Earlier this week, The Newark Times reported that the producers of Def Poetry Jam would be broadcasting a special live-streamed event benefiting Newark’s COVID-19 relief efforts on Saturday, May 23, 2020 at 7pm ET/4 PM PT. Hosted by Def Poetry Jam veteran “Black Ice” along with Jessica Care Moore, the event will feature poets from across the country as well as Newark Mayor Ras J. Baraka.
Mayor Baraka has a well established history of writing and performing poetry and just last year released a spoken word EP entitled “What We Want”. Today, the event’s producer announced that the feature presentation would now include Newark’s own Rob Hylton who has been a New Jersey spoken word living legend and Newark Public Schools educator for decades now, and Jasmine Mans, who has been a beacon of unabashed artistry, Blackness, and Newarkness, and is releasing a collection of work through Berkley Penguin Random House, entitled Black Girl, Call Home next year, as well as Rahway native and Def Poetry Jam alumnus Big Mike.
And if that wasn’t enough, the line-up now also includes singer, song-writer, and poet, Jill Scott, who steps into the mix on the back of an axis-shifting Verzuz Instagram battle with Erykah Badu (that was two parts love, music, and womanhood fest, zero parts battle).
The May 23rd fundraiser is presented online by GC Studios, a division of Gushcloud International, in association with Newark Symphony Hall. Newark Symphony Hall President and CEO Taneshia Nash Laird is an executive producer of the event. Laird is also president of the board of Rush Philanthropic Arts Foundation.
The program will stream online on Twitch at www.twitch.tv/defpoetryjam and Facebook Watch at www.facebook.com/russellsimmons. The online show will also be simulcast on Newark, NJ’s municipal access channel NWK 78.
