Event Description
Roxbury Poetry Slam Team
The Warrior Michael Bonds is a multi-talented nationally recognized and internationally respected Spokenword Artist, author and motivator from right here in Boston. Straight out of Roxbury to be exact, Michael Bonds has grown to become an affective Motivational Speaker, a Mentor and a Youth Worker for some of Boston’s highest risk criminally active young men and gang affiliates. He has lent his poetic gift to causes related to human rights and justice and equality for years locally and around the country. Using his unique style of “in your face street powered Inthugligent poetry” he has performed at events and venues and several Ivy League colleges and universities here and abroad. He self-published not one but two books of his own works. “Gunz Poems & Rosez” published in 2005, is his very first manuscript. Most of the content of this book consists of some writings he compiled while in prison for 10 years. His second book “The Write” published in 2012 is a collection of different poetry writing styles. “The Write” proves that Michael W. Bonds aka Warrior is not only a performance Spokenword Artist, he is also a student of the art of poetry. He has an Associate’s degree in Criminal Justice from Bauder College Kaplan University and he is a trained Cognitive Behavioral Therapist and Prison Industrial Complex Awareness workshop facilitator. After serving 10 consecutive years in Massachusetts Correctional Institutions he was freed 1999. He has committed his speech to these streets. For 17 years now he has stayed committed spitting truth to power. The Warrior has dedicated his life to using his gift to gab for growth development empowerment movement and change. He is truly an art Actionist.
22-year-old Skoot is an uprising heavy hitting poet. As the Poetry Club president and the face of Roxbury Community College he has created many successful events, such as No Filter, Man vs police, and What That Mouth Do. Skoot is taking the poetry world by storm with his freestyle abilities on the mic. He has featured at Rapping With The Writers, Comic Con, and Roxbury Rocks. Art is life itself, Hope Inc, Verbalizezation and, Werkshop
Tim Hall is an educator, artist, and entrepreneur, from Detroit, MI, now residing in Boston, MA. He began playing music at the age of 10, and found poetry in college as a way to share his thoughts on paper. Tim Hall draws inspiration from his lived experiences charting the nuances of blackness, masculinity, and the beauties of life. He is the Co-owner of HipStory – a music and film production company dedicated to centering marginalized identities in media. Some of his work can be found in his Spoken Word EP titled Colors Of My Soul, and self-published a book titled Trust The Process, both of which released in 2016.