Children Of Slam

	Written and performed by Shihan From the album Shihan the Poet
	Written and performed by Shihan From the album Shihan the Poet
	Written and performed by Shihan Music by Roy Shakked From the album Shihan the Poet

Written by Ratpack Slim

If you spend a Tuesday night at the Greenway Court Theater in Hollywood, one of the main things you'll notice about co-host Shihan and his banter with the audience is that he's a proud father and he'll let you know. After laying down the house rules ("No eating or drinking in the theater unless it's WAW-TAH," he New York drawls), he gets loose and funny, just as likely to tell stories about his kids as he is to ruin the ending to the newest movie releases or take to task the ignorance of the media. When he does decide to read a poem himself, he reminds you why he's been so successful as a full-time poet. There's never a wasted word and never a false note in his performance.

This charisma and confidence has propelled him to a number of impressive credits, including four stints on the National Poetry Slam finals stage and a tour with Russell Simmons' Def Poetry Jam. By virtue of being a co-founder and proprietor of Da Poetry Lounge, the largest weekly open mic in Los Angeles (a job he shares with co-host Poetri and DJ Brutha Gimel), Shihan's been in the position to be the West Coast talent coordinator for Simmons' HBO program "Def Poetry". As he says in the upcoming documentary "Sp!t," people may love him or hate him for it, but he's always himself.

He's also almost always on the road, performing at colleges and conferences several times a week, trying to keep the balance between being a family man and being a successful spoken word artist. His face is seen everywhere from national commercial spots to six appearances on "Def Poetry" to being an on-air talent for Al Gore's Current TV. With two independently released CDs ("The Poet" and "Music is the New Cotton") under his belt and a third ("The Balance") on the way, Shihan continues to be one of the hardest working poets on the scene... and a darned good dad, too.