As National Poetry Month gets underway this April, J. Ivy is currently on the road with his City Winery tour.
But perhaps Ivy’s biggest milestone occurred just two months ago at the 65th annual Grammy Awards. That’s when his sixth album, , won the inaugural gramophone for best spoken word poetry album. Prior to that, poets and spoken word artists were grouped in the same category with audiobooks, storytelling and narration — including Dr. Maya Angelou, who had been the only Grammy-winning poet.
The title of Ivy’s Grammy-winning album was inspired both by his role in establishing the new category and by the 1969 novel/1973 film . The novel revolves around the exploits of fictional character Dan Freeman, the first Black CIA officer. “I was gathering information and giving it back to the poetry community,” Ivy recalls of creating and recording the album. “I kept cracking this joke, ‘I’m like the poet who sat by the door.
Born James Ivy Richardson II, the artist credits his high school English teacher Paula Argue for pushing him to perform his poetry at the school’s Black History Month talent show. “What I learned is you’re not gon’ argue with somebody named Ms. Argue,” he says.Ivy also shouts out Beyoncé for another early career milestone. “A very credible source,” he recalls, “told me that she was the one who told Kanye [West] to keep me on ‘Never Let Me Down.
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