J. Ivy

Ivy is a performance poet, a spoken word artist, and a songwriter. He won a Grammy Award in 2023 with his sixth album, THE POET WHO SAT BY THE DOOR, making him the first-ever winner in the Best Spoken Word Poetry Album category. 

Ivy was born James Ivy Richardson II in Chicago, Illinois. The son of a radio DJ and a registered nurse, Ivy grew up on Chicago’s South Side. When he was a teenager his family moved to the South Suburbs of Chicago. His first experience with performance occurred while he was in high school when his English teacher, impressed with his style and delivery, asked him to perform in his first local show, which ended with a standing ovation for Ivy’s performance.

Ivy attended Illinois State University, where he began writing and performing in earnest and earned the campus moniker of “The Poet.” After college, J. Ivy frequently performed in the local Chicago arts circuit. He was featured several times on Chicago’s WGCI radio station and later became the host of “Rituals,” a popular poetry night in Chicago. 

In the early 2000s he was invited on Russell Simmons’ HBO series Def Poetry Jam, where he received a standing ovation for his performance of “I NEED to Write” and was invited back for two encore appearances. As a result of his appearance on the show, Ivy received a Peabody Award. 

Kanye West’s collaborator, Coodie Simmons, contacted Ivy and offered him the opportunity to be featured on West’s song “Never Let Me Down,” which also featured Jay-Z. West’s The College Dropout album earned a 2005 Grammy Award for Best Rap Album. Ivy went on to collaborate with many artists, including Estelle, RZA, The Roots, Common, Marsha Ambrosius, Slum Village, Bob Dylan, and John Legend.

In 2010, J. Ivy released the album HERE I AM and also self-published HERE I AM: Then & Now (Bookbaby, 2012), a compilation of the album’s lyrics, inspiration, and additional poems. In 2015, he published the memoir, Dear Father: Breaking the Cycle of Pain (Atria Books/Beyond Words, 2015), which is based on J. Ivy’s poem “Dear Father,” as seen on Def Poetry Jam.

In 2023, the city of Chicago declared March 3rd, Ivy’s birthday, as J. Ivy Day.