Joshua Bennett

Credits:

• 2006 New York Knicks Poetry Slam Champion

• 2007 Brave New Voices International Youth Poetry Festival Champion

• 2007 College Unions Poetry Slam Invitational Champion

• 2008 College Unions Poetry Slam Invitational "Best Male Poet"

• 2008 College Unions Poetry Slam Invitational "Best Poem"

• Opened for Anis Mojgani at the University of California at Santa Cruz (2008)

• Opened for Saul Williams at Stanford University (2008)

• Robert Redford Foundation Speak Green Poetry Slam Winner (2008)

• Featured as a member of the spoken word collective, "AMMO" at the University of California at Berkeley (2008)

Joshua Bennett

Joshua Bennett is a "unique" young man to say the least. Raised by 3 parents in Yonkers, NY (his older sister LaToya being just as an important sculptor of his sense of self as anyone), he has always understood not only the importance of family, but the necessity of having positive models for success around you. At the age of 17, he was already on the cusp of graduating from Rye Country Day School, an elite private school located in upstate New York,and had been accepted to the University of Pennsylvania. But little did those around him know ( save his immediate family and those teachers closest to him), Joshua was on the verge of discovering a passion that would help to shape the rest of his life. Joshua started writing poetry during high school “as a means of expressing the rage [he] had held inside for so long.” Joshua says “I found spoken word, a gritty, down-to earth, grassroots art form that allowed for the eloquence and rhetorical skill I’d gained in high school to stand on par with the street knowledge, passion for culture, and swagger I’d gleaned from my neighborhood.”

In 2006, Joshua joined the world-renown Urban Word organization after competing and winning a slot on the '06 youth slam team. Joshua's squad placed fifth at Nationals and did not make it to final stage with the other NYC slam team that had been formed that year. One year later, Joshua came back with a vengeance. Along with the Philadelphia’s Youth slam team, he took first place while blowing the crowd away with a phenomenal winning piece titled SILENCE (performed with Ben Alisuag). In the same year, Joshua and the UPenn collegiate team took 1st place at the College Unions Poetry Slam Invitational.

"... The accolades I have attained personally do not fully define nor properly capture who I am as an artist..."

Joshua is not only a poet but he is also a young activist, an aspiring professor, and on most days, a "backpack MC".

“I write and perform poetry for a number of reasons” says Joshua. “All of which are in a constant state of flux as I grow both older and occasionally wiser. Spoken word was quite literally the perfect mix of everything I was passionate about, in the most fitting package I could have imagined. It saved me from becoming the misanthropic, disillusioned individual I was on the verge of transforming into. The microphone and the stage became my closest confidantes, and have remained so to this day.” One of Josh’s greatest fear is to witness “what would happen if no one was moved by [his] work; [He] has no idea what [he] would do without the presence of the crowd, and the knowledge that something he says may help to change someone's life. He claims to always feel most at home in front of a slew of new faces, which is why frequent performances are a must for him.

Josh not only uses poetry to affect the world, but to also deal with his own demons and “cope with [personal] insecurities.” Josh enjoys new books, friends, ciphers and intellectual conversation. His favorite color is indigo and he is frightened to death of the idea of a “real job”. Josh says “[he does] not know [his] father as well as he would like to, but [he] loves him for using these past few years to fill the gap between them two.”

Joshua has been a well known face in the Youth speaks circuit and has established a great deal for himself at the young age of 19 including 2008 College Unions Poetry Slam Invitational "Best Male Poet", 2008 College Unions Poetry Slam Invitational "Best Poem" and many more. Josh now strives to get his Ph.D in Cultural Anthropology and continue to inspire youth and adults alike for years to come.

"Anything else you would like to know about me I pray it's illuminated through my work or conversation we are able to share. Thank you..."

- B. Yung