We’re excited to invite you to the JoyUs Gala, capping our annual national conference, Rite of Joy, addressing the historic mental health crisis in the Black/African American community.
October 14, 2023
5–10 pm
Networking | Dinner | Ceremony | Dancing
Kansas City Club
918 Baltimore Avenue
Kansas City, MO 64105
Meet Our Host, Ed Mabrey
Ed Mabrey is an actor, author, speaker and modern-day renaissance artist. He is accepted as the greatest poet in the history of poetry slam with over 500 wins in his career, including 4 individual world titles and 6 consecutive individual regional titles.
Ed has performed and spoken for Fortune 500 companies, universities and colleges, national ceremonies, and open mics while being featured in various television broadcasts and comedy showcases.
Meet Our Feature Highlight, Talaam Acey
“You have so, so much inspired me with your Spoken Word” said the legendary Stevie Wonder, while interviewing Taalam Acey, during Wonder’s own birthday celebration in May 2008. Taalam, a child of the Newark Rebellion, was raised by a single mother who served as a member of the famed writer and activist Imamu Amiri Baraka’s community organization. Acey is an independent artist whose work has been featured frequently on TV One as well as the Documentary Channel and was selected as the original “number one thing you need to know about” on BET’s countdown show, “The 5ive.” Over the years, BET has featured and aired roughly a half dozen segments featuring Taalam Acey. The Newark, NJ native’s poetry has appeared in Essence Magazine and Susan Taylor, the magazine’s Editor Emeritus, personally invited Acey to perform for an audience of six thousand at The Essence Music Festival in New Orleans. Acey was a curator of the 2012 Geraldine R. Dodge Poetry Festival (the largest poetry gathering in North America) and was selected as the initial presenter for the inaugural Baltimore TEDx. He was also the guest curator of the 2011 Sacred Circle Cafe at New Jersey’s most prestigious theater, the NJ Performing Arts Center.