Born in 1972; son of a schoolteacher mother and a preacher father; raised in Newburgh, New York; children: a daughter, Saturn. Education: Morehouse College, BA in philosophy; New York University, Tisch School of the Arts, MFA in drama.

In an oft-quoted remark, Saul Williams recounted his birth: “My mother was rushed from a James Brown concert to give birth to me.” It was 1972 and Brown’s song “Say It Loud, I’m Black and I’m Proud” was becoming an anthem for a new generation of African Americans. As Williams told Time Out, “I didn’t have to go through what my parents did to ’say it loud’ because it’s implicit in my nature.” Indeed, as a poet, rapper, actor, and musician, Williams has made a career of speaking up, shouting out, and saying it loud. “That’s the most invigorating feeling,” he told Time Out, “speaking truth into a microphone.”

Influenced by Hip-Hop and the Bard

Williams was born in 1972 to a schoolteacher mother and a preacher father. His family enjoyed a middle class lifestyle in Newburgh, New York. From both parents Williams inherited a desire to feed his mind. “Reading was compulsory,” Williams told London’s Independent. He tackled Shakespeare in third grade and first stepped on stage in an elementary school performance of Julius Caesar.

Of his father, Williams told Interview, “My father’s influence was just realizing the importance of having a calling.” The 1980s hip-hop group T La Rock put Williams on the path to his own calling. He was in fourth grade, and upon hearing the group’s song “It’s Yours,” Williams wrote his first poem. After that he led a dual life as student of literature and a self-taught student of the spoken word. “It was always important to me to be that kid who could rock the party as well as rock the English professor’s mind,” Williams told Interview.

Following high school, Williams followed his cerebral bent, earning a bachelor’s degree in philosophy from Atlanta’s Morehouse College. Next, he was off to study acting at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts in New York City. He soon earned a master of fine arts degree, but instead of heading for the theater, Williams encountered a poetry revival that was based in coffeehouses, and found himself front and center in the culture of “slam.” http://www.musicianguide.com/biographies/1608004686/Saul-Williams.html#ixzz0bJXFbKPp