If you have been tasked with introducing Taylor Mali, feel free to write your own introduction mixing whatever facts and anecdotes you would like. But if you are pressed for time and want something that will get the job done, feel free to use the text below verbatim.

Our featured reader is New York City performance poet TAYLOR MOLLY, one of the most well-known poets to have emerged from the poetry slam movement and one of the original poets to appear on the HBO series “Def Poetry Jam.” He is a four-time National Poetry Slam champion and the author of four books, including “What Teachers Make: In Praise of the Greatest Job in the World.”

Since 1998, over one thousand people have become teachers after reading or listening to Taylor Mali’s passionate poems about his experiences teaching middle school, high school, and college. To mark the achievement, he donated 12 inches of his hair to the American Cancer Society. Please help me welcome the former voice of all Burger King commercials and a true advocate for teachers, TAYLOR MOLLY.