Event

Taylor Mali

Taylor Mali studied drama with members of The Royal Shakespeare Company and has put those stage skills to use performing poetry all over the world and serving as the official voiceover voice on all Burger King commercials in 1998. One of the original poets to appear on the HBO series Russell Simmons Presents Def Poetry, he is one of the most well known slam poets, having won the national championship four times. A former teacher and lifelong educator, he is the author of several CDs, books, and DVDs of spoken word.

Taylor Mali is described by the New York Times as "a ranting comic showman and literary provocateur." A middle school teacher for nine years prior to becoming a full time writer and global performer, Mali's work focuses on the vitally important role teachers play in our society, and his YouTube clip "What Teachers Make" has been widely cited in the press and viewed more than 4 million times.

Taylor Mali is the former president of Poetry Slam, Inc., the non-profit organization that oversees all poetry slams in North America. He is also the author most recently of "What Teachers Make: In Praise of the Greatest Job in the World" (Putnam 2012) as well as two books of poetry, The Last Time As We Are (Write Bloody Books 2009) and What Learning Leaves (Hanover 2002). 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.