Teajai Travis is an Afro-Indigenous descendant of formerly enslaved peoples. He comes from a strong family of self-emancipated survivors who emigrated into so-called Canada in 1853, after fleeing the so-called United States, following the passing of the Fugitive Slave Act. Prior to his Ancestors, leaving their home in Mercer County, where they founded one of the first black settlements in Pennsylvania, they were active in the Afro liberation movement known today as The Underground Railroad.
As an artist, Teajai works in the spirit of the Ancestor, guided by the infinite light of their legacy. Using Spoken Word and abstract rhythmic sound art, Teajai explores existence, consciousness and humanity as a bubbling manifestation of sensations. He meditates on questions of reality and illusion and muses on the presence of naturally occurring patterns found in the make up of the universe. He mindfully incorporates these themes into his work.
Teajai Travis is an art educator with Arts Can Teach, the Founder and Director of The Bloomfield House, former chair of The Windsor Youth Centre, member at large with The Friends of the Court and Literary Arts Windsor and he is currently installed at the Executive Director of Artcite Inc.
He often describes his creative style as “lyrical hood spit” a reflection of his humble upbringing in one of Waawiiyaatanong’s public communities. In the anthology By the River, published by Urban Farmhouse Press, he continues to describe his style as “channeling the desperate melodies of a pawn shop saxophone, praying abstract jazz to the whispers of a misunderstood Afro-Indigenous Renaissance. Inspired by the works of Nikki Giovanni, Dick Gregory, James Baldwin, Afua Cooper and Sal Williams, Teajai uses a poetic language to share the complexities of struggle and triumph from his unique lens.
