With performances by:
Saul Williams
TSU Ensemble, Blackie, Weird Party, The Watermarks, Dayta, Benjamin Wesley, Perseph One, Limb, Papaya
The youngest of three children, Williams was born in Albany, New York. He attended Newburgh Free Academy for high school, where he would write his song "Black Stacey." After graduating from Morehouse College with a B.A. in acting and philosophy, Williams moved to New York City to earn an MFA in Acting from New York University's prestigious Graduate Acting Program at the Tisch School of the Arts. There he found himself at the center of the New York cafe poetry scene. Williams has garnished many accolades as a poet and musician including being published in The New York Times, Esquire, Bomb Magazine and African Voices as well as releasing four collections of poetry. Williams latest album, Volcanic Sunlight' was released November 11, 2011. At the release of his album he was asked the point of his poetry. He said: "I'm making this up, I have no idea but here we go, I think that it would be to express, to share, to relieve, to explore", "for me poetry offers some what of a cathartic experience. I am able to move through emotions and emotional experience particularly, you know, break-ups, difficulties in all the things that I may face, whether that is with an industry or a loved one or whomever, there needs to be an infiltration process, like you have a window open over there. That is the purpose of poetry – it is the window that opens that allows some air in, some other insight, some other possibility so we can explore all that we feel, all that we think but with the space to see more than what we know, because there is so much more than we know", "If I didn't open myself to the possibilities of the unknown then I would be lost."