Malcolm London

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Malcolm London is an American poet, educator, "artivist" and musician.^[1] He is one of three artists on the Billboard documentary piece, “Saving Chicago: Inside Hip-Hop's Movement to Make Chicago a Better Place”.^[2]

Biography[]

London, who is African-American, was born in 1993 and grew up in the west side of Chicago in a neighborhood called Austin.^[3][4] He first started writing poems when he was 12 and poetry quickly became an important part of London's life.^[4] He attended Lincoln Park High School and in his sophomore year he won individual honors at the Louder Than A Bomb youth poetry competition.^[5][4] When he was 20, he participated in a TED talk where he read a portion of his poem, "High School Training Grounds".^[3][6]

After graduating from high school in 2011, London began working for Kevin Coval, a fellow poet and educator who helped create the Louder Than A Bomb poetry festival. London was paid to help with the organization Young Chicago Authors, talking at local schools and running poetry workshops with students in the area.^[4]

In January 2012, London worked with actor Matt Damon as part of an event called "The People Speak Live!". The event was a portion of a large project based on Howard Zinn's Voices of a People's History of the United States.^[4] Over the summer, London participated in a similar event in Pittsburgh where he again worked with Matt Damon and also John Krasinski, Emily Blunt, and Francis McDormand.

In September 2012, Malcolm London appeared on a television series called "Verses & Flow" which features performances of music and poetry. He read a poem entitled, "The First Time in a While" which was based on a peer of London's who had been killed in a fight. In reading his poem, London became he youngest poet to appear in the first three seasons of the show.^[4]

In time, London would go on to appear on several TED Talks with John Legend and Bill Gates, and host events and performances with friend and fellow YCA alum Chance the Rapper^[1] and rapper Lupe Fiasco.^[2] His performances of poetry have taken place all across Chicago including at the Chicago Jazz Festival, the Du Sable Museum, the Vic Theater, The Metro, The Chicago Theater, Victory Gardens Theatre, and Steppenwolf Theater, where was a member of the Young Adult Council.^[6] London has also been the co-chair of the Chicago chapter of the Black Youth Project^[7] and has done a lot of service for Chicago Public schools and the city's community.^[1] Malcolm is known for using his art to inspire activism. He was a member of UCAN's National Forum on Youth Violence Prevention and has championed a variety of issues through his poetry and talks.^[6]

Malcolm London has written many poems, some of his most famous being "High School Training Ground,” "Never Too Late,” “Rome Wasn’t Built In A Day (Love Sosa),” and “Why You Talk Like That.”^[8] He also has a range of music that appears on SoundCloud.^[9]

Accountability[]

In 2015, London was arrested for was arrested and targeted by the Chicago Police department for leading a protest. He was falsely accused of punching an officer and after a night in Cook County jail all charges were dropped. At the height of his public visibility London was called out for sexual assault by a woman he shared space with when he was 18 years old. Shortly after this call out, he entered into a 15 month long community led transformative justice process to make amends for the harm he caused her. Since, London has been publicly accountable for sexual harm and remains very vocal about teaching young men and boys about consent, ending gender violence and pursuing efforts to challenge performative and toxic masculinity. .^{[10][11][12][13][14]}

References[]