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Updated 4/16/2020

Aaron Jafferis

  • C

    CT

Institution/Business Type: Artist / Creative (Individual)

Aaron Jafferis is a hip-hop poet and playwright whose awards include a Creative Capital Award, Richard Rodgers Award, Sundance Institute / Time Warner Fellowship, NEA Art Works Grant, NEFA National Theatre Project Grant and multiple MacDowell Fellowships. Aaron is the founding artistic director of The Word youth poetry program in New Haven (modeled after his mentor June Jordan’s Poetry for the People program), which supports young people using hip-hop and spoken word as engines for justice and liberation. Aaron has performed his hip hop poetry at Madison Square Garden, the Kennedy Center, and the National Poetry Slam Championships, where he is a former Open Rap Slam champion. He creates dynamic theatre, poetry and slam performances and workshops for schools and theatres.

Workshops can be booked independently or in conjunction with a performance or excerpt of one of his hip-hop plays and musicals: What Is Race & How Did I Catch It, Activist Songbook, The Ones, Smooth Criminal, How to Break, Kingdom, Stuck Elevator, Shakespeare: The Remix, or No Lie. Workshops range in duration from an hour-and-a-half session to a semester-long project, and combine the study of master works with the creation of new student work. Residencies culminate in a student theatrical performance, staged reading, poetry café, slam, or chapbook publication. Workshops for youth include The Word, Hip Hop Theatre, What Is Race & How Did I Catch It, Forum Theatre, Activist Songbook, Theatre as Social Action, Playwriting Our Selves, ill verses, and Lit Remix. Teacher Trainings include Art Interrupting Injustice, (Mis)Perception at Work, Writing Race, and The Arts of Healing Myself.

Teacher fees listed range from a one-time workshop to a full week residency with multiple classes each day.

Find Me

Aaron Jafferis
Job Title: writer / performer
Phone: 646 546-9343
Address:
New Haven, CT 06513

Additional Content:

  • How to Break

    How to Break – a hip-hop musical about hospitalized teenagers wrestling with their caregivers over what it means to be “ill.”

  • The Ones audio demo

    The Ones – a choral hip-hop theatre forum about coming of age in an age of guns.

About

Overview

Institution/Business Type:

Artist / Creative (Individual)

Legal Status:

Commercial / For profit - Sole proprietorship

Year Founded:

2001

Overview

Institution/Business Type:

Artist / Creative (Individual)

Legal Status:

Commercial / For profit - Sole proprietorship

Year Founded:

2001

Disciplines

Primary Discipline:

Literary Arts - Spoken Word

Additional Disciplines:

  • Music - Rap / Hip-Hop

Activities and Services

Activities and Services:

  • Arts for Social Change / Creative Activism
  • Arts and Health
  • Arts Instruction / Lessons
  • Creation of a Work of Art (Including Commissions)
  • Curriculum Development
  • Performance / Concert / Reading
  • Professional Development / Training
  • Residency - Community
  • Residency - In School
  • Residency - Production / Development
  • Workshops / Demonstrations / Master Class
Seasons Active: spring, summer, fall, winter
Events Per Year: 10

Communities

Populations Engaged:

  • Adults
  • General Public
  • Immigrant Populations
  • Incarcerated (or Formerly Incarcerated) individuals
  • LGBTQ Populations
  • Nonprofits
  • School Groups
  • Teens
  • Youth-At-Risk

Languages Available:

  • Spanish

Geographic Reach:

  • International

Media Gallery

I Have Worked With

Affiliations and Accomplishments

Professional Associations

Professional Associations:

  • Dramatists Guild

Professional Associations

Professional Associations:

  • Dramatists Guild

Awards

Awards:

  • Creative Capital Award (Stuck Elevator)
  • Sundance Institute / Time Warner Fellowship
  • Richard Rodgers Award
  • NEFA National Theatre Project Grant
  • Edgerton Foundation New American Play Award
  • MacDowell Fellowship
  • Thomas Barbour Playwright's Award (How to Break)
  • Best Musical, Best Book of 2008-09 (Kingdom), Newark Star-Ledger; 50 Writers to Watch, The Dramatist, 2007; Open Rap Slam, 1997 National Poetry Slam Championships
  • Connecticut Artistic Excellence Fellowship
  • Connecticut Arts Hero Award

Education

Education:

  • MFA, Musical Theatre Writing, New York University, 2004 (Vilar Global Fellow in the Performing Arts) BA, Interdisciplinary Studies (Arts and Social Change), University of California, Berkeley, 1997 (Phi Beta Kappa, Highest Honors)

Special Designations

Special Designations:

  • NEFA Grant Recipient

Artist Info

Teaching Artist

Teaching Settings:

  • Afterschool Program
  • Arts and Cultural Center / Venue
  • Community Site / Center
  • Healthcare Facility
  • School / University

Ages Served:

  • Elementary School-age
  • Middle School-age
  • High School-age
  • College-age
  • Adults

Subject Areas:

  • Arts Integration - English Language / Literacy
  • Arts Integration - English as a Second Language
  • Arts Integration - Foreign Languages
  • Arts Integration - Health
  • Arts Integration - History and Social Science
  • Literature
  • Music
  • Theater

Fee range:

$200 - $3,000

Teaching Artist

Teaching Settings:

  • Afterschool Program
  • Arts and Cultural Center / Venue
  • Community Site / Center
  • Healthcare Facility
  • School / University

Ages Served:

  • Elementary School-age
  • Middle School-age
  • High School-age
  • College-age
  • Adults

Subject Areas:

  • Arts Integration - English Language / Literacy
  • Arts Integration - English as a Second Language
  • Arts Integration - Foreign Languages
  • Arts Integration - Health
  • Arts Integration - History and Social Science
  • Literature
  • Music
  • Theater

Fee range:

$200 - $3,000

Touring Artist

Technical Requirements:

  • Varies according to workshop.

Fee Range:

$200 - $10,000

State of Residence:

Connecticut

Minimum Number of Performers:

1

Maximum Number of Performers:

12