J Ivy

Native Chicagoan, J. Ivy is an Award Winning Performance Poet, Artist, Author, Song Writer, Voice-Over Talent, Motivational Speaker, and Actor. His work has earned him a Peabody, Clio, Telly, and NAACP Image Award. The mindset of his self-authored motto, “Dreams Don’t Come True, They Are True,” along with his patented breath taking performances have led him to three appearances on HBO’s Russell Simmons’ Def Poetry, two full seasons of NBC’s Sunday Night Football, ESPN’s National Spelling Bee, B.E.T.’s “Muhammad Ali: The People’s Champ,” and more. He has shared stages with Prince, Talib Kweli, Common, Sia, Jill Scott, George Clinton, and more. With the unique use of his poetry he has lent his gift to musical creations with Kanye West, The RZA, Estelle, Slum Village, and John Legend. J. Ivy is widely known for being the Poet featured on Kanye West’s Grammy Winning Album “The College Dropout,” on the classic song “Never Let Me Down,” along with Hip-Hop Icon Jay-Z.
He is also the man who gave Oscar & Grammy Award-Winning singer-songwriter John Stephens the name John Legend, as told on Oprah’s Next Chapter. J. Ivy has MC’d and performed poetry for conferences hosted by Deepak Chopra. He was commissioned to pen a poem for NBA Hall of Famer Michael Jordan, which he performed during the 30th Anniversary Dinner of Brand Jordan. And as a follow up to his latest works “Dear Father: Breaking the Cycle of Pain,” a book which was published by Beyond Words Publishing, an imprint of Atria Books & Simon and Schuster, J. Ivy is set to release the Dear Father Audio Book and album titled, “My Daddy’s Records: Songs from Dear Father.” The Dear Father Movement has sparked a campaign titled Dear Father Letters with the theme and goal being, “One Million Letters Written, One Million Hearts Healed.” Coupled with a series of workshops titled, “The POWER of Forgiveness,” which J. Ivy has led at Steve Harvey’s Mentoring Camp for Young Men, The Sun Valley Wellness Festival, The Omega Institute, The Anguilla Literary Festival, Chicago Public Schools, Mt. Vernon High School amongst others, J. Ivy is steadily moving forward with using the art of writing to inspire healing in our communities