About
Sekou Andrews is an American slam poet, actor, musician, and the creator of Poetic Voice, a cutting-edge speaking technique which combines inspirational speaking with spoken word poetry.
Andrews grew up in the bay area, where he discovered acting and hip-hop, pursuing the two at Pitzer College alongside a degree in Sociology. Originally pursuing a career in entertainment law, Andrews left his firm to become an elementary school teacher and established himself in the poetry scene on the side.
After leaving teaching to pursue slam poetry full-time, Andrews became an almost instant success. He shared the stage with prominent artists like Stevie Wonder, Jay-Z, and Kendrick Lamar, and had his work featured on major outlets like MSNBC, MTV, Showtime, and two seasons of HBO’s Def Poetry. Andrews won the National Poetry Slam championship twice, and followed up with two highly successful poetry albums. Andrews then teamed up with creative partner Steve Connell, and the two began performing sold out shows and performing at private events for the likes of Barack Obama, Oprah Winfrey, Maya Angelou, and Hillary Clinton. The slam duo’s electrifying shows earned them 3 Helen Hayes Award nominations over the years.
Wanting to bring poetry to the world’s largest stages, Andrews created a new form of speaking called Poetic Voice, a blend of inspirational speaking and spoken word poetry which has attracted the business of countless companies such as Google, Viacom, Toyota, Nike, Linkedin, and Paypal. Forbes magazine has described Andrews as “the de facto poet laureate of corporate America.”
Andrews has been the keynote speaker at a variety of leadership conferences, and is often booked by Fortune 500 companies to help with brand messaging.
