Sekou (tha misfit) and Steve Connell are two of the most entertaining, inspiring and thought-provoking artists working today. Their dynamic presence and boundless energy never fail to command an audience’s attention. Between them they hold numerous national and regional poetry slam championships. Their work has been featured on a wide variety of media outlets, including ABC World News, Good Morning America, MSNBC’s Hardball, HBO’s Def Poetry (twice), Showtime’s Crossover, MTV’s Battlegrounds, World AIDS Festival, BET’s Lyric Café, Artisan Films’ Belly DVD, NIKE’s Hooptown, Oprah Winfrey’s celebration of Maya Angelou’s 75th birthday and P-Diddy’s Annual White Party to name just a few. They have also participated in two highly visible national spoken word tours - The Underground Poets Railroad and Norman Lear’s Declare Yourself Roadshow, a voter registration initiative that resulted in over one million new voters being registered before the 2004 elections. Together, Sekou and Steve have also been in high demand at colleges and universities across the country, as well as at spoken word festivals across Europe.

As playwrights, Steve and Sekou were invited by HBO to perform a new work, No Easy Choices, at the 12th Annual U.S. Comedy Arts Festival in Aspen, CO. Following that performance, they were commissioned by the American Civil Liberties Union to create a new spoken word performance piece on the theme of “Stop The Abuse Of Power” that they unveiled for the organization at their annual ACLU Membership Conference in 2006. Their new play, The Word Begins, (dir. Robert Egan) debuted at the prestigious Ojai Playwrights Conference to universal praise and begins its inaugural theatrical run in 2007 at the illustrious Signature Theatre in Washington DC. They also performed at this year’s NCAA National Leadership Conference in Orlando, FL.

A remarkably gifted and versatile artist, Sekou is a favorite among schools - junior high to university. He is also a highly sought after secret weapon by such corporations as Microsoft and NIKE for the unique electricity his words and performances bring to business presentations and corporate events. An accomplished actor, voice-over artist, songwriter and music producer, his critically-acclaimed CD, Afrodeezyackz/The Mumblings Of A Madman, has earned him an impressive array of national and regional music awards, including the Just Plain Folks awards for Best Spoken Word Album, Best Hip-Hop Album, Best Producer, and Best Holiday Album, making him themost awarded artist in the largest music organization in the nation.