Ntare Ali Gault is the founder and organizer of the Njozi Poets, is a spoken-word artist
,actor, playwright, and author. His books, The Sun Will Rise: A Memoir of an Urban
Family and Ancestral Links: Love and other Revolutionary Mumblings were published
in 2009, 2010 respectively. He has appeared in Ujima Theatre Company's productions
of The Visit and Green Pastures and served as Assistant Director for In 'De Beginning
and Yalla *itch.
Gault has won poetry slams throughout North America and has been a featured
performer at many venues and colleges, including the 2010 When Brothers Speak
spoken word concert. Ntare placed 1st in the Tri-City Poetry Slam in Cleveland, Ohio
in 2004. He was also a 2006 Buffalo representative for the National Poetry Slam. In
2010, he created the Buffalo International Poetry Slam (BNIPS). Now in its 4th year,
BNIPS remains New York's largest poetry slam.
Ntare Gault was instrumental in the late nineties early millennial development of spoken word in the city of Buffalo. Gault is best known for cultivating the talent of a number of emerging poets through Njozi Poets. Over the last decade his work with teens and young adults has inspired and developed hundreds of new artists. In an effort to increase awareness of youth art and provide artistic outlets for poets across the region, Ntare Gault begin establishing connections with individual poets, poetry venues, and slam teams in Syracuse, NY, Rochester, NY, Albany, NY, New York, NY, Colden, NY, and throughout Ohio and Ontario. His efforts produced a wider network of slam poetry in the region and lead to the founding of the QEW Poetry Slam, an annual event hosted in a different city each year. Gault has conducted workshops for the Alternative Literacy program (ALPS) and Musicians United for Superior Education (MUSE).
In recognition of his service to the community and artistic talent city Councilman Demone Smith named July 14, Ntare Ali Gault Day. Ntare Gault is currently developing his next play,When We Were Fathers.
Ntare is a proud native of the Fruitbelt on Buffalo's east side. Ntare Ali Gault continues his work with children and teens through Young Audiences of WNY and Njozi Ensemble Productions as a Teaching Artist. He is currently pursuing his doctoral degree in the American Studies Department at SUNY Buffalo.
Erika D. Gault received her B.A. from New York University, M.A. from Colgate Rochester Crozer Divinity
School, and Ph.D. from the American Studies Department at the State University of New York at Buffalo.
Erika Gault’s scholarly work focuses on the intersection of religious history, technology, and urban black
life in post-industrial America. On the topic of black religious history she has delivered and published a
number of papers regionally, nationally, and internationally.
Regarding Dr. Gault’s artistic work, she performs with the Buffalo based poetry slam team Njozi Poets. She has two self-published books of spoken word: Crying Out Loud and So I Said to the Mountain, "Move" and a CD entitled More Than. In 2011 and 2014 Erika Gault toured with North America's largest spoken word concert, When Sisters Speak. In April and May 2012 she placed 1st in the Pure Ink Poetry Slam in Buffalo, NY. Gault is the 2012 1st Place Winner of the Toronto International Poetry Slam, the first woman to hold this honor. She placed 7th out of 60 spoken word poets across North America in the Ontario International Poetry Slam in November 2012. She is the 2013 Winner of the Empire State Poetry Slam. Erika is the co-convener of Western New York’s largest poetry slam competition, the Buffalo Niagara International Poetry Slam. In September of 2013 Erika Gault co-wrote and produced a play of poetry entitled, Ain’t She Brave, which received four stars in the Buffalo News. Ain’t She Brave has been produced in NYC as part of The New York International Fringe Festival. The play premiered in 2015 in Phoenix, AZ at The Black Theatre Troupe and in 2016 inIthaca, NY at the Kitchen Theatre (reading).
In both her creative and scholarly work Dr. Gault seeks to deconstruct American history, social norms, and accepted biases in order to offer imaginative new possibilities. Her creative work is a meditation on the lived experiences of Africans in America, both now and historically. Erika Gault is jointly concerned with critiquing social injustices and constructing new paradigms for more meaningful social engagement.
Erika works with a number of arts education organizations each year to provide lectures and performances throughout the region. She is an ordained minister at Elim Christian Fellowship and an Assistant Professor of History and Religion at Hilbert College in Hamburg, NY.
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