Kane Smego Artistic Director
kanesmego@gmail.com
(443) 315-3307
Kane “Novakane” Smego is a spoken word poet and Artistic Director of Sacrificial Poets/YouTh ink, a nationally competing youth poetry organization that works with local middle and high school youth. Kane grew up in the Durham-Chapel Hill area, and recently graduated with highest distinction from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill class of 2010, where he was awarded the Sterling A. Stoudemire Award for Excellence in Spanish Language. He is an adult National Slam Poet and four time member of the Bull City Slam team that finished 3rd at the 2010 National Poetry Slam in St. Paul, MN, and took 1st place at the 2010 Southern Fried Southern Regional Poetry Slam in Knoxville, TN. In 2008, Kane won the Lake Eden Arts Festival (LEAF) poetry slam amidst some of the country’s top poets, and later that year competed in the Individual World Poetry Slam (IWPS) where he finished 14th in the world out of nearly 80 poets. He was also a 2010 Duo Slam champion and 2010 Black on Black Rhyme Two Piece and a Side Slam champion. Kane has featured all over the country, performing at such historic venues as the Nuyorican Poets Café in NYC, the 2010 Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival, and the birth place of Slam Poetry, Chicago’s Green Mill. As an educator Kane has co-coached three Sacrificial Poets youth teams at the Brave New Voices International Youth Poetry Slam Festival (BNV) from 2008-2010, taking the team to semifinals the last two years. Kane teaches youth poetry workshops throughout North Carolina and across the nation, inspiring youth and adults to tell their own stories, and challenging them to transform themselves and their communities through the use of the spoken word. He is the primary author of the Sacrificial Poets/YouTh ink. curriculum, and is the founder of Poetic Justice, an afterschool program focused on Spoken Word and Hip Hop which he runs with underserved youth in Durham, NC. In the summer of 2011 Kane was helped create and lead the Poetic Portraits of a Revolution (PPR2011) project that traveled to Egypt and Tunisia to collect stories of the popular revolutions, and broadcasted them as poems in an eight week radio series on the National Public Radio affiliate WUNC. Later that year, he completed a three and a half month spoken word tour across the nation, in which he performed original work and taught youth workshops in 17 states. Kane seeks to inspire youth and adults to tell their own stories, and challenges them to transform themselves and their communities through the use of the spoken word and written word. He has been hired to perform and facilitate poetry workshops with a number of notable organizations and institutions including: UNC Chapel Hill, UNC-Wilmington, the Ackland Art Museum, Upward Bound, Duke Creative Writer’s Workshop, Bennett College, Soka University, California State at Berkely, the NAACP, The North Carolina Arts Council, and the Durham, Chapel Hill-Carrboro, Chatham County, Forsyth County and Asheville Public School Systems.
(Source: sacpoebio)
Chicas was born and raised in Uniondale, New York. From an early age, he was intrigued by simple Reggaeton beats and witty Hip-Hop punch lines that would later inspire him to write his own rap verses. Chicas, along with some of his peers, would freestyle and rap battle during school. However, it would not be until he entered college where he would first hear and fall in love with spoken word.
Today, Chicas is currently a student at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill seeking a Bachelor in Psychology, the University Coordinator of Sacrificial Poets, and the Co-Director of UNC Wordsmiths- an organization dedicated to providing Open Mic’s for students and maintaining/encouraging poetry on campus. He has traveled to various universities across the nation- including UC Berkley, Georgia State University, Old Dominion University, Virginia CommonWealth University- performing spoken word pieces as well as spreading SacPo’s purpose. His poetry is heavily influenced by his Latino/New York culture and credits much of his success to Sacrificial Poets.
(Source: sacpoebio)
Funmilayo Solar is a junior at UNC, majoring in Communications (Rhetorical Studies) with a minor in English. She works at the UNC-LGBTQ Center and is a member of Theta Nu Xi Multicultural Sorority, Incorporated.
I feel in love with writing when I started middle school. I remember skipping class just to write. Poetry allows me to dig deeply and find my reason for living. Now as a young adult, I hope to take my love for writing and performing everywhere I go and influence those around me with positive energy.
(Source: sacpoebio)
Sunny Osment is an amusing person. She is amused by most things especially things that aren’t amusing herself. She’s interested in essentially everything related to social justice. She is still a teenager and growing up though she doesn’t like to acknowledge it. Her main inspirations are her mom and dad both who have dedicated their life to social justice in different forms. She likes to write and read about all things. She is bilingual and speaks Spanish and English. She listens to music all genres but her favorite is Motown from the 50s and 60s.
(Source: sacpoebio)
Terrence Foushee
Birthday: 1/2/87
Programming Assistant/
Assistant Director Street Scene Teen Center
Student at Durham Technical Community College
Member of NAACP Ed committee
Adult Board Teen Support Coalition
I have been an chapel hill resident pretty much all my life and i love service for the community
I did two years in AmeriCorps where i did service projects in Denver, Louisiana, Arkansas, and Texas
I have been writing poetry since my senior year in high school
(Source: sacpoebio)
Public Relation Coordinator tluthun@gmail.com 734 239 5356
http://twitter.com/tariqLuthun
Tariq is an UNC student from Detroit, Michigan. He has been a performance poet for several years, and a writer for even longer. Tariq keeps himself busy by participating in a number of writing initiatives on and off campus. In addition to serving as the Public Relations Coordinator of Sacrificial Poets, Tariq is the founder and executive director of the poetry organization known as UNC Wordsmiths, which recently became the collegiate branch of Sacrificial Poets. His main goals as a writer revolve around bridging the gap between the literary and spoken words, and offering all creators of poetry a medium to exercise this expressive art form.
(Source: sacpoebio)
Co-Director compositionink@gmail.com (919)423-8927
twitter.com/jakesonaplayne
Jacob Jacoby is a recent alumni from North Carolina Central University. He graduated cum laude with a B.A. in Psychology and B.S. in Criminal Justice. Jacob has been working with youth for the past 5 years teaching and writing poetry, and also as a Director of a local spoken word organization called “The Sacrificial Poets.” Through his work as a spoken word artist, he has been blessed with the opportunity to inspire audiences throughout the United States.
Aside from being a Poet by night, Jacob is also an educator by day. He is an NCLiteracy Corps/AmeriCorps member and serving with the Blue Ribbon Mentor-Advocate Program as the middle school tutorial coordinator during the 2011-12 school year. Jacob’s primary goal is to motivate the middle school students of the Chapel Hill-Carborro City Schools to attain their highest-level of academic excellence, while having plenty of fun at the same time! He will also assist with their Seeking the Self arts program.
(Source: sacpoebio)
Will McInerney Co-Director
will.mcinerney@gmail.com
(919) 357-7585
twitter.com/will_mci is the
Will McInerney is Co-Director of Sacrificial Poets, a nationally competing youth poetry organization devoted to fostering social transformation. Born and raised in
Chapel Hill, North Carolina, Will has been actively involved in his local community through various groups since a young age. Upon entering college, McInerney discovered the art of Spoken Word and began working with the Sacrificial Poets. Will uses poetry as both a form of personal expression and a means of continuing his fight for social justice. Alongside writing and performing, McInerney has a passion for sharing his art through education. He has facilitated spoken word workshops across North Carolina and upon invitation taught poetry at
the Ramallah Friends School in the Palestinian West Bank in 2010. McInerney is a National Poetry Slam finalist, a
South East Regional Champion, and National Duo Slam Champion. He currently attends the University of North
Carolina at Chapel Hill and is in the process of acquiring a degree in Peace, War, and Defense.
(Source: sacpoebio)
