About Aaron

Aaron Jafferis bio photoAARON JAFFERIS has performed his hip hop poetry at Madison Square Garden, the Kennedy Center, and the National Poetry Slam Championships, where he is a former Open Rap Slam champion. His hip hop musical Kingdom (music by Ian Williams) premiered at The Old Globe in 2009, and has been produced or developed by the Public Theater, ReVision Theatre, Queens Theatre in the Park, the National Alliance for Musical Theatre, the International Community Arts Festival in The Netherlands, John Jay College, and Bregamos Community Theatre. Awards for Kingdom include a 2008 Richard Rodgers Award from the American Academy of Arts & Letters, Best Musical and Best Book of 2008-09 by the New Jersey Star-Ledger, and Most Promising New Musical at the 2006 New York Musical Theatre Festival.

Aaron and composer Byron Au Yong are the 2009-2010 Artists-in-Residence at NYU’s Asian / Pacific / American Institute, and are recipients of a 2009 Creative Capital grant to develop their solo opera Stuck Elevator. Aaron’s hip hop play Shakespeare: The Remix (music by Gihieh Lee) was commissioned by TheatreWorks (Palo Alto) and performed by TheatreWorks, St. Louis Black Rep, Capital Rep, Zachary Scott Theatre, and Collective Consciousness. His hip hop play No Lie has been seen at the Nuyorican Poets Café, H.E.R.E., Passage Theatre, the International Festival of Arts & Ideas, and at high schools and colleges across the country. Aaron and Ian Williams’ new hip hop musical Blood Magic received a 2009 grant from the National Alliance for Musical Theatre for development by The Old Globe.

In 2007, Aaron was named one of “50 To Watch” by The Dramatist. He has received artist residencies from the MacDowell Colony, TheatreWorks, Weston Playhouse, and the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. He has written poetry for the Urban Bush Women dance troupe and for The Nation and Northeast magazines.

He received his BA in Arts & Social Change from the University of California at Berkeley, studied at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, and received his MFA in Musical Theatre Writing from NYU, where he was an Alberto Vilar Global Fellow in the Performing Arts. For the last decade he has taught playwriting, poetry, and hip hop theatre in urban high schools, middle schools, and detention centers.

Also check out Aaron’s CV and mission statement.

  • "Kingdom exemplifies the power of the arts to inspire a deeper understanding of the forces that have driven so many young people to join gangs, use drugs and engage in senseless violence against one another." -Victoria L. Hamilton, Executive Director, Commission for Arts and Culture, City of San Diego

  • About Aaron

    Aaron Jafferis is a hip hop poet and playwright. Read his bio, his CV, or contact him.