Bio:

Kane Smego is an international touring poet and hip hop artist, theater performer, educator, arts program administrator and National Poetry Slam finalist. He is the Associate Director and an artist alumnus of Next Level, a cultural diplomacy program that sends American hip-hop artists around the world to use music and dance in promoting cultural exchange, artistic collaboration and community building. Kane has performed, taught and managed programs with youth and adults of all ages across the U.S. and abroad on five continents, including hip hop residencies in Zimbabwe, Thailand, Brazil, Cambodia, Morocco, Guatemala, Dominican Republic, Mongolia, Peru, Bolivia and Argentina.

Kane’s one-man show, Temples of Lung and Air, is a work of hip hop theater that premiered at Playmakers Repertory Company in 2018, was featured at the United Solo Theatre Festival in NYC and ran for a month at the Detroit Public Theatre in 2019. He was also featured in multiple productions of Freemind Freestyle alongside Versa-Style Dance Company, performing at historic venues including The Joyce Theater in NYC, the Ford Theater in Los Angeles, and the San Francisco Palace of Fine Arts.

As a recording artist, Kane has released multiple albums featuring his poetry and Hip Hop music. He also featured on Grammy Award-winner King Mez’s debut album My Everlasting Zeal, and topped the Spotify Viral 50 billboard in May 2017 featuring on the song North Cack with G Yamazawa. The music video for the song appeared on BET Jams, and went on to win Best Music Video at the Hip Hop Film Festival in Harlem, NY. His newest album, Collard Green Music, was released in July 2020 and he is currently working on a new project slated for release in 2024.

Kane has provided programs at over 80 colleges and universities and 50 K-12 schools across the country. He has also been a performer and keynote speaker at various events including TEDx, the Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival, the Def Poetry Jam Reunion, the Shriver Report Live hosted by Atlantic Magazine and the National Association of Social Workers conference. A native of Durham, NC, Kane currently resides in Los Angeles, CA.

Programs:

YouTh ink – For 15 years Kane Smego has been performing and running educational programming in over 125 K-12 schools and colleges in 40 US States and abroad in countries around the world utilizing the dynamic YouTh ink Curriculum. Fusing literacy with social-emotional learning, YouTh ink uses poetry and hip hop to help students celebrate their unique identities and craft powerful works of creative writing. Programs can feature any combination of assembly, workshop, and student open mic and can be tailored to focus on specific curricular elements per request.

Stories for Change – Drawing from his one-man theater show Temples of Lung and Air, this dynamic performance uses poetry, rap, storytelling, and acting to explore issues of race, whiteness, language, and Hip Hop as a tool for community building. Kane also offers a writing workshop to help students explore their own identities and discuss the complexities of race as a social construct. This program also explores best practices in leadership and collaboration across lines of difference.

Kindly Remove Your Shoes: International Cultural Exchange

As Americans striving to be better global citizens, how we show up in the countries of others requires sensitivity, humility, and openness. Drawing on his experience as an international touring poet, hip hop artist, and cultural diplomat Kane shares stories from his work in over 30 countries. His dynamic performance both celebrates and critically examines cross-cultural community-building and collaboration.

Workshops & Breakouts:

Word Up!

We all have a story to tell, what’s yours? Drawing on the concept of intersectionality pioneered by Kimberly Crenshaw and harnessing the power of poetry, this dynamic workshop helps students tell their own stories. As they are guided through a specific process, students will explore the myriad layers that make up their social identities, and create original works that celebrate the experiential wisdom each of them wields. Whether self-identified writers or beginners attempting the art form for the first time, this workshop will provide participants with the tools and guidance they need to craft powerful narratives in their own words.

Learning Outcomes:

Primary

• Students will be able to analyze and communicate various aspects of their unique social identity through creative writing.

 Additional

• Students will be able to brainstorm, plan, and compose their own original works of narrative poetry infused with literary devices.
• Students will be able to articulate and discuss the ways in which various aspects of a person’s social identity interplay to affect his/her/their lived experience.
• Students will be able to explain the basic concepts of intersectionality and how they relate to the fields of diversity, inclusion, and social justice.
• Students will be able to describe the global legacies of oral history and how they are linked to our innate use of storytelling in understanding and engaging with the world around us.

Kane’s workshops utilize his unique YouTh ink. Curriculum and are designed to lead participants in exploring their identities and life experiences, and in utilizing literary devices to communicate their stories through powerful works of spoken word poetry. Workshops can be customized depending on the experience level or age-group involved, as well as tailored to touch on certain themes or topics of a course or event.

Standard workshops are designed to be accessible to beginner and experienced writers alike. Participants with no experience at all will be taken through a writing process and come out of a workshop with their own original piece of spoken word poetry.

For groups made up entirely of veteran poets and slammers, workshops with more advanced writing prompts and techniques are available, as well as activities to improve their performance and public speaking abilities.