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Marc
Bamuthi Joseph

Marc Bamuthi Joseph
Spoken Word Poet, Dancer, and Playwright
Oakland, CA
2006 USA Fellow

This award was generously supported by The Rockefeller Foundation.
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The work of spoken-word performer, educator, and playwright Marc Bamuthi Joseph displays a consistent commitment to research and the exploration of cultural crossings. Noted for working in the genre of “literary performance” and for combining hip-hop, choreography, live music, and poetry, Joseph has created pieces such asWord Becomes Flesh;Scourge, which explores the complex history of Haiti; and(Yet Another) Letter to a Young Poet. He has served as Phyllis Wattis Artist in Residence at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco, as a resident at the Institute for Diversity in the Arts at Stanford University, and as a resident emerging choreographer at the Bates dance Festival. Joseph has performed in numerous festivals, including Russell Simmons’s DEF Poetry Jam, the Hip Hop Theater Festival in Tokyo, Intersections in Amherst, the North Beach Jazz Festival, and the Seattle Poetry Festival. He is the artistic director of Youth Speaks, a nonprofit spoken-word education and presentation program for young artists in the Bay Area.

Photo courtesy Gabriella Marks.

livingwordproject.org/lwp_mbj.html
  • Artwork by Marc Bamuthi Joseph
    Word Becomes Flesh, 2006; photo courtesy Gabriella Marks
Artwork by Marc Bamuthi Joseph