Our Staff

Poetology.com LLC is an organization dedicated to the practice and appreciation of the spoken word. The organization was founded by Atif Saleem and fellow Penn State alumni Alansan Sesay who realized there is a growing cultural movement in our country surrounding the art of spoken word expression and for this movement to survive it must be well supported and spread to the masses. Poetic spoken expression is an art form practiced and appreciated by all, which transcends racial and stratifying boundaries. Poetology is an organization composed of men and women from various backgrounds that practice and/or appreciate and support this growing art form. The mission of Poetology is to create a greater community consisting of communities that currently exist, by pooling talent and support to share thoughts, feelings, ideas and opinions through the spoken word. Our current initiative is to create a base of support in the Baltimore/Washington Metropolitan area from which we can constantly share and grow. We are currently hosting poetry venues in downtown Baltimore and College Park, MD. Since its inaguration Poetology has hosted many of the "who's who" in spoken word including International and National Slam Champion Gayle Danley, International Slam Champion Taalam Acey, Philly Def Jam Champion Lamar Hill, Reggie Gibson, inspiration and writer of the poetry for the movie Love Jones, Saul Williams of slam and movie fame and many, many, many more talented individuals. More importantly, we have the support of many local and first time poets who just come to the mic and share and that's what this movement is all about.

The members of Poetology enjoy bringing poetic expression to the public, as well as supporting other local venues, but this does not however encompass our overall aim. Short term goals entail bringing together local venues to insure that time and opportunity for expression are shared and distributed logistically whenever possible, giving all venues the chance to succeed with out opposition. Since poetology can be practiced and enjoyed by all from the cradle to the grave, we want to be able to provide avenues whereas all can indulge. Long term, we have plans to initiate an after school program in Baltimore that will examine poetic expression, from haiku's to Hip-Hop. We intend to work with today's youth to put their thoughts, concerns, and feelings in artistic form for public consumption. On the collegiate level we intend to provide showcases of talent from the area's perspective colleges alongside "seasoned" spoken word artist and to also bring together talent from a variety of area schools for friendly competition and appreciation. Poetology is also dedicated to the continued support of all local venues. We have a calendar on our web site (http://www.poetology.com ) which is constantly updated to reflect a gamut of poetologic events in the area. Poetology believes in the necessity of local venues, each has it's own flavor and culture that appeals to its own particular patrons. In short, Poetology aims to be the vehicle to bring this greater community together, through all artistic and intellectual exchange of thoughts and ideas affiliated with the art of poetry and the spoken word.