TAYLOR MALI, who was born on March 28, 1965, is a teacher and poet. Generally considered to be the most successful poetry slam strategist of all time, having led six of his seven national poetry slam teams to the finals stage and winning the champitonship itself a record four times before anyone had even tied him at three, Mali was one of the original poets to appear on the HBO original series "Russell Simmons Presents Def Poetry." He was also the "golden-tongued, Armani clad villain" of Paul Devlin's 1997 documentary film "SlamNation," which chronicled the National Poetry Slam Championship of 1996, the year of Mali's first national team championship.
A native of New York City and vocal advocate of teachers and the nobility of teaching, Mali himself spent nine years in the classroom teaching everything from English and history to math S.A.T. test preparation. He has performed and lectured for teachers all over the world. Mali 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 U. S. Comedy Arts Festival.
Formerly president of Poetry Slam Incorporated, the non-profit organization that oversees all poetry slams in North America, Taylor Mali makes his living entirely as a spoken-word and voiceover artist these days, traveling around the country performing and teaching workshops as well as doing commercial voiceover work. He has narrated several books on tape, including "The Great Fire," for which he won the Golden Earphones Award for children's narration.
Taylor published his first book, What Learning Leaves (Hanover Press) in 2002. He has also released several spoken word CD recordings including “Conviction” in 2003, “The Difference Between Left And Wrong” in 1995, “Taylor Mali & Friends Live at the Bowery Poetry Club”, “Poems from the Like Free Zone” and “Best of Urbana”. Expected to release in the Fall of 2007, will be “Icarus Airlines,” Taylor’s first live spoken word CD since 2003.
In June of 2000, Taylor Mali set a goal for himself: to direct 1,000 people into the field of teaching through poetry, persuasion, perseverance, or passion. So far, he’s got 176.
