Abiodun Oyewole of THE LAST POETS

Dr. Abiodun Oyewole will fly into Lafayette from New York City for a full day of spoken word and artistic expression on Friday, April 8, 2016. He’ll lead a poetry workshop from 3:30 to 5:30pm, followed by a show at 7:30pm featuring spoken word, hip-hop, dancing, and visual art with Sha’condria “iCon” Sibley, DJ Rabbit Rashad, Angie Joelle, Knowledge, Tyler Sho-Ked Wilson, and Kemit Najee. The poetry workshop is free; tickets for the show are $10 in advance or $15 at the door. Doors open at 7pm for the 7:30 show. Abiodun Oyewole was born Charles Davis in 1948. At fifteen, he attended a Yoruba Temple in Harlem. There, a Yoruba priest performed a ceremony, giving him the name Abiodun Oyewole. Oyewole is a founding member of the American musical spieling group The Last Poets. On May 19, 1968, Oyewole and two others David Nelson and Gylan Kain read poetry in tribute to Malcolm X at a memorial for him, and the group was born. The Last Poets--along with the artist Gil Scott-Heron-- are credited as having had a profound effect on the development of hip-hop music. In 1970, the Last Poets were signed by jazz producer Alan Douglas and released their first album. This album includes their classic poem Niggers are Scared of Revolution. After being sentenced to four years in a North Carolina prison for larceny, Oyewole was forced to leave The Last Poets. He served two and half years of his sentence, during which he earned his B.A. degree. He went on to earn his Ph.D. from Columbia University in New York City, where he has served as a faculty member. Oyewole rejoined The Last Poets during its 1990s resurgence. The Last Poets took part in Lollapalooza in 1994 and released a new album entitled Holy Terror in 1995 and a book called On a Mission: Selected Poetry and a History of the Last Poets in 1996. Oyewole continues to tour various venues giving lectures on poetry and politics. Abiodun Oyewole’s workshop and show are sponsored by Lyrically Inclined, a Lafayette-based spoken word group headed by Alex “PoeticSoul” Johnson.More information is available at https://www.facebook.com/lyricallyinclined337/.