"Funny Thing About Branding" (Jonathan Samuel Eddie)

Jonathan Samuel Eddie is a spoken word comedian hailing from Columbus, GA. This alumnus of Georgia Southern University represented the city of Atlanta at the National Poetry Slam competition as a member of the 2012 and 2014 Art Amok Poetry Slam Teams. He was also the 2012 and 2014 Grand Slam Champion at Art Amok. Jonathan was also a member of the 2015 Java Monkey Slam Team (Atlanta), ranking among the top 20 slam teams in the nation that year. At the 2014 and 2015 Southern Fried Regional Poetry Festival, he was among the top 10 individual competing poets. This teaching artist travels the country leading poetry workshops and performing his original work.Jonathan was recognized for his work as an "artivist" as a recipient of a 2013 Spoken Word Gala Community Service Award. With support from Alternate ROOTS, he most recently penned and staged the one man show, Journey Here, which candidly chronicled his life as a writer/performer, black man, teaching artist, and caregiver for his mother, whom was living with Alzheimer's. He published a chapbook of his work entitled "A Whole Notha Kinda Missing" that is available on Amazon.

As an actor, he has graced stages in productions such as the world premiere of ACE: The Eugene Bullard Story, Blues For An Alabama Sky, The Foreigner, and Clybourne Park to name a few. He portrays Crispus Attucks in an interactive video display at the African American Military History Museum in Hattiesburg, Mississippi. As a director, Jonathan has overseen numerous productions, including three of his original works to stage, STIMULUS, Blues For Mama, and WORDS through his company, Yellow Mojo Productions. He has opened up for the likes of comedians such as Bruce Bruce and Earthquake, and was a featured stand up comic at the 2014 Black Box Comedy Festival in Atlanta, GA. His poetry has been featured on the digital platforms of Write About Now and All Def Poetry. He most recently was a featured performer on "The Golden Mic" hosted by Sunni Patterson on The Congo Television Network.

He currently serves as the founder/director of the Fountain City Teen Poetry Slam, an organization that inspires youth to use their creativity as a positive outlet in their daily lives. From his work as a wellness instructor with the Muscogee County Juvenile Drug Court and Aaron Cohn Regional Youth Detention Center,he has also designed an effective and fun-filled curriculum that teaches students life skills through creative writing. Students have experienced the benefits of this auxiliary arts education in their intellectual, personal, and social development. Through weekly workshops, poetry slams, national/regional/local performance opportunities, and community service, he’s blessed to watch the future take shape one word at a time.