Taylor Mali (born 28 March 1965) is an American slam poet, teacher and voiceover artist.
Life
A native of New York City, Taylor Mali graduated from the Collegiate School, a private school for boys, in 1983. He received a B.A. in English from Bowdoin College in 1987 and an M.A. in English/Creative Writing from Kansas State University in 1993. He also studied drama with the Royal Shakespeare Academy at Oxford. One of four children, his mother was children's book author Jane L. Mali[1], a recipient of the American Book Award, and his father was H. Allen Mali, vice president of Henry W.T. Mali & Co., manufacturers of pool table coverings. In 1993, he married Rebecca Ruth Tauber, who died in 2004. On May 13, 2006 he married Marie-Elizabeth Mundheim[2], a high school friend.
Poetry
Taylor Mali performing at at the international school in Stockholm
As a slam poetry performer, Taylor Mali has been on seven National Poetry Slam teams; six appeared on the finals stage and four won the competition (1996 with Team Providence; 1997, 2000 and 2002 with Team NYC-Urbana). Mali is the author of What Learning Leaves, has recorded four CDs, and is included in various anthologies. Poets who have influenced him include Billy Collins, Saul Williams, Walt Whitman, Rives, Mary Oliver, and Naomi Shihab Nye. He is perhaps best known for the poem "What Teachers Make."
He appeared in Taylor Mali & Friends Live at the Bowery Poetry Club and the documentaries "SlamNation" (1997) and "Slam Planet" (2006). He was also in the HBO production, "Russell Simmons Presents Def Poetry," which won a Peabody Award in 2003. Taylor Mali is the former president of Poetry Slam Incorporated, and he has performed with such renowned poets as Billy Collins and Allen Ginsberg. Although he retired from the National Poetry Slam competition in 2005.[3], he still helps curate NYC-Urbana Poetry Series, held weekly at the Bowery Poetry Club.
Teaching
Taylor Mali spent nine years teaching English, history, and math, including a stint at Browning School, a boys school on the Upper East Side of New York City. He now lectures and conducts workshops for teachers and students all over the world. In 2001 Taylor Mali used a grant from the New York Foundation for the Arts to develop the one-man show "Teacher! Teacher!" about poetry, teaching, and math. He is a strong advocate for the nobility of teaching and in 2000 he set out to create 1,000 new teachers through "poetry, persuasion, perseverance, or passion." As of July 16, 2008, there were 253[4].
Published Works
Books
Audio CDs
- The Difference Between Left & Wrong, 1995
- Poems from the Like Free Zone, 2000
- Conviction, 2003
- Icarus Airlines, 2007
Anthologies
Collections in which Taylor Mali's work is included
- Poetry on Stage: At the Red Barn Theatre, Key West, 1995 ISBN 9781888036008
- Poetry Nation: The North American Anthology of Fusion Poetry, 1998, ISBN 1550651129
- Will Work For Peace: New Political Poems, 1999, ISBN 096664591X
- Bearing Witness, 2001, ISBN 9781569761304
- Freedom to Speak Anthology, 2002, ISBN 1893972070
- The Spoken Word Revolution 2003, ISBN 9781402200373
CD Anthologies
Collections in which Taylor Mali's work is included
- Attack of the Urbanabots (The Wordsmith Press, 2007)
- New High Score (The Wordsmith Press, 2004)
- Writers Week IX (WWIX, 2004)
- Best of Urbana 2003 (The Wordsmith Press, 2003)
- The Kerfuffle Incident: Best of the Kalamazoo Poetry Slam (KPS, 2003)
- Urbana: Bowery Poetry Club (The Wordsmith Press, 2002)
- Freedom to Speak Anthology(CD) (The Wordsmith Press, 2002)
- Spoken Word Underground (The Wordsmith Press, 2001)
- NYC Slams (Anthology) (PoetCD, 2000)
Narration
- American Fairy Tales, audiobook, 1998
- Shipwreck at the Bottom of the World, audiobook, 2000
- Hope Along the Wind: The Story of Harry Hay, documentary, 2002
- Blizzard!, audiobook, 2003
- The Great Fire, audiobook, 2003
- Revenge of the Whale, audiobook, 2005
- ESCAPE! The Story of the Great Houdini, audiobook, 2006
- Close To Shore, audiobook, 2007
Awards
See also
References
- ^ Obituary: Jane L. Mali, New York Times, October 7, 1995.
- ^ Vows: Marie-Elizabeth Mundheim and Taylor Mali, New York Times, May 28, 2006.
- ^ Aptowicz, Cristin O'Keefe. (2008). Words in Your Face: A Guided Tour Through Twenty Years of the New York City Poetry Slam. "Taylor Mali: The Man, The Myth, The Industry" page 266. Soft Skull Press, 288. ISBN 1-933-36882-9.
- ^ The Quest for 1,000 New Teachers
- Review of The Great Fire, AudioFile Magazine, Jun/Jul 2003
- Slam Poet's Muse is Teaching, Stacey Hollenbeck, Teacher Magazine, July 18 2007
- Day Job: Teacher, Night Job: Poet, Instructor, Sep/Oct 2007, Vol. 117 Issue 2, p.9
External links
YouTube videos
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