Aaron Jafferis

Aaron Jafferis is a hip-hop poet and playwright whose works Activist Songbook, The Ones, Trigger, (Be)longing, Stuck Elevator, How to Break, Kingdom, Shakespeare: The Remix, and No Lie have been produced or presented by The Old Globe, American Conservatory Theater, Long Wharf Theatre, Collective Consciousness Theatre and many others. Honors include a Creative Capital Award, Richard Rodgers Award, Sundance Institute/Time Warner Fellowship, NEFA National Theatre Project Grant, and multiple MacDowell Fellowships. A former Open Rap Slam champion at the National Poetry Slam Championships, Aaron is the founder of The Word poetry collective in New Haven (modeled after his mentor June Jordan’s Poetry for the People program), which supports young people using written and spoken word as engines for justice and liberation.