Russell, who has received support from mentor and fellow East Baltimore writer D. In 2015, his filmed spoken-word piece "The Baltimore Bullet Train," in which he condemned city violence, received more than 20,000 views on YouTube another poem he performed in front of a classroom while substitute teaching at a local high school received nearly 3 million views on Facebook and coverage from various news outlets.
Now, Russell is making a name for himself as a voice of Baltimore - with works including, most recently, his viral essay " How a young boy has been decaying in Baltimore since age 10: A Death Note."īut it’s not the first time the University of Baltimore graduate student, who goes by Kondwani Fidel or just Koni for short, has received widespread attention. In 2011, Russell began his journey into writing honest and gritty accounts of city life, including topics such as violence, drugs, depression and poverty - all of which were fueled by systemic racism, he said.
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Later, with the guidance of a college professor, he delved into the works of Langston Hughes, Maya Angelou and Aaron McGruder, creator of cartoon series “The Boondocks” - literature that documented the beauty and struggles of being black in America. Instead, Russell, now 24, looked to music and lyrics by hip-hop artists such as Jay-Z, Tupac Shakur and J. “They’re amazing,” the East Baltimore writer and poet said while sitting outside a cafe on Charles Street recently, “but that’s all we were taught.” Authors like William Shakespeare and Robert Frost often set the bar, but for a kid growing up in Baltimore, they weren't always relatable, Russell said. BALTIMORE - Growing up, Kondwani Fidel Russell said it was common to learn about a particular type of literature or poetry in school.
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