About

Artist Bio

Sharrif Simmons is a poet, musician writer, and arts educator. His career spans across three decades, beginning with his education at U.C.L.A (University on the Corner of Lenox Avenue) Liberation Bookstore. The bookstore was founded by his Aunt Una Mulzac and served the Harlem community for over 35 years. After seeing poet Sonia Sanchez at the Schomburg Center for Black Research in Harlem, Sharrif made spoken word poetry his chosen vocation.

In November of 2022, Sharrif joined the International Jazz band BLACK LIVES. Their two album projects, Black Lives: From Generation to Generation, and Black Lives: People of Earth, prominently feature his spoken word contributions over a diverse collection of music from across the globe. Black Lives was nominated "Band of the Year International" (German Jazz Preis 2023) and THE INTERNATIONAL JAZZ BAND OF THE YEAR by Jazz Magazine and Jazz News (France). The collective is composed of artists from the United States, the Caribbean and Africa; their songs draw on many influences and represent a rich sample of the infinite number of ways to conceive Black existence in the world.

Members of the group are known for their work as leaders as well as their collaborations with world-famous artists from the 60‘s until today: Miles Davis, D‘Angelo, Fela Kuti, Meshell Ndegéocello, Salif Keita, Marcus Miller, Roy Hargrove, Erykah Badu, George Benson, Steve Coleman, Terri Lyne Carrington, Joe Zawinul, Maxwell, Cassandra Wilson, The Headhunters, Geri Allen, Wayne Shorter, Esperanza Spalding and many more.

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. 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 independently 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 made history as the first poet to open for the World Games in 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.

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 and continues with Arts In Medicine (AIM) and Artplay today. He currently resides in Amsterdam, Netherlands