Devon Glover is a Hip Hop artist, educator, performer, poet.
Bio: Devon Glover was born and raised by a single mum in Brooklyn. He went through New York Public School System, and had to quit college to help his family financially. He started performing, teaching and tutoring to raise his tuition. He now has a degree from Ithaca college and is committed to teaching, inspiring and raising the consciousness of young people through music.
The Sonnet Man sets Shakespeare’s soulful sonnets to song with a contemporary hip hop twist, blending classical literature with an urban beat and introducing a whole new generation to The Bard and his most beloved poetry.
What he does:
Performance: The Sonnet Man fuses Shakespeare’s works with hip-hop. He takes The Bard’s lines and add them to a contemporary beat, followed by a hip hop breakdown in his own words. Through Hip Hop, Shakespeare becomes exciting and fun, introducing young people to classical literature, raising literacy, improving communication skills, encouraging greater enthusiasm for learning, creativity, confidence, and sets a foundation for appreciation of the arts.
Shakespeare for Kids workshops – The Sonnet Man’s workshops for kids helps them turn into Hip Hop Sonneteers. Interactive performances give audience members the keys to unlock some of the most famous verses ever written. He teaches how to create our own Hip Hop versions of these timeless pieces and invites people to perform.
Flocabulary – online learning platform to deliver educational hip hop songs and videos to students in grades K-12. The program reaches a weekly audience of 5 million students. The mission is to foster a love of learning in every child. The emphasis of the program is on creativity, critical thinking and performance. The Sonnet Man also does motivational workshops with working artists and teachers.
Featured:
The Today Show
Performed in Negril, Jamaica by special invitation from the Board of Education in the Soul Rebellion Hip Hop Festival
Performed at New York City New Music Festival
Toured across USA
Quotes:
“I found that Shakespeare wrote to a rhythm. His use of iambic pentameter was unbelievable. I believe Shakespeare spoke his own type of slang in his time. Some believe Shakespeare was the first MC: a lot of his characters spoke in rhyme, and his wordplay was great.”
“My goal is to show the true beauty of Shakespeare’s words-the greatest writer of all time. His words were written with much emotion, and (many parts) in rhythm and rhyme. Shakespeare’s works also display many different forms of figurative language. A wonderful form of edu-tainment.”
More about The Sonnet Man
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