He calls his poetry spells because words should move people, he says. Since 1999, Taalam Acey has been doing just that. After attending his first spoken word event, he knew he had to live a life of poetry. He went home wrote like he never wrote before and produced poems that appeared on his first cds, Morally Bankrupt Vols 1-3 (1999-2001).

Soon after the Newark, N.J., native represented New York City as a member of the 1999 Nuyorican Café slam team. And, his words took him as far as Germany and England. Featured in BBC Radio One-London's documentary on slam poetry, Taalam has won multiple slam poetry competitions at New York's Nuyorican Café and Chicago's Green Mill Café – both considered the international meccas for the art form.

He is the 2002 slam champion of the Austin International Poetry Festival, the 2000 and 2002 grand slam champion of London's Paddington International Poetry Festival, and the 2000-2001 New Jersey slam master and Washington D.C., Black Words grand slam champion. Twice, he was featured at the Essence Music Festival (2001 and 2002).

But Taalam's talents go beyond slam poetry. He is an author, filmmaker and entrepreneur.

With an MBA in finance, Taalam gave up a career as a full-time lecturer in senior level accounting at Rutgers University and put his small business consulting firm to the side to be a full-time poet. Ten cds later, Taalam has been credited "the absolute best in spoken word," considered by many to be the central spoken word artist of the current generation and has been quoted in several newspapers, including: The Washington Post; Philadelphia Weekly; and New Jersey Star Ledger.

He tours extensively, performing regularly in more than 50 cities in the United States as well as internationally. He has been a frequent guest at dozens of colleges and universities and has lectured on contemporary spoken word at the prestigious Graduate School of Education at University of California at Berkley. He sat on the Congressional Black Caucus' 2008 "Young Gifted and Black" panel in addition to participating on an episode of BET's Teen Summit in 2002.

Tens of thousands of people own his work, and hundreds of thousands have watched him live or via television and the internet. On average, the Baltimore, MD, resident, is on a plane once every 3.5 days – 100 flights per year – to promote Spoken Word.

Taalam's work has appeared on the Guerilla News Network's documentaries American Blackout (2006) – which showcased his poem "True Lies" – Crack The CIA (2002), for which he narrated, and When The Smoke Clearz (2001). The former garnered a Sundance Film Festival Special Jury Prize and was nominated for a Grand Jury Prize. Crack The CIA received the festival's Online Film Festival Viewers Award, while When The Smoke Clearz was nominated for the same award in 2002. Most recently, Taalam's “Market 4 Ni$$as” has been featured in the dvd film What Black Men Think (2007).

He was the first person selected to be featured on BET's "The 5ive" as the "1 thing you need to know about" (June 18, 2007) and appeared on two additional episodes.

Founder of slam poetry Marc Smith – who used Taalam's work as an example of slam poetry in his The Complete Idiot's Guide To Slam Poetry (2004) – says, “When Taalam first appeared... I looked into those wide open eyes and said to myself, 'This man carries the Message.’”

Taalam has published three books including: Troubled Soul Refinery, a comprehensive collection of poems; What You Deserve, a novel about modern relationships; and Eyes Free, an award-winning memoir.