Artist description This “Poetess of the People,” retracing and re-inventing the paths laid by Nikki Giovanni, Sonia Sanchez and Langston Hughes, is clearly one of the new millennium harbingers of her generation. This poetic angel revels in her devilish diva alter ego as JaHipster. It is truly a blessing to witness Tonya Maria Matthews call out to all the ARFRODITE’s, all the Street Ciphers, all the people with words that thump on your ears like beats from the Talking Drum as she reminds us of the old African proverb: Hunters will be heroes until lions become historians.

Music Style Spoken Word... lyrical common sense... to make you laugh, cry and think...

Musical Influences Nikki G, Langston, James Weldon Johnson, Tony Morrison, Alice Walker

Artist History Matthews graduated from Duke University with a Bachelor’s of Science and Engineering in 1996. While at Duke she honed her gifts of writing and performance as an editor for the school newspaper and as director, actor, writer and producer for a university theater group. After graduation she moved to Baltimore, Maryland to continue her engineering studies. A year later Matthews debuted on the Baltimore-Washington, D.C. Metropolitan open-mic poetry and slam circuit. In the fall of 1998, she mesmerized coffee houses, university audiences and street corner show-goers from North Carolina to Massachusetts while on tour with the performance poetry troupe DaMinista, JaHipster and the SongBird. Matthews joined up with BlackWords Publishing to put out her first chapbook, “These Hips,” in 1999 and was also the BlackWords Grand Slam Champion that same year. Matthews is one of nine Maryland writers being honored throughout the year 2000 by the Library of Congress’ Maryland Center for the Books and was a member of the 2000 Washington D.C. National Slam Team. Her work has been featured on Horizonmag.com. She also appears on the Jazz Poetry Kafe CD alongside Haki R. Madhubuti and Sonia Sanchez. She is currently completing her doctorate in biomedical engineering at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland. The new book "Still Swinging... These Hips" releases in August of 2001. AFRODITE, the long anticipated CD project will release in the Fall of 2001.

Group Members Tonya Maria Matthews a.k.a JaHipster.... God made me who I am and These Hips will make me famous.

Press Reviews Tonya has one of the most incredible voices I've ever heard. Her poetry hits the mark on social issues, love, family, justice - with her lyricism and style, she pulls the listener to her... Nikki Miller, Washington DC?Baltimore Slammaster

Location Baltimore, Maryland - USA

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