Roger Bonair-Agard

He has made numerous television and radio appearances, has led countless workshops and lectures, and has performed his poetry at many US universities as well as at international festivals in Germany, Switzerland, Milan, and Jamaica.

[1] Born in Trinidad, Bonair-Agard moved to the United States in 1987, intending to begin university and eventually pursue law, but finding himself "instead exploring the seediest sides of New York City life".

Bonair-Agard is also a Cave Canem fellow, and has studied under Yusef Komunyakaa, Cornelius Eady, Marilyn Nelson, Toi Derricotte, and Patricia Smith.

During the competition, Rebecca Hunter, the Executive Director of Young Chicago Authors was alerted by the “safe spaces” council that her employee, Bonair-Agard, was on the list of alleged sexual predators.

[14] In 2017, a survivor's account of Bonair-Agard’s abuse was published in the Rutgers University Press book Killing Poetry: Blackness and the Making of Slam and Spoken Word Communities by Javon Johnson.

[19] In March 2021, Chicago Public Schools suspended its partnership with Young Chicago Authors, due to the allegations against Bonair-Agard, as well as the outcries from the poetry community, including Van Cook’s statement alleging that leadership within the YCA organization knew Bonair-Agard was dangerous and did not act.

This triggered journalism by Chicago Reader that logged two decades of survivors' accounts of abuse by predators affiliated with YCA.