Abiodun Oyewole

CONTACT: Gabrielle David [email protected] 646.801.4227

AUTHOR BIO

Abiodun Oyewole Poet-Teacher-Activist Abiodun Oyewole is a poet, teacher, and founding member of the American music and spoken-word group The Last Poets, which laid the groundwork for the emergence of Hip-Hop.

As one of the founding members of the Last Poets, Oyewole has dedicated more than 45 years to using his poetry to articulate the struggle, glorify the beauty, and protest the injustices of the Black experience worldwide and in America particularly.

The Last Poets are revered as the "godfathers of rap." Closely following the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, the Last Poets were formed on May 19, 1968 (Malcolm X’s birthday) in Harlem’s Mount Morris Park (now called Marcus Garvey Park). Since first performing with the Last Poets, Abiodun has recorded numerous albums and has collaborated with music industry royalty, including hip hop giants such as Nas, Common, Chuck D., Melle Mel and Doug E. Fresh. His work profoundly influenced the hip-hop landscape, having been sampled by the Notorious BIG, NWA, A Tribe Called Quest and many others.

2Leaf Press published Branches of the Trees of Life, The Collected Poems of Abiodun Oyewole 1969-2013 in 2014, the first comprehensive volume of poems by Oyewole, many of them never before published. Over the years, Oyewole has collaborated on several books. He travels around the world, performing poetry and teaching workshops.

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