A Peculiar People

Born and raised in Chicago, Illinois, storyteller Steven Antoine Willis uses his poetic and theatrical background to embark on the daunting task of creatively articulating African American culture. With art heavily influenced by urban life and religion, Steven mixes elements of hip-hop poetics and theatrical performance with formal teachings of anthropology, and political theory to help express his eclectic personal narrative. Willis is the author of the poetry collection, A Peculiar People, a contributing writer to the Breakbeat Poets Anthology, NYU’s National Council for Teachers of English Journal, is a 3 time Individual World Poetry Slam finalist and former resident poet of the Nuyorican Poets Cafe. Willis received his MFA in acting from the University of Iowa in 2021. He currently attends the Iowa Writers Workshop for poetry.