About

Artist Bio

Sharrif Simmons is a poet, musician writer, and arts educator. His performance career spans three decades, beginning with his education at U.C.L.A (University on the Corner of Lenox Avenue) aka Liberation Bookstore. The famed establishment, founded by his Aunt Una Mulzac, served the Harlem community for over 35 years, 5 of which found Sharrif as a book salesman and avid reader. After seeing veteran poet Sonia Sanchez at the Schomburg Center for Black Research, Sharrif was inspired to make spoken word poetry his vocation. Often referred to as his generation’s Gil Scott-Heron, his musical influences range from The Last Poets, Abiodun Oyewole, Richie Havens, Bill Withers, Bob Marley, and Jimi Hendrix, to Rage against the Machine, Parliament Funkadelic, Old Dirty Bastard and Biggie Smalls. In March, 2023, Sharrif became the first poet of his generation to be honored with membership to the seminal poetry group THE LAST POETS, the Godfathers of Hip Hop and Spoken Word.

He’s toured extensively throughout Europe and the United States, playing his blend of poetry and acoustic guitar for festivals, concert halls and poetry readings.

His first collection of poems, Fast Cities and Objects That Burn, (Moore Black Press ) was published in 1999. In 2005, with his poem “Fuck what you heard!”, he became a Def Poetry Jam alumni on season 5 of HBO’s Def Poetry Jam presented by Russell Simmons. That same year, his seminal album The Echoeffect was released to critical acclaim. His latest collection of poetry is Clearly Spoken, Spoken Clearly: Sober Poems In a Drunk World., available on Amazon and Kindle.

Sharrif has been recognized for his musical contributions to the soundtrack of the four- time Emmy winning documentary “Thornton Dial Has Something to Say”. The Birmingham Civil Rights Institute commissioned him in 2008 for their Human Rights Exhibit where he helped design and program a permanent exhibition featuring a video performance of his human rights poem “Walk with Me.”

Sharrif was instrumental in the creation of the arts education program for Birmingham’s Alys Stephens Performing Arts Center. His efforts led to the creation of ArtPlay, for which he served as an outreach educator for 12 years. In 2010, he founded the Birmingham Arts and Music festival (BAAM!)

Most recently, Sharrif made history as the first poet to open for the World Games 2022. Held in his previous home of Birmingham Alabama, his performance of the original poem “The Journey” was viewed live by an audience of 45 thousand attendees—and watched by an estimated 2 million viewers worldwide. He relocated to Harlem, NY in January of 2022.

He became a staple of New York's cultural renaissance in the 1990’s. Nuyorican Poets Cafe, The Cooler, CBGB's, Brooklyn Moon Cafe, Joe’s Pub and NYC’s Summerstage were some of the venues and stages where he performed his unique form of music and poetry. In 2005 he became a Def Poet on season 5 of HBO’s Def Poetry Jam with his poem “Fuck what you heard!” Sharrif is often referred to as his generation’s Gil Scott-Heron. His musical influences range from Richie Havens, Bill Withers, Bob Marley and Jimi Hendrix to Rage against the Machine, Parliament Funkadelic, Old Dirty Bastard and Biggie Smalls. He’s toured Europe and the United States playing poetry and music for college campuses, festivals and spoken word conferences.

His first collection of poems, "Fast Cities and Objects That Burn" was published by Poet Jessica Care Moore (out of print). His latest collection of poetry: Clearly Spoken, Spoken Clearly is on Amazon

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09X4FR4JP?ref_=pe_3052080_397514860

He’s been recognized for his musical contributions to the soundtrack of the four- time Emmy winning documentary, “Thornton Dial Has Something to Say." The Birmingham Civil Rights Institute commissioned him in 2008 for their Human Rights Exhibit where he helped design and program a permanent exhibition featuring a video performance of his human rights poem “Walk with Me.”

Sharrif was instrumental in the creation of the arts education programs for Birmingham’s Alys Stephens Performing Arts Center. Those efforts led to the creation of ArtPlay, for which he served as an outreach educator for 12 years.

In 2010, he founded the Birmingham Arts And Music festival (BAAM!)

In 2022 he relocated to Harlem, NY where he currently resides.