In 2020’s isolation, I entered a poetry contest, which has come to have a profound impact on my life. I was named a finalist as the Arlington Youth Poet Laureate and became a Youth Poetry Ambassador.

The contest was run by Words Beats & Life, a DC-based  hip-hop-non-profit, if that many hyphens are allowed. They invited me to take classes, which I promptly began, in beat production, art for social justice, the business of music, and rap. I continued taking classes live full-time during the Summer of 2021 at their headquarters in DC in rap, DJ-ing, graffiti, and the art of activism, and then virtually again in the fall of 2021 after school.

As inspiring as the classes were, even better were the new people and community I met. I became friends with local rapper, Flex Matthews, who has invited me to perform with him on stage. I entered the Arlington Youth Poet Laureate contest again in Fall 2021, and as runner up, was again named a Youth Poetry Ambassador.

In the Summer of 2022, WBL hired me as a teaching assistant in their summer program. I taught high school students everything from rudimentary music theory to Angela Davis’ radical yogi practice. I also worked at a DC public school, Barnard Elementary, where I assisted teaching rising first graders beat production and art. See images to the right–I’m the guy with the hair.