Born and raised in South Central, Los Angeles, Javon “The Goldenchild†Johnson made second homes out of Libraries, Book Stores, and any other place that harbored knowledge. Javon began his poetry career in the winter of 2001, but make no mistake in less than one short year he has surely made a name for himself. In 2002 he qualified to represent Los Angeles at the 2002 National Poetry Slam Tournament, where his team (Los Angeles Slam Team) placed 5th in the nation. In 2003 Javon, as the only returning member of the Los Angeles Slam Team, won the National Poetry Slam Championship, placing 1st over 60 plus teams by quite a decisive margin of points, the Championship was especially important as it was the first time any team from Southern California ever won. In the following year, 2004, Javon, as the only returning member of the 2003 national champion team, joined the Hollywood Slam Team (also known as Team D.P.L.) and won the West Coast regional Championship. Hollywood continued their domination by winning the 2004 National Championship by another decisive point margin, making Javon only the second person in Slam National’s history to ever go back-to-back winning National titles. Furthermore, in 2005 as one of only two of 2004 members of the 2004 national championship team, Javon and team D.P.L. placed 3rd, making Javon the only person in slam history to ever make it to the final stage 3 years in a row.Javon’s poetic and performance talents have not gone unnoticed by those outside of the Slam world, as the demand for his performances continue to rise. He recently appeared on Russell Simmons’ Def Poetry Jam on HBO, BET’s Lyric Café, and filmed BET’s The Way We Do it. In addition to this, Javon recently co-wrote poetic narration for a documentary titled Crossover (from the Directors of Mrs. Evers Boys & On Hollowed Grounds), which will air on Showtime, in collaboration with the NBA, Magic Johnson Group, Penny Marshall, and Nike. Moreover, Javon performed for a multitude of celebrities, press, and others when he performed at a huge charity event thrown by Basketball superstar Shaquille O’Neal.Furthermore, Javon’s knack for speaking has landed him to becoming a 5 time intercollegiate Speech & Debate National Champion, an All-American, and a competitor who has earned well over 500 awards during his undergraduate years. In addition, Javon won the Brovero-Tabor award for being the number all around competitor on the community college level in the Nation. He received his B.A. from the California State University at Los Angeles in 2003 in Communication Studies. In 2005 Javon earned his M.A. in Communication Studies with an emphasis in Critical Performance Studies. His Thesis project, titled Performing My Poetry/Performing My Black Maleness: A Critical Auto(poetic)ethnography, explored issues of using spoken word poetry as a navigational tool for performing race, masculinity, and sexuality across a multitude of conflicting spaces.
Currently Javon is working on a Ph.D. degree in Performance Studies at Northwestern University, where he deals with the politics of diversity, identity and community negotiation in the highly politicized slam and spoken word poetry communities.Javon hopes that his work will touch others in the same way that so many writers have influenced him. Through witty word-play, metaphor, rhyme scheme, and whatever else he can use in his poems, he seeks to deconstruct systemic oppression and practices that promote foundations of inequality, so as to enhance what he is calling “a poetic politic of emancipation. Javon writes, “I noticed I live in a capitalist society, where my self-worth is based on how much I own, and since all I own are my own words, then my words are what I’m worth. Since actions speak louder than words, I promise to try and write my words into action, so my self-worth can be much, much louder.â€
