We are pleased to announce Taylor Mali, as a keynote speaker at the BOOST Conference on Thursday, April 28, 2011.
TAYLOR MALI is one of the most well-known poets to have emerged from the poetry slam movement and one of the few people in the world to have no job other than that of poet.
Born in New York City into a family some of whose members have lived there since the early 1600s, Taylor Mali is an unapologetic WASP, making him a rare entity in spoken word, which is often considered to be an art form influenced by the inner city and dominated either by poets of color or those otherwise imbued with the spirit of hip-hop.
Mali is a vocal advocate of teachers and the nobility of teaching, having himself spent nine years in the classroom teaching everything from English and history to math and S.A.T. test preparation. He has performed and lectured for teachers all over the world, and his New Teacher Project has a goal of creating 1,000 new teachers through "poetry, persuasion, and perseverance."
He is the author of two books of poetry,
The Last Time As We Are (Write Bloody Books 2009) and
What Learning Leaves(Hanover 2002), and four CDs of spoken word. He 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
Comedy Arts Festival.
Formerly president of
Poetry Slam, Inc., 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 occasional 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).
Taylor will be facilitating a workshop immediately following his keynote address.
Don't miss Taylor recite his famous poem, "What Teachers Make".
Sincerely,
