Money "The Mystro"

Myron Michael alias Money �The Mystro� is a poet, teacher, and recording artist. He is a Cave Canem fellow and earned an MFA in writing from California College of the Arts. His songs are featured on SONGS OF EXPERIENCE and the newly released MASTERS THESIS; his words have appeared in Beeswax, Words+Images, and Pluck! He is a finalist for the Blue Light Chapbook Poetry Prize, and Semi-Finalist for the Crab Orchard Review First Book Award for Poetry.

Originally from Michigan, Mystro moved to California via San Francisco to pursue his dreams of becoming a �Rock hard emcee.� A skilled poet on page, on stage, and behind the mic, Mystro is truly a poet�s poet.

It was 1994 that Mystro recalls seeing and hearing for the first time Common's (then, Common Sense)--video "Soul By the Pound." "I was so hungry to know alot about everything and anxious to express that knowing, but had no outlet. Hearing Common's "Soul By the Pound" gave me an outlet, Hip-hop. But hip-hop wasn't prevelant where I'm from (Grand Rapids, MI) there were no producers around so I had to learn to write words that carry the music themselves; and that's what lead me to poetry and slam and spoken word."

Upon listening to Mystro's music, one can immediately hear how closely Mystro pays attention to poetry in his songs: from the song Poets and Writers verse two "Growin' up in my mom's house living by the rules wasn't easy / cuz first of all, I'm a nigguh with an attitude like EZ / crooked cops and hard knocks got me watching my back / we're living in the last days I wish that we can go back / to playing spades and dominoes bar-b-ques in the parks / before booth killed lincoln for Suzan Lori Parks / ..." Using homophones and homonyms as spring boards, Mystro lets us know that there's always two sides to every coin, and that we must always investigate both sides to see the truth. The verse continues, playing off of Suzan Lori-Parks Pulitzar Prize winning play "Top Dog/Under Dog": "Top Dog / Under Dog, brothuhs always facing off / but at what cost do we pay to play to sell ourselves short /..."

Mystro credits the poems and songs of poets and songwriters who write poetry as his inspiration and influences: Common, Rob Thomas, Bob Dylan, Sade, Fiona Apple, Amiri Baraka, Saul Williams, Sekou Sundiata, Black Thought and the Roots, De La Soul, Tribe Called Quest, Jill Scott, etc.