Kurt Boone

Kurt Boone (born 1959) is an author who is a native of Brooklyn, New York City.^[1] His parents are Elliott W. Boone Sr. and Thelma Strothers Boone. He attended Andrew Jackson High School and was on the track team and basketball team. He started writing poetry in his first year at LaGuardia Community College and become a sports reporter for York College's Pandora Box and Los Angeles City College LA Collegian. The first book he ever wrote was for the Yale Series of Younger Poet Contest. He did not win but the contest inspired him to write more books.

Career

In 1990 he became a foot messenger with Rapid Messenger Service in New York City and started to become known as a fast courier and talented poet, performing poetry at many New York City events. That eventually led him to produce his first book of poems, Looking For Myself, which was published in 1996. By that time he had left Rapid Messenger Service in 1994. In addition in the 1990s he was also be a sales representative for the Quarterly Black Review of Books and later a marketing representative for the Harlem Book Fair, a division of QBR. In 2000 he again went back into messenger work, but this time he would document his experiences in books and videos.

Since 2000 in his 12 years as a messenger, he has been reported upon in the media and made the cover of Courier Magazine, with the front headline: "Nobody knows The Gritty Streets of NYC better than Kurt Boone."^[2] Feature stories about Boone have been published in The New York Times, New York Daily News, New York Post and Metro New York. Boone's writing work has also lead to opportunities in film and video. He appears in Verse: A Murder Mystery (2011), Career Courier: The Labor Of Love (2011) and produced The Messenger Poet Show (2011), a web television series.

Publications

Books

• "Looking For Myself" – Poetry (1996). ISBN 0-8059-3570-3
• "Inside Grand Central Terminal" – A Photo Essay (2006). ISBN 978-0-9789946-0-0
• "Urban Theory: Critical Thoughts In America", with Noreen Mallory (2007). ISBN 978-1-6048-1214-5
• "On The Subway" – Poetry (2008). ISBN 978-1-934690-00-0
• "Messenger Poet" – illustrated by Greg Ugalde (2009) ISBN 978-1-934690-23-9
• "Asphalt Warrior: The Story of New York City's Fastest Messenger" (2011). ISBN 978-1-934690-29-1^[3]

References

1. Bindley, Catherine (April 3, 2009). "The Paper Chase". The New York Times. Retrieved November 14, 2011.
2. Brennan, Vincent (July/August 2010). "Foot Soldier: Nobody Knows the Gritty Streets of NYC Better Than Kurt Boone", Courier Magazine. Accessed May 2012.
3. Koplowitz, Howard (March 31, 2011). "Cambria Hts. author delivers his message". New York Post. Retrieved November 14, 2011.

Additional sources

• Johnson, Lynsey (October 2, 2007). "His message is delivered – in a new book". New York Daily News. Accessed May 2012.
• DeJohn, Irving (July 27, 2010). "Messenger Of Literary Hope". New York Daily News. Accessed May 2012.
• Bowen, Alison (March 29, 2011). "60 Seconds with...the Delivery Man". Metro New York. Accessed May 2012.

External links

• Kurt Boone Books (Official website)
• Koldcast.TV
• Kurt Boone at the Internet Movie Database