Boxer John "Spidey" Williams is ranked 41 in his weight class in the country. He is also a poet. "I wanted people to understand and listen to my words rather than just think I'm a fighter," he says. "A lot of times they say boxers are not thinkers."
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Spidey was hesitant to name himself "The Boxing Poet". "A lot of times in a gym they don't want to associate poetry as masculine," Williams says.
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Spidey "The Boxing Poet" Williams wins his fight, bringing his record to 11, 2 and 1.
Credit Briana Duggan
Williams recites a poem at an open mic night at Poor Richards Bookshop. He has self-published 5 books of poetry and says he has written over 1,300 poems.
Boxing requires physical strength to be sure, but a boxer’s words can also pack a punch.Perhaps the best known wordsmith is Muhammad Ali, who is known for his clever rhymes, like in 1974 when he said “I have wrestled with an alligator, I done tussled with a whale, I done handcuffed lighting, thrown thunder in jail,". One local boxer also embraces poetry, Spidey “The Boxing Poet” Williams.
After playing professional football, founding Essence Magazine and owning the first African-American Brokerage Firm with a seat on the New York Stock Exchange, Russell Goings became friends with artist Romare Bearden. That is what led Goings to his most recent line of work: writing poetry. His book of poetry, The Children of Children Keep Coming features Bearden's art work and chronicles the African-American journey. Russell Goings talks about that journey, art and poetry.