Jashua Sa-Ra is a father, an award-winning performance poet, author, playwright, event producer, host, lecturer, actor, educator, publisher, graphic designer, percussionist, and healer. It’s a lot to say! So, true to his unique style, Jashua created the term “communications artist” to describe the full scope of his work. He brings a memorable and lively interactivity to audiences, born from genuinely connecting with participants. Community is the obvious intent every time he gets in front of a crowd or classroom.
Jashua launched his exciting language arts career by creating and hosting a legendary open mic in West Palm Beach, FL called SpeakEasy that ran weekly for five years. With the collective that gathered there, he became the founder of a traveling performance troupe, Sol Griots, that used poetry, dance, singing, rap and musicians to create community sharing spaces. After touring the country promoting a spoken word CD, producing several other successful events, becoming Grand Slam Champion multiple times in his region, and winning the first Best Poet of Palm Beach Award, Jashua moved to NYC. He was quickly recognized as a valuable contributor, and began hosting the most popular open mic series in Brooklyn, Brooklyn Nights, after being there only two months. He hosted that event for several years, as well as others and became known throughout NYC as one of the best hosts in the city, and by many accounts, the best!
As an active artist in his community, he has produced and/or hosted several critically acclaimed performance events, including open mic venues, competition showcases, slams, and a variety of special events. His ultimate creativity and community love was expressed through the festival he created in Brooklyn, NY called The Lyricalympics. It’s a competition-based event, with $500 prizes in the categories of poetry, hip hop, and comedy. It also includes headlining performers, workshops, language competitions, venue village (an area where various performance venues had booths and facilitated impromptu ciphers) and activity booths. Jashua has also co-written a critically acclaimed play entitled, “You Are Who You Eat,” that was produced by Green Earth Poetry Theater in 2018.
As an educator, Jashua has worked in the classroom, as a trainer and mentor to other educators, as a guest lecturer, and as a workshop facilitator. He creates arts-infusion curricula, that are implemented as stand alone lessons or integrated into classroom and common core objectives. He has been the Artistic Coordinator of the Kravis Center Annual Spring Residency for over ten years, being asked to retain the position even after moving to NY. He recently began publishing the math book series “I Am Mathematics,” and has released the first three books.
Support the show