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POETRI BIO

Poetri, “the poet,” is one of the top and most visible spoken word artist on the scene. He was blessed to be chosen as one of the first poets for the Peabody Award winning HBO series “Russell Simmons Def Poetry Jam Presents”. Poetri was then selected to co-write and star in the Broadway critically-acclaimed play based on the HBO series, which garnered him his very first TONY AWARD. He was listed as one of the year’s “FACES TO WATCH” by the Los Angeles Times. He has been seen teaching his critically acclaimed workshops on “Oprah”, “Starting Over” and the controversial hit show Balck. White. on FX. People all over are talking about his already classic pieces "Krispy Kreme" ,"Money" and “Dating Myself”, which have been heard in major theaters around the world, including Australia and ew Zealand. He is the voice of the popular radio show on Delta Airlines called “Chart Attack”. Spoken word is in full stride and Poetri is leading the way.

Poetri, “the producer,” has written, produced and arranged over 150 commercials for radio and television for Nike, NFL Films, and BET. He has worked with such legends as Curtis Mayfield, Bootsy Collins and Nona Hendrix. Also, add some of today’s stars like LL Cool J, Malcolm Jamal Warner, Ahmir Thompson (The Roots) and Sarah Jones. He was selected to write and perform poems urging Lebron James to sign with Nike. He is currently working on the much-anticipated hip-hop musical entitled “BALL”. Poetri oversees the writing of poetry and songs for the lead character. He is one of the first poets in this new generation to smash the theory that “poets don’t make any money”.

Poetri, “the business man, " started his clothing company, “POETRIWHERE?”, in 2003. “POETRIWHERE?” challenges any individual to find his/her own poetry through tolerance and self-xpression. Poetri has also released his debut solo album entitled "Poetri...The Beginning of Po-Hop" (a collection of his funniest poems laced over hip-hop beats). Both album and line are exclusively sold on his Website www.Poetri.com (averaging well over 350,000 hits a month).

On the Los Angeles home front, he is the host of the largest and hottest weekly poetry venue in the nation, Da’ Poetry Lounge, pulling in 350-400 people every Tuesday. Da’ Poetry Lounge has not only broadened the appeal of spoken word in Los Angeles, but has become a haven for young people to come and express their emotions in a positive and supportive atmosphere. It is safe to say that Poetri is definitely doing his thing, and everyone else’s thing, too. The sky is already paid for and owned by the man simply known as Poetri.