PHOTO BY ANDREW GURA

Acclaimed poet and musician Saul Williams’s open-mic escapades with the Nuyorican Poets peaked at Sundance when Slam won the Grand Jury Prize, and the art world celebrated the arrival of a whole new kind of talent. He defied his genre’s precious reputation and tore voraciously into the guts of life, groping after the exalted and transcendent sex sensations that make it all worth living. His early success led to collaborations with the likes of Erykah Badu, Nas, The Roots and Zack de la Rocha, and, descended as much from KRS-One and Public Enemy as Allen Ginsberg and Amiri Baraka, he was a new kind of poet. With each of Williams’s great successes has come abrupt change. He has pinball-bounced from Morehouse philosophy scholar to cerebral street sermonizer to breakout indie actor, from hallucinatory hip-hop alchemist to dreadlocked mohawk rockstar, vibing Nine Inch Nails, scurrying across tones, modes, and media to defy categorization. He has read published poetry volumes to opera house audiences with full orchestral backing. He has contributed to the New York Times, voiced Jean-Michel Basquiat in Downtown 81, and cut records with Rick Rubin and Trent Reznor. Throughout all these chaotic ventures, Saul Williams has been one steady thing: an uncompromising voice determined to tap the adrenaline center of his existence with any tool he can get his hands on. Saul Williams is the author of four books of poetry. He lives in Paris. His website: www.saulwilliams.com

Poet, actor, journalist, Dufflyn Lammers has brought her unique style of “page-to-stage” poetry to universities from Smith College to UC Irvine, and is a fixture on the poetry and literary scene. She worked as Arts & Entertainment journalist for The Georgia Guardian and Morris News Service (from 1995 to 2000). Lammers was the host and Slam Master of the Los Feliz Poetry Slam at the Formosa Café in Hollywood and competed in the National Poetry Slam from 2000 through 2004. She has appeared in Russell Simmons Def Poetry Jam on HBO, in the film Belly from Artisan Films, and on ABC Television’s Eye on L.A. She is the voice of the Baja Fresh “Spoken Word Radio” campaign and has appeared in episodes of Criminal Minds, Entourage, and more. She is anthologized in Slam: The Competitive Art of Performance Poetry (Manic D Press). Lammers lives in Los Angeles and is working on her first book—a memoir. For more go to: www.dufflyn.com

Poet and lyricist from East New York, Brooklyn, Aja Monet—at the age of nineteen—became the youngest individual to ever win the legendary Nuyorican Poet’s Cafe Grand Slam champion title (2007). Monet received a BA from Sarah Lawrence College and an MFA in Creative Writing from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Aja Monet’s poems have appeared in The New York Times and in numerous international television and radio programs. Her first book, The Black Unicorn Sings, was independently published with Penmanship Books. She is currently living in Paris and is working on a book of science fiction. To see her work, visit: www.ajamonet.com

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