My guest today, Joel Leon, is a performer, poet, musician, author, and storyteller.

Born and raised in the Bronx in the 80s and 90s, at a time where sort of dueling narratives

defined this part of the city, considered at once at the center of a crisis of drugs

and violence, while also being a deeply connected community and with a strong sense of family

and devotion.

From the earliest age, art performing in music became both a refuge and a source of creative

expression for Joel.

He'd eventually land a spot at the famed New York High School for performing arts, where

Joel continued to hone his performance chops.

But driving it underneath was always this fierce devotion to language and writing that led

him over the intervening years to become a powerful voice and public storyteller, especially

from the moment that we find ourselves now in as a society.

His message and his craft led to appearances at the legendary Apollo Theater on the Ted

Stage, today showed Joe's pub, Rockwood Music Hall, Columbia University, NYU, and so

many others.

And over the last decade, straddling the worlds of commercial writing in the advertising

and creative space, while also deepening into essays and books, Joel has carved out

his place as a master storyteller, always leading not just with craft, but infusing his writing

with performance and unfiltered honesty about everything from his struggles with his own

self-worth, relationship with his dad, his lens on fatherhood, mental health, and especially

now, much needed stories and insights around race and activism and justice.

We explore all of this and more in today's moving conversation, cannot wait to share it

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