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Taalam Acey

Wednesday, 12 September 2007

Taalam Acey may be the hardest working spoken word artist of his generation. He’s published a novel, a comprehensive collection of poems, an award winning memoir and 9 spoken word CDs. Taalam has been a full time traveling poet since 1999. Tens of thousands of people own his work and many, many more have seen his performances. Acey performs regularly in more than 50 cities in the US and abroad. On average, he is on a plane once every 3.5 days. That’s 100 flights per year to promote spoken word. Taalam’s work has been featured on BET, TV One and in Essence Magazine. He has been a frequent guest at dozens of colleges and Universities and has lectured on contemporary spoken word at the prestigious Graduate School of Education at UC Berkeley. Acey has twice been featured at the Essence Music Festival. He’s been quoted in several newspapers, including the Washington Post, the Philadelphia Weekly and the New Jersey Star Ledger. In addition, Acey’s work has been associated with films that have garnered an Audience Award and a Special Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival. Acey is also an accomplished slam poet who has won slams throughout the United States as well as in Germany and England. He was featured in an acclaimed Radio-One London documentary on slam and Marc Smith, the founder of slam poetry, used Acey’s work as an example of slam poetry in his definitive book.