mali will be featuring at Hampshire College this coming Tuesday @ 8:00. It's going to be a full show, so show up early to grab a good seat.
