"Explosive, enigmatic, his words are piercingly truthful," raves HBO Def Poetry Co-Producer Kamilah Forbes. Ben Alisuag has a “powerful stage presence that you can’t keep your eyes off.” A native of the Bay Area, Alisuag has been an hurricane of honesty and passion in the spoken word scene since 2005.

A hardcore hip hop aficionado, he was first exposed to spoken word when he joined the University of Pennsylvania’s performance poetry collective, The Excelano Project. Now, he holds two collegiate championships from the College Unions Poetry Slam Invitational, where he was named “Best All-Around Bad Ass Poet” and the winner of the “Pull Your Heart Strings” award. He was a part of the championship team at the 2007 Youth Speaks Brave New Voices Poetry Slam (as seen on HBO). Alisuag has shared the stage with the likes of Saul Williams, Anis Mojgani, Mos Def and Beyonce. Most recently, he was featured on national television during the 2009 NAACP Image Awards where he performed an honorary poem for Russell Simmons.