Sekou Sundiata was an African-American poet and performer, as well as a teacher at The New School in New York City. Famous students include musicians Ani DiFranco and Mike Doughty. His plays include The Circle Unbroken is a Hard Bop, The Mystery of Love, Udu, and The 51st Dream State. He also released several albums, including Longstoryshort and The Blue Oneness of Dreams. The Blue Oneness of Dreams was nominated for a Grammy Award. His subjects included Jimi Hendrix, Nelson Mandela, and reparations for slavery. Sundiata was a Sundance Institute Screenwriting Fellow, a Columbia University Revson Fellow, a Master Artist-in-Residence at the Atlantic Center for the Arts in Florida, the first Writer-in-Residence at the New School University in New York, and a professor at Eugene Lang College. He was a featured poet on two occasions, at the Geraldine R. Dodge Poetry Festival, most recently in 2006. 

August 22nd, 1948 in Harlem  /  Died:   Jul 18th, 2007 - age 58, died of heart failure