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Tim'm T. West
(1972 - living) U.S.A.

Tim'm T. West

Rapper, poet, journalist, schoolteacher, and HIV-AIDS activist

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Tim'm was raised in rural Arkansas, where he spent his youth "plotting a way to claim my identity in the Bible Belt in a poor family with lots of kids."

Tim'm completed his B.A. at Duke University majoring in Philosophy with a focus on Women's Studies. The foundation for his creative future was firmly planted in Taylor, Arkansas where as a high school student he was well-known as a poet, choreographer, vocalist, and actor.

Tim'm has since firmly demonstrated a commitment to a holistic exploration of the arts. As an undergraduate student, Tim'm's creative leanings complemented his intellectual interests, leading him to principal roles in Joseph Walker's The River Niger, James Baldwin's Amen Corner and Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin in the Sun.

He earned his undergraduate degree in philosophy and women's studies at Duke University before moving on to graduate school at Stanford, where he divided his time between academic work, volunteering with sexual-minority youth groups and curating spoken-word performances.

Tim'm T. WestWhile struggling to more fully pursue creative interests, he co-founded and began recording and touring nationally with Deep Dickollective (D/DC). Widely recognized for his poetry, he is a journalist and scholar in his own right, making regular contributions to academic anthologies, journals, and magazines.

A former instructor of Writing Pedagogy classes at Eugene Lang College of The New School (NYC) and in Stanford University's first-year Writing and Critical Thinking program, he received an M.A. in Liberal Studies/Philosophy from Graduate Faculty at The New School for Social Research in 1998, and in January of 2002, an M.A. in Modern Thought and Literature from Stanford.

After learning he was HIV-positive in 1999, Tim'm began looking for a way to express himself within the hip-hop music he loved. The former Dept. Chair of English and Creative Writing at Oakland School for the Arts, Tim'm now works to coordinate HIV prevention and outreach efforts in Washington, DC. He plans to continue offering his vast talents to folk on the East Coast after making deep impressions out West.

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Website: http://www.reddirt.biz/pages/index_timm.html

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