Sekou Andrews
Sekou Andrews is the Founder/CEO of SekouWorld, Inc., the innovator of “Poetic Voice” and one of the most successful spoken word poets in the world. On any given day, this school-teacher-turned-entrepreneur, who built a 7-figure company on poetry, can be found keynoting at a Fortune 500 company, inspiring thousands at a concert, or performing for Barack Obama in Oprah’s backyard.
Sekou is the creator of “poetic voice” – a cutting-edge speaking category that seamlessly fuses inspirational speaking with spoken word poetry, like “Hamilton” meets “TED”. This innovative blend of strategic storytelling, thought leadership, spoken word, theater and comedy humanizes content, making it entertaining, moving and memorable. Sekou’s accomplishments include an ABA “Entrepreneur of the Year” award, two Independent Music Awards, two National Poetry Slam championships, three Helen Hayes Awards, six CLIO awards, the most JPF music awards in history, and the first GRAMMY nomination for “Best Spoken Word Album” awarded to a spoken word poet in over 30 years.
It is no surprise that Forbes has called Sekou a “polymath” and “the de facto poet laureate of corporate America.” His “wow-factor” is in high demand with the world’s most successful organizations, including Google, Viacom, Toyota, Nike, Cisco, Linkedin, Capital One, L’Oreal, Global Green, Paypal, GE, The Gap, Paypal, General Mills, the ACLU, and the NBA to name but a few. Sekou’s work has been featured ABC World News, CBS, Fox, MSNBC, HBO, Good Morning America, Showtime, MTV and BET, and he has given private performances for such luminaries as Maya Angelou, Quincy Jones, Larry King, Hillary Clinton, Norman Lear, Sean “Diddy” Combs, and Coretta Scott King. Sekou has also emerged as a powerful voice for health and wellness, routinely evoking tears, cheers, and standing ovations at events for Johnson & Johnson, United Healthcare, Mayo Clinic, Blue Shield, Kaiser Permanente, TEDMED, Life Itself, Northwell Health, Genentech, Humana, and the American Medical Association.
Sekou is a multi-talented entertainer with over two decades of experience inspiring audiences across industries and genres. He has shared event stages with such heavyweights as Drake, Stevie Wonder, Jay-Z, Carlos Santana, Kendrick Lamar, Maroon 5, Jill Scott and John Legend. He is also a voiceover artist and actor with several national commercials, four feature films, and a critically-acclaimed, two-man play on his resume. With creative partner Steve Connell, Sekou has inspired audiences from the HBO Aspen Comedy Arts Festival to The Pasadena Pops Orchestra. He has even returned to the classroom, teaching his rockstar secrets to public speakers through his highly-effective Stage Might speaker training system that helps influencers and leaders become more dynamic communicators. With all of the innovation and inspiration that is poetic voice, Sekou Andrews is accomplishing the seemingly impossible – bringing spoken word poetry to the world’s largest stages, while redefining the notion of what a speaker is, and what a poet can be.
