BIO

Alex Tha Great (Given Real Encouragement Amongst Turmoil) is a spoken word artist, speaker, playwright, and activist. She is the runner up for the 2018 National Civil Rights Museum Drop the Mic Poetry Slam and a 2017 Women of the World Poetry Slam finalist. A graduate of the University of California, Irvine with a B.A.in African American Studies and Claremont Graduate University with a M.A. in Cultural Studies, she has performed since 2011 in various venues, colleges, and stages across the country. She has shared the stage with actress Irma P. Hall, Reverend Jesse Jackson, actor Darrin Henson and R & B singer Noel Gourdin. Her work has been published in Illya’s Honey, Bohemia, The Voices Project, The Legendary, and Linden Avenue as well as G.R.I.T.S. (Girls Raised in the South): An Anthology on Southern Queer Womyn’s Voices and Their Allies. Awarded Best One Woman Show by the Houston Fringe Festival, her show Passport to Womanhood (directed by Prudence Sneed) made its debut in 2013 and toured for 2 years. She is the author of Sticks and Stones Don’t Break My Bones (2012), Black Souls Dance On Beat (2015) and Everything My Daddy Taught Me (2019). Recently, she saw the opportunity to create a scholarship for other folk in academia in African American Studies like herself called the Alex Tha Great Award for Black Studies Scholar. When not performing, speaking, or doing other diversity work, her 24/7 job is being mother to a vivacious 3-year-old little girl. Her self-care routine involves peanut M & M’s, prayer, and sleep.  She lives by the motto: Whatever you do, let it be bold!