Author of Slingshots (A Hip-Hop Poetica), named Book of the Year-finalist by The American Library Association. Coval has performed at universities, high schools and theaters on four continents in seven countries including; The Parliament of the World’s Religions in Capetown, South Africa, The African Hip-Hop Festival: Battle Cry, Poetry Society of London, Yale, Steppenwolf Theater, Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago, Stanford, St. Xavier’s College in Bombay, India, and four seasons of Russell Simmons’ HBO Def Poetry Jam, for which he also serves as artistic consultant.
Coval’s writing has appeared in The Spoken Word Revolution and The Spoken Word Revolution: Redux (Source Books), Total Chaos (Basic Civitas), I Speak of the City: New York City Poems (Columbia University Press), Awakening The Spirit (Skylight Paths), XCP: Cross-Cultural Poetics, Chicago Tribune, Chicago Reporter, Cross Currents, Crab Orchard Review, Make Magazine, Garland Court Review, The Daily Herald, seen on C-Span, WGN, and can be heard regularly on Chicago Public Radio, where is resident poet and hip-hop correspondent. Founder of Louder Than A Bomb: The Chicago Teen Poetry Festival, the largest youth poetry festival in the world, Coval is faculty at The School of the Art Institute in Chicago and Minister of Hip-Hop Poetics at The University of Wisconsin-Madison. For over ten years has been teaching hip-hop poetics in high schools and colleges around the country.
hey dr. what's happening i was wondering if you were the person to talk to . i got this feeling that i should do more. i know LTAB happens anually. but how do i start something like an open mic at a library on a weekly basis. i your thing at the morton grove library and damn im still knocked on boarders doors for slingshots
Release Party for AREA Chicago Issue #6: City as an experimental policy lab (areachicago. org) Saturday June 7th, 2008 2pm-4pm @ Paseo Prairie Garden directly adjacent to the south exit of the Logan Square 'el' exit at the intersection of Kedzie/Milwaukee at the West End of Logan Blvd. (view map here http://xrl. us/PaseoGarden)
Le premier maxi d'altam est disponible sur Cd1D. Pour 6 euros, il arrivera comme par magie dans votre boite au lettre. D'avance merci pour votre soutien. cliquez pour commander :
underneath the ground intrigue by her silence/ but i blank it out...eyes close for no oone knows/ grey impedes as wind screams ocurring sirens/ outstanding in the necessity to cause a lyrical overload/
i have my mind in matter freeflowing of messages/ no claim to be venomous,though my ill sought spit/ with likes of blues and classics to feed off resonance/ i got to write the rest while amended in a writ/
Hi there! Saw you at around 5:30 in the morning on Chicago Tonight. Powerful stuff you have there. It's good to see people putting the truth out there about Chicago in an artful as well as tasteful manner.
“Never underestimate the power of dreams and the influence of the human spirit. We are all the same in this notion: The potential for greatness lives within each of us.” -Wilma Rudolph, 3 time gold Olympian
Mista Coval. I have myself a lil' dilemma. No matter how much work i put into Spoken Words, and true Real Talk Hip-Hop i get no feedback at all. yet when i keep it mainstream, and status-quo i get tons of positive feedback. i made two mixtapes, one grimey chicago rap, and the other spoken words, and raw emotional poetry. within the last two 1/2 months i have sold 35 of that rap, and only 1 of my real talk. Is society ready to open up their ears to me?? or am i performing at the wrong venues?? i'm a mess Kevin. I looking for some advice.
just read your book slingshots, really enjoyed it, i saw you live in Madison in December. i was really moved, i am from the south of chicago on the hammond side..went to a poetry slamming workshop yesterday and they used your poem 'hero isabel' as an example...i was able to write a poem for the first time in 13 years...thank you for your inspiration and your love for Chicago...
hey cuz! whats with the rumors you're coming to gainesville? i wrote you and didn't hear back from you, i know you're a chicago superstar and all now (congratulations on the cover... i didn't even get to hang out with mama when i was there because she was on the phone all damn day telling EVERYONE about it!) but you should still tell your favorite cousin when you're coming to town! ps- we were looking through old pictures and i found some incriminating baby pictures of you, which i am keeping for blackmail purposes. that is all. love you!
Congrats on the Tribune spread!! Thanks for doing what you do (and doing it so well), and for sharing it with the rest of us who aren't quite there yet. I hope the Tribune piece kick-starts all the great things to come to you in the new year and makes 2008 your best so far. Happy Holidays!
