One of the Last Poets

In celebration of National Poetry Month, Smoke the Mic is featuring poet and lyricist Umar Bin Hassan this Monday night. As the tale goes, Bin Hassan sold his sister’s record player to buy a bus ticket to New York City, where he joined the Last Poets. They were a group of African American poets in the 1960s, thought to have laid the groundwork for modern hip hop. Bin Hassen was one of the core members, after they emerged from a Harlem writers’ workshop known as “East Wind.” In mid-1993, he released his first solo album, Be Bop or Be Dead. In 2005, he and Kanye West collaborated with Common on the track “On the Corner.” This Monday, Rebecca “Butterfly” Vaughns will host the evening, and DJ Mike Tee will brings the tunes.

Mon., April 26, 7 p.m., 2010