Laura "Piece" Kelley Jahn

Laura "Piece" Kelley Jahn is a nationally recognized spoken word poet, hip-hop artist and arts educator.

Poet and Musician

Piece has been writing poetry and performing her work publicly since the beginning of Seattle's slam poetry movement. In 2000 and 2001 she earned a place on the Seattle Poetry Slam Team to compete in the National Poetry Slam competition, and she was crowned the Seattle Grand Slam Champion for 2004-2005. Her unique delivery and lyrical content is integrated with vintage soul and Hip Hop to create a vehicle for social change. She has been featured on HBO's Def Poetry Jam and the documentary Underground Poets Railroad. In 2004 she released her self-titled debut album. Her contribution to Seattle's richly diverse musical scene has earned her a permanent place in the archives of Seattle's Experience Music Project museum. In 2007, Piece will be performing her one woman show "Two Sided See Through Mirror", based on her experiences mentoring urban youth, at the Langston Hughes Cultural Arts Center.

Educator and Activist

Piece is a member of the Seattle Arts Commission, serving on the Education Committee. She is Executive Director of the Think Big Foundation, which supports learning in the areas of athletics, arts, and academics, and co-founder of Aim for Peace, which creates writing and music workshops for youth using hip-hop to express the realities of growing up in today's society. She has developed progressive curriculum around the culture of Hip Hop and Spoken Word for hands-on intensive camps where students create, perform and record their own work. Piece has released three full length compilations featuring young artists. In addition to mentoring students' creative abilities she has designed workshops in media literacy and community activism to encourage examination of the messages in music.

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Piece frequently lectures at schools and conferences on cultural, creative, and pedagogical topics including:

Political Poetry: Art as Activism In Urban Culture
Laura 'Piece' Kelly traces the revolutionary roots of hip hop culture and its elements, including rap, dance, graffiti and visual arts. Hip Hop is a progressive social movement, with revolutionary origins and subversive potential. Created as a reaction to the systematic deconstruction of the civil rights movement, hip hop functions as a safe place for urban youth seeking refuge from crime and drug culture. Commercialization of hip hop has created a distorted perception of hip hop culture, as global corporations use the medium of hip hop to promote misogyny and drug culture, perpetuating a cycle of social oppression. Modern hip hop artists are undoing the negative messaging of pop culture and reclaiming the media.

Engaging Creativity with Spoken Word: A Vehicle for Social Change
Throughout history the creative arts have been instrumental in social progress, giving voice to those less heard. Creativity can help students picture possibilities for themselves, respond to new ideas, and engage in solutions. Spoken word poetry, born from the civil rights movement, is the creative voice of activism in the urban environment. It has a special power to engage students about the effects of oppression in urban communities, especially urban youth. Activism requires action, and when creative thoughts are put into action, they can affect all of society. The process of spoken word, culminating in performance and peer feedback, is ideally suited to engage students and help create a democratic space in the classroom.

The Response

"Laura was outstanding, superb. She captured the audience, held it in her hand, and delivered an experience that was part lesson, part personal, and all 'Piece.' Laura's mantra: "If you believe it, be it and live it, or leave it be" still resonates in our community. Polished, poised, dynamic, real, sensitive, aware, strong, centered--these are but a few of the words that come to mind."

William Armstrong
English Teacher
The Overlake School

"Laura is luminous, a truly captivating speaker. Her poetry connects the audience to the past, honors the present and inspires hope for the future."

Ann Muno
Associate Director, Co-Founder
Powerful Voices

"Poetically fresh, youth wise, and a humanitarian at heart, Laura "Piece" Kelley is an energizing, engaging and educating artist for our young learners of today and tomorrow. She incorporates the elements of Hip Hop and street knowledge with local and global media literacy, awareness and understanding. Through thought provoking dialog, inquiry, journaling, poetry and performance, Piece challenges young learners to be leaders for social justice through artistic expression. Unmasking the social ills that separate us through struggle and deprivation, Piece revitalizes youth with a sense of hope and strength; facilitating them through a process of self-discovery and leading them to a creative conveyance of unique thought and communitarian action."

Bruce Bivins
Assistant Principal
Franklin High School, Seattle

"Laura Piece Kelley's performance was the most inspiring moment for me during the conference."

"Laura Piece Kelley was super engaging, charming and talented."

audience members, Wash. St. Cultural Congress

"Laura 'Piece' Kelley's voice comes from deep within, connected to the brain, heart, soul, and social justice. She's a force for positive, progressive change."

Jim Hightower

To book this speaker, call (206) 529-4711 or email info@samaralectures.com