Abiodun Oyewole is a well-known poet, educator, and one of the founding members of the influential spoken-word group The Last Poets, which was formed in 1968. The group released their iconic self-titled album in 1970, significantly contributing to the emergence of hip hop. After rejoining The Last Poets in the 1990s, Oyewole produced more albums and gained international recognition through his performances around the globe. He began publishing his poetry with 2Leaf Press, starting with "Branches of The Tree of Life: The Collected Poems of Abiodun Oyewole 1969-2013" (2014) and "The Beauty of Being" (2018). He also edited "Black Lives Have Always Mattered" (2017) and wrote "NAKED, A New Poetry Collection" (2020). Oyewole earned a BS in biology and a BA in communications from Shaw University, an MA in education from Columbia University, and was a Columbia Charles H. Revson Fellow in 1989. He continues to perform poetry, lead workshops, and give lectures on various subjects, while also hosting a weekly salon for artists in New York.