Officially, Bassey Ikpi is a Nigeria-born, Oklahoma-bred, PG County-fed, Brooklyn-led writer/poet/neurotic who is the single mother of an amazing man-child, Elaiwe Ikpi. She’s half awesome, a quarter crazy and 1/3rd genius… the leftover bit is a caramel creme center. A strong advocate of mental health awareness, Bassey is currently working on a memoir about living with mental illness and producing Basseyworld Live, a stage show that infuses poetry and interactive panel discussions about everything from politics to pop culture.
Unofficially, I first saw her on Def Poetry Jam and thought she was amazing. I started going to her old website, reading her journal. One day she posted her screen name. That was about 5 years ago.
She is like the older sister I always wanted. These words are a collection of reasons why.
Footsteps On Concrete 