A high school student compared Chris August to pop rocks. Another compared him to a fruit roll-up. He's still coming to terms with that second one. Sonya Renee calls him her baby daddy. Sallie Mae calls him delinquent. The Baltimore County Police Department has called him by three different prisoner numbers. The DC/ Baltimore slam team has called him a member for the past four years, and the 2005 Individual World Poetry Slam peeps called him number 7 in the world. Cynthia French once said that whoever invented Jolt Cola probably got the idea from watching him. Queen Sheba says he's hurtful, but she also says she's at the forefront of the fight for humanity. His mom says he's a nice boy. His fifth grade home room teacher said he wasn't living up to his potential. They're all probably right.

Gayle Danley was born in New York City, and at age 8 months, moved with her family to Atlanta, Georgia. After working as an assistant magazine editor for the National Rifle Association, she left Washington, DC to study Radio, Television and Film at Syracuse University, earning a Master's Degree. It was not until after she finished school that she learned about Slam poetry. She embraced it almost immediately won the 1994 National Individual Slam Poet in Ashville, NC just months after being exposed to Slam poetry. In Heidelberg, Germany, she became the 1996 International Slam Poet Champion. She has been busy molding and shaping young minds with her words, poetry and lessons ever since. She lives with her husband, Twain Dooley and their two beautiful children, Noni and Noah.

Twain Dooley is a first generation American. Born and raised in Washington, DC he learned to use language to talk himself into and out of inner-city challenges. He joined the Army Reserves and served on active duty during Desert Storm. After a two year stay in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba (as a civilian), he returned to his home town and began to perform his poetry for a variety of audiences. Twain wrote several books and toured as founding member with The Modern Urban Griots. He has opened for Amiri Baraka and Jimmy "JJ" Walker. He has earned a spot on the DC/Baltimore slam team five times. Twain has been called, "funny", "clever", "insightful", and some other things that you probably wouldn't print in a bio. He currently shares his love of words with students and is working on the story of his life, "None Of This Makes Sense".

Joanna Hoffman is a smooth-talkin, Barbie-hatin girl with a secret crush on Justin Timberlake. Shh, don't tell. She has been active in the DC/Baltimore slam scene since 2002, when she was a member of the National Slam team. When not performing, you can find her listening to Debbie Gibson and practicing ridiculous pick-up lines in front of the mirror.

Rhonda L. Taylor originally hails from Baton Rouge, LA. She is currently a psychology major at Howard University. She began performing spoken word at 17 years of age. At 21 years she is proud to be a member of the DC/Baltimore Slam team after only competing in slam poetry for two months.