HBO DEF POET Will "Da RealOne" Bell Shot and Killed in Miami!

A VERY SAD AND PAINFUL DAY IN THE WORLD OF SPOKEN WORD AND POETRY:

Willie Lee Bell, Jr AKA Will DA REALONE" , HBO Def Jam Poet, Miami superstar and well respected international poet, was gunned down this morning in North Miami.

 Bell, 47, appeared twice on HBO's "Russell Simmons Presents Def Poetry" in 2003 and 2004 and won several performance competitions. Miami's alternative weekly New Times named him the city's best poet in 2005, writing that Bell "spits words like high-caliber machine-gun fire, and his booming voice sets ears ablaze."

Bell had just closed his business, the Literary Cafe and Poetry Lounge, 933 NE 125th St., at about 12:40 a.m; As he walked to his car in the parking lot,  two men pulled up beside him, shooting him multiple times, per  Lt. Neal Cuevas of the North Miami Police Department


Spoken Word Artist and Poet Reaction:

World Renown Spoken Word artist/Wordsmith Eryk Moore commented as saying, "that this was really a shock and sad day for Spoken Word around the world! There will never be another like Will Da Realone. r.i.p. Big Will "

Co Founder of Def Poetry Jam, Author and Wordsmith Bruce George  tweeted, "The literary world has lost another Word Engineer. Def Poet Will Da Real One has passed. R.I.P. #WilldaRealOne #DefPoet #StoptheViolence "

International Poet Laureate and Spoken Word Artist, Rene Reyes tweeted "Another prophet of Spoken Word and Poetry is dead in less than one week! This is a sad day for our craft R.I.P. Will Da RealOne

New Jersey Poet, Tammy Jones says "This is a sad weekend for poetry"





(history)
Bell grew up in the Edison Court Projects on Northwest Third Avenue and 62nd Street in Liberty City, where his single mother moved the family shortly after Bell's father left them.
In 1989, Bell was arrested for armed cocaine trafficking in his neighborhood. He was convicted and sentenced to 14 months in prison.
Behind bars, he began writing love letters to an imaginary woman waiting for him "on the outside.''
After showing his letters to a fellow prisoner, who encouraged his prose, Bell and the prisoner began a business ghost-writing love letters for other inmates in exchange for commissary items.
When he left prison in 1990, Bell left poetry behind. It took another decade before the muse struck him again.
After signing up in 2001 for Lip, Tongue & Ear, a weekly, open-mike poetry competition, Bell was hooked.
He won successive contests, eventually earning the title of Lip Tongue & Ear's Poet Laureate of Miami-Dade in April 2003, a designation he held for a year.
It didn't take long for Bell to launch a career in poetry with CDs, and performance and promotion fees. His big break came in 2004, when he performed on Def Poetry Jam.
Bell opened the Literary Cafe in 2003, with the vision of giving poets a place to perform their art.
Police ask anyone with information on this crime to contact the North Miami Police Department at 305-891-8111 or CrimeStoppers, anonymously, at 305-371-TIPS



WE LOVE YOU WILL DA REAL ONE! R.I.P. YOU AND GIL WILL ROCK HEAVEN CLEAR  OUT THE SKY!!

http://youtu.be/a-yG4dQeOE0

                                                                             

(I RUN! PHENOMENAL SPOKEN WORD PIECE PERFORMED ON HBO DEF JAM!)

Roseanne To Return To Television?

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A large portion of Scott-Heron’s poetry reflected his struggles with substance abuse, which ultimately caused him to contract the HIV virus, a condition that he disclosed to the public in 2008 in an interview with a magazine. Scott-Heron was also jailed in 2001 and 2007 as a result of drug charges. Scott-Heron gained fame and notoriety in the late 1960’s as a result of a growing following for his poetry and spoken word, by the 1970’s he had recorded four albums and published two books of poetry. Two of those early albums “Pieces of a Man” and “Winter In America” have been credited as large influences to other styles of music, namely hip hop and rap. Following a thirteen year hiatus from music Scott-Heron released an album last year titled “I’m New Here”, the album was not a huge seller but did receive largely positive acclaim from critics and listeners.

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