Groovey Lew, a well-respected celebrity stylist throughout the industry, teamed up with Stacia Johnson and Mayor Richard Thomas and threw his 2nd Annual Poetry Slam in Mount Vernon, NY last night at the city’s Doles Recreation Center. Groovey Lew gathered some of the town’s best artists to showcase some of their talents. To close out the show, he invited world renowned activist and speaker Dr. Umar Johnson to shed some light on Black History.

Groovey Lew has done a lot of work and his name was stamped in the game early on. He’s widely known for styling celebs such as Lil Wayne, Jadakiss and of course one of his closest friends, P. Diddy. This black history poetry slam is considered a way for Groovey Lew to give back to his community and, with that, he allowed some great upcoming talent in music, fashion and food to come together.

Spoken word artists The Dope & The Dealer opened up the show with a passionate story about black history and its origin. Soon after, rising rappers Niko Brim and Francis Pow hit the stage to perform some of their original tunes they created to celebrate the event. Outside of the theater there were vendors selling clothing such as the upcoming streetwear brand Visionary Society, a brand that has been heavily supported by people such as Groovey Lew himself and Power 105.1’s Angela Yee.

To conclude the poetry slam, Dr. Umar Johnson came to the stage and gave the crowd an exciting speech on black history and the some of the major issues with inner city youths. His talk lasted about an hour and with every word, parents cheered and applauded. Afterwards, Dr. Umar Johnson sat with some of the attendees to take pictures, discuss his new book and his black history teens tour. This tour consists of Dr. Umar Johnson taking inner city teens out on a road trip for two weeks to visit a variety of HBCU’s, historic grave sites, and some of black history’s most memorable landmarks.