Joel Dias-Porter

About Me

(aka DJ Renegade) was born and raised in Pittsburgh, PA. I served in the US Air Force, and after leaving the service, became a professional DJ in the DC area. From 1994 through 1999 I competed in the National Poetry Slam, finishing as high as second place in the individual competition, and was the 1998 and 1999 Haiku Slam Champion. Places my poems have been published include Time Magazine, The Washington Post, Callaloo, Antioch Review, Red Brick Review, and the anthologies Love Poetry Out Loud, Meow: Spoken Word from the Black Cat, Short Fuse, Role Call, Def Poetry Jam, 360 Degrees of Black Poetry, Slam (The Book), Revival: Spoken Word from Lollapallooza, Poetry Nation, Beyond the Frontier, Spoken Word Revolution and Catch a Fire. I also edited and laid out The Black Rooster Social Inn, an anthology of poems and photos of visual art. In 1995, I received the Furious Flower "Emerging Poet Award" from James Madison University. Places I have performed include the Today Show, the documentary SlamNation, on BET, and in the feature film Slam. The father of a young son, I have a CD of jazz and poetry on Black Magi Music, entitled "LibationSong".

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