News Release

Football star turned poet performs on campus February 14

January 11, 2008

As a 6-4, 300-pound former football star, Travis Watkins doesn’t seem to fit the image of a stereotypical spoken word poet.

Yet as the winner of the coveted National College Language Association Award for poetry and a top eight National Poetry Slam ranking, it’s clear he is not concerned with images and stereotypes.

Watkins brings his performance to Penn State Harrisburg at 9:00 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 14. The presentation on Stacks Stage in the Olmsted Building is free and open to the public. For information, phone 717-948-6701.

A defensive tackle, Watkins spent four years as a starter and two years as captain of the University of Kansas football team. He was honored as a finalist for the District 5 Academic All-American Team before graduating with honors in U.S. History and African American Studies in 2005.

After graduation, he was accepted into the highly selective Teach for America program, committing two years to teaching in an inner-city school. It while he was teaching high school U.S. history in Houston, Tex., that he began a meteoric rise in the world of contemporary slam poetry by leading his team to the semifinals of the 2006 National Poetry Slam and advancing to the individual final stage placing eighth.

He now ranks as one of the top young poetic talents in the nation and is touring the globe as a performance poet and motivational speaker.