Theodore Joans

Place: Cairo

Born: 1928

Death: 2003

Biography:

Ted Joans was an American jazz poet, surrealist, trumpeter, and painter, who from the 1960s spent periods of time travelling in Europe and Africa. His work stands at the intersection of several avant-garde streams and some have seen in it a precursor to the orality of the spoken-word movement. However, he criticized the competitive aspect of 'slam' poetry. Joans is known for his motto: 'Jazz is my religion, and Surrealism is my point of view'. He was the author of more than 30 books of poetry, prose, and collage, among them Black Pow-Wow, Beat Funky Jazz Poems, Afrodisia, Jazz is Our Religion, Double Trouble, WOW and Teducation.