KEN ARKIND

Ken Arkind is an
American National Poetry Slam
Champion, TEDx Speaker, Author
and Educator who has performed
his work at venues at over 300
colleges, universities and
educational institutions all over
the world.

He has appeared on HBO, The Huffington Post, The Jessie

Mulligan Show on RNZ, Time Out: Sydney, CBS, the Australian
Broadcasting Company, The Wireless, and in publications as
numerous as diverse as Time Our: Sydney, The Denver Post,
Forbes and the Pantograph Punch.
 ABOUT KEN
Ken has shared stages with speakers such as
Democracy Now! host Amy Goodman, Oscar winner
Kimya Dawson, New Zealand Poet Laureate Selina
Tusitala Marsh, Nobel Prize winner Kary
Mullis,Fields Medal winner Cedric Villani, Gil
Scott Heron, former United States Poet Laureate
Philip Levine and Pulitzer Prize Winner Yusef
Komunyaka, amongst others.
He is the founding Program Director for Denver
Minor Disturbance, an independent literary arts
organization dedicated to helping Colorado youth
find voice through the mediums of poetry and
performance. In 2012 and 2013, Ken coached Minor
Disturbance to back to back championship titles
at the BNV International Youth Poetry Slam
Festival.
The team was also featured on the HBO
documentary named after the competition in 2010.
They reached the finals stage a record number of
7 times in a row, a record not held by any slam
team, youth or adult. In 2014 he worked
alongside the Denver Mayors office and City Arts
Council to establish the Denver Youth Poet
Laureate Program. He also worked as a partner
artists and educator for Youth On Record, The
largest provider of arts and music education in
Denver Public Schools.
He currently works as the Poet and youth
coordinator for Action Education in Auckland,
NZ. Through this position ken has worked with
countless young people through out Aotearoa. He
is a member of the legendary South Auckland
Poets Collective and one of New Zealand’s most
prolific Emcees, hosting multiple poetry events
including the Youthline sponsored Stand Up
Poetry Community Open Mic, Poetry Live!, Rising
Voices and the NZ National Poetry Slam Finals.  his lemon tree.
Ken has performed at numerous arts and literary
festivals including The Nelson Arts Festival, The
Auckland Readers and Writers Festival, Festival for
the Future 2017, Word: Christchurch, River Talks
Festival, Tedx Mile High, Chicago Ideas Week 2011, The
National Conference for Media Reform, and the Auckland
Fringe Festival.
He has run professional development for clients as
diverse as Tedx, the New Zealand Association for
Teaching English, The Taranaki Bulls Rugby Team and
the Colorado Association for Arts. He has also done
commissioned works for the NBA, MLS, and the US
National Parks Service and wrote the title Poem for
the Air Ball Creative short film “Breathless” and
“Scripture of the Mile High” a poetry film
commissioned by The Denver Nuggets.
Deeply passionate about creating platforms for youth
voice, Ken has helped to develop the programming for
Action Education’s Word: The Front Line, New Zealand’s
first ever interscholastic youth poetry slam. In 2017,
WTFL drew 44 high school teams and 220 youth poet
throughout the Auckland region, holding its finals at
the Auckland Town Hall Concert Chamber making it one
of the largest poetry events in New Zealand. He
believes that spoken word is one of our most powerful
tools for change and that it promotes critical
thinking, bolsters self-esteem and cultivates
understanding and empathy across all walks of life.
He is the author of two books of poetry Denver (Fast
Geek Press, 2013), Coyotes (Penmanship Books, 2014)
and works as the poetry editor for Suspect Press. 
Ken holds a BCA in Creative Writing from the Manukau
Institute of Technology Faculty of Creative Arts. He
lives in a house in Mount Roskill and pretends to not
notice when the neighborhood kids steal lemons from
  
 "I do not know another writer with more talent, guts and integrity. No one in
the spoken word scene has more consistently rocked me back to the drawing
board. If we could bottle the hallelujah on the inside of this guy's windpipe
there'd be more believers in poetry than there are in Jesus, who,
coincidently, was the last hairy guy to talk this good."
- Andrea Gibson, Women of the World National Poetry Slam Champ, Author of Pole
Dancing to Gospel Hymns 

"If passion is honesty in art, then Arkind is George Washington in the orchard."
- Westword Magazine 

"Ken Arkind has very quietly become one of the most respected and successful
writers in the world of performance poetry. You will never find him spending
too much time on bravado, hyperbole, or self promotion; he's far too busy
refining his craft, winning national championships, and touring the country as
a professional performance poet. Eat your hearts out, poetry slam jackals! The
talented, yet thoughtful, tortoise has won the race."
- Jared Paul, Activist, Multiple IWPS Finalist, Strange Famous Records touring
artist and social worker 

PRAISE
"Ken, like his stage presence, is honest, intimate, and dynamic. He is one of
the best examples of this spoken word thing out there. His performance
compliments and amplifies his brilliant writing perfectly. His work captivates
students from all different backgrounds and inspires them to share their own
narratives. Basically, he puts on a helluva show."
- Lisa Straehly, Student at UC Santa Cruz, Head Producer and Director for
Kinetic Poetics. 

"Arkind speaks from a place of honesty that most of us are afraid of, but
still spend our lifetimes trying to reach; young people feel a sense of
kinship with Ken because they smell and recognize this honesty as something
they are desperately trying to awaken and hold onto in themselves."
- Tracey Lightsey English/Creative Writing Teacher for Montrose High School
Montrose, CO. 

"Ken Arkind is the wildness of the west. Grounded and headstrong but with
unimaginable breadth of heart, his work is rife with the complexities of a man
unafraid to face exactly what he is--and what you are. These poems confront
the uncomfortable, explore the grief and the glory. They speak with a stark
honesty, loud as hardcore and boundless as those it raised. COYOTES is a
defiant collection; immeasurably gracious, riotous, and wise."
- Jeanann Verlee, Author of Racing Hummingbirds, recipient of the Independent
Publisher Book Award Silver Medal in Poetry
LINKS
Performance Footage Links:

"An Experiment in Noise" –

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cItLzwjdT-o

“David” -
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8QlUQunk_B8
  
"1-up" -
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fQ2K7uCs71I 

Commercial Work/Poetry Films:

“Breathless” Short film made in conjunction with

Air Ball Creative. for TedX Mile High –
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rJkJ7c6Ngi8

Lecture Footage:

TedX Orange Coast 2013:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=toKESW3VBRo

TedX Denver Teachers 2013 -

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PI-KA3t0IEs 

Articles/Press:

Denver Post Profile -

http://www.denverpost.com/entertainment/ci_26077
387/ken-arkinds-underdog- poetry-captures-
denvers-soul-and

The Jesse Mulligan Show on RNZ -

https://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/af
ternoons/audio/201845295/us-poetry-slam-champ-
ken-arkind

Westword Profile -
http://blogs.westword.com/showandtell/2010/09/in
terview_ken_arkind_the_lebron
_james_of_denver_poetry.php

Westword Mastermind Award recipient for Minor

Disturbance -
http://www.westword.com/2012-02-16/
culture/minor-disturbance-2012-mastermind-award-
winners/