Bob Holman

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The author of 17 poetry collections, most recently The Cutouts (Matisse), (PeKa Boo Press), Sing This One Back To Me (Coffee House Press) and A Couple of Ways of Doing Something, a collaboration with Chuck Close (Aperture), BOB HOLMAN has previously taught at Columbia, NYU, Bard, and The New School. As the original Slam Master and a director at the Nuyorican Poets Cafe, creator of the world's first spoken word poetry record label, Mouth Almighty/Mercury, and founder/proprietor of the Bowery Poetry Club, Holman has played a central role in the spoken word and slam poetry movements of the last several decades. Holman's study of the roots of hip hop in West African oral traditions led to his current work with endangered languages.

Holman has produced/ hosted various films, including The United States of Poetry (PBS). On the Road with Bob Holman (LinkTV) and Poetry Spots for WNYC-TV, which won two Emmys. His most recent film, Language Matters with Bob Holman, winner of the Berkeley Film Festival's Documentary of the Year award, was produced by David Grubin and aired nationally on PBS, where it is still being streamed. Holman brought the film to language revitalization centers across Alaska and Hawaii in 2015, sponsored by the Ford Foundation. His video poem Khonsay:Poem in Many Tongues, is a cento in 50 different languages. Most recently he served as Creative Consultant to LINES Ballet in San Francisco for “Figures of Speech,” based on his endangered language work.