Sleeper Cell is a collection of poems that investigate the institutionalized racism and disenfranchisement of Black youth and one poet's radical ascension from that degradation. *** A Scribe Called Quess? is a poet, educator, actor, playwright and activist in that order. He is a 2-time national slam poetry championship title winner and founding member of Team SNO (Slam New Orleans), New Orleans' three-time national championship title winning slam poetry team. His poetry led him to the classroom where he has served the last seven years as an educator. His work as an educator has been highlighted on NPR in the Voices of Educators series and taken him to Oxford University to speak on school reform. As an actor and theater maker he has written for and acted in productions with Junebug Productions (Voices from the Back of the Class, Lockdown, Gomela), ArtSpot Productions (Rumors of War), Urban Bush Women (Summer Leadership Institute 2009), and other esteemed outfits. In summer of 2014 he was awarded a residency at the Contemporary Arts Center as a part of the inaugural class of the DISTILLERY, where he work shopped his first stage play, "Crossroads," which he continues to work on. He has produced a self-titled CD, "A Scribe Called Quess?" and his debut book of poetry, Blind Visionz, can be found online at lulu.com. Recently, he helped found BYP100 NOLA, a young adult organization that advocates for the protection of black youth from state sanctioned violence. As his work as an artist and educator has always explored issues of social justice and institutional and interpersonal racism, BYP has offered the perfect opportunity for his arts and pedagogy to meet activism. Most recently, he founded Take Em Down NOLA, a coalition dedicated to the removal of White Supremacist monuments in New Orleans.
