Join hosts Chibbi and Eddie V as we welcome Big Mike to the Words & Sh*t stage!
Mike Bertram, referred to as “Big Mike” on the stage and “Mr. B” in the classroom, has been teaching for 25+ years and is currently a 3rd Grade teacher in New Jersey. He started performing spoken word poetry in 2002 and was a member of the 2005 Nuyorican Poetry Slam Team. He was a featured poet on HBO’s Russell Simmons presents Def Poetry, and the 2008 Southern Fried Individual Poetry Slam Champion. He was also the recipient of the Jersey Poetry Movement Spoken Word Pioneer Award in 2018. Big Mike has partnered with several organizations in his hometown of Rahway to provide an artistic outlet and host community events for students and adults. In 2019, he was honored as Artist of the Year in his hometown of Rahway for his work in the New Jersey poetry community.
In 2019, he released Said the Paper to the Pen, a collection of poems for teachers, students, or anyone that would like to “take a peek” inside his third-grade classroom, known as the B-Hive.
