Russell Simmons Def Poetry Jam on Broadway...and More - by Danny Simmons (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

This upbeat, one-of-a-kind collection brings the Def poets -- as featured in the Tony Award-winning Broadway show and popular HBO television program -- to life on the page. Among them: Suheir Hammad, Beau Sia, Steve Colman, Stacyann Chin, Mayda del Valle, Georgia Me, Poetri, and other well-established and up-and-coming Slam artists who have forever changed the face of poetry and offer a fresh, exuberant, insightful, and comedic look at who we are as Americans today.

Review Quotes

"Def Poetry Jam shows that when you present black and Hispanic kids with literature that has something to do with their lives, they'll pay attention."
-- Ishmael Reed

"Stunning, startling, amazingly now."
-- Ntozake Shange

"These poets seize us with rhythm and passion. They give us romance, realism, comedy, and politics. That's entertainment!"
-- New York Times

"What a lot of people don't know is Broadway itself emerged from uptown cabaret from rent parties....You belong. Yeah, Def Jam Poetry Rap. Hip-Hop Nation. You belong."
-- Nikki Giovanni

About the Author

Danny Simmons, a renowned painter of abstract-expressionist oil works, owns the Rush Arts Gallery in Manhattan and Corridor Gallery in Brooklyn. A poet and cofounder of the Def Poetry Jam performance series, he heads the Rush Philanthropic Arts Foundation with his brother, Russell Simmons. He lives in Brooklyn