Poet J. Ivy Reveals How He Created the Grammy Category That Ultimately Won

It’s not every day an artist wins an award in a category they helped create.

But for poet J. Ivy, that came true earlier this month when he took home the Grammy in a category that led to the creation of Best Spoken Word Poetry Album.

Speaking exclusively to DailyMail.com, Ivy, 46, described the process of creating the category, her journey to becoming a poet and what it felt like to finally win that Grammy.

As president of the Chicago chapter of the Recording Academy, Ivy has spent the past six years advocating for poets to receive official recognition from the organization. Until this year, poets were battling audiobook narrators in the Best Spoken Word Album category.

The last poet to win a Grammy was the late Maya Angelou, Ivy said. That was in 2003.

Now, thanks to Ivy’s efforts, the Recording Academy launched a new category last year: Best Spoken Word Poetry Album. Ivy says it marked the first time five poets had been nominated for a Grammy in a single year.

Go for the gold! J. Ivy has the distinction of not only being the first winner of the Grammy for Best Spoken Word Poetry Album, but also being the driving force behind its creation.

“This is something I’ve been working on for six years with the Recording Academy. Historically there has always been a spoken word category, but the only poet to win in that category is Dr. Maya Angelou. So the Academy defines spoken word as recordings without music, so it included poetry, audiobooks, narration, and storytelling. And for the last two decades, audiobooks have dominated spoken word recording, which left poets, which left spoken word artists feeling, you know, ignored and pushed out and a lot of poets felt that we didn’t have a place at the Grammy’, he explained.

Once Ivy became a member, and later president, of the Chicago chapter board, he finally felt that he could help other poets achieve recognition.

“I became the first poet in Grammy history to hold a presidency of all 12 chapters. Then I became the first poet to ever hold a trustee position… so what he did was put a voice from the poetry community in the room as we work on different things to help serve the music community. “Okay, let’s work on this, let’s work on it, let’s work on it.” Meanwhile, I’m the poet in the room like, “Hey, everybody… this category of spoken word. We really need to do something about it.”

Ivy began collecting information about the submission process and sharing what she learned with other poets.

‘So I started sharing information with the poetry community and we started asking around and making sure they would send albums. You have to be a voting member to submit your album, so for the poets who weren’t, and most of them weren’t, I submitted albums on their behalf. So we increased submission numbers, we increased awareness, and then last year I wrote a proposal.

I named the category, wrote a new definition, and the proposal included why this was important to the poetry community and the music community as a whole, and submitted the proposal. The board of directors voted on it and it was approved. So this year was the first time in Grammy history that five poets were nominated. Guaranteed a poet would bring home a Grammy and I’m thrilled that I got the chance to be that person, that’s amazing.

Ivy clarified who nominated her album: “The voting members are made up of their peers, artists, producers, engineers, these are the music people who vote on these projects, so our peers found the album vote-worthy and you We know, we did it.

Ivy can thank her high school teacher, Paula Argue, for helping launch her prolific poetry career. She saw the potential in him as a teenager and encouraged him to try.

Winner!  Ivy pictured receiving the Grammy for Best Spoken Poetry Album

Winner! Ivy pictured receiving the Grammy for Best Spoken Poetry Album

Giving a shout out: The poet mentioned his former high school teacher Paula Abdul, who saw his potential as a teenager, in his acceptance speech

Giving a shout out: The poet mentioned his former high school teacher Paula Abdul, who saw his potential as a teenager, in his acceptance speech

Paula, also known as Miss Argue, urged Ivy to perform in one of her talent shows. When he finally appeared on stage and received a standing ovation from his teammates, he was hooked.

‘My life changed. And I was like, “Ms. Argue, when is the next show?” And I’ve been doing it ever since.

Ivy has kept in touch with Miss Argue over the years and even greeted her at her Grammy speech.

“I spoke to her the other day. She is so proud and so happy and she thanked me for always sharing my life… over the years, every time something important has happened, I call my mom, I call Miss Argue… it’s a beautiful feeling because I knew I wouldn’t be in this position without her,’ he said.

When Ivy finally won the Grammy a few weeks ago, she described hearing her name as the winner as a surreal experience.

‘It was a dream and it was like in slow motion, you know? They couldn’t say it fast enough and it took me a minute to process the thought that they actually said…did they really say my name? It was just an overwhelming feeling of joy. Just pure joy.

“I tell people, ‘I think I know what it feels like to win the Super Bowl.'” Because you work for something for so long, you dream about it for so long, and to find yourself in the dream that you’ve been imagining for years is absolutely amazing.

Ivy’s winning album, The Poet Who Sat By The Door, was released in 2022. It features artists like John Legend, a musician she’s known from her days working on Kanye West’s 2004 album The College Dropout.

Ivy says that he was the one who went up with the name by which the world now knows him: John Legend.

Ivy's winning album, The Poet Who Sat By The Door, was released in 2022

Ivy’s winning album, The Poet Who Sat By The Door, was released in 2022

Helping future talent: Ivy pictured at A Toast To The Times' Bulleit Frontier Whiskey presentation at a party in Los Angeles earlier this month.

Helping future talent: Ivy pictured at A Toast To The Times’ Bulleit Frontier Whiskey presentation at a party in Los Angeles earlier this month.

Moving and Grooving: Col3trane provided some of the musical entertainment

Moving and Grooving: Col3trane provided some of the musical entertainment

At the time they met, Ivy says that John was still using his legal name John Stephens.

“I met John Stephens the night I recorded my verse for Never Let Me Down,” Ivy recalled of the verse she performed at The College Dropout. After listening to John’s music at Kanye’s urging, the Ordinary People singer ends up walking into the studio.

I didn’t know it was there. So I was surprised to see it! “Ah, what’s up, man!…I listened to your music, it’s amazing. It sounds like old school music! It sounds like the music my parents used to listen to!”

“I was like, ‘Man, you sound like one of the legends! You’re a legend, you’re a legend! In fact, that’s what I’m going to call you from now on. I’ll call you a legend.” “So I started calling him John Legend, John Legend. So it was just me and him talking and a couple of days later we were in the studio room where we were playing a record.

And John Stephens, who signed Kanye as John Stephens, had albums as John Stephens. I mean this is his government name, it’s been John Stephens his whole life.

“So they were going to take him out as John Stephens and he walked into the room, there was like 10-12 in the room, everyone was yelling at him, ‘John Stephens in the building! John Stephens in the house! What’s happening? Juan Esteban!”. I was like “John Legend!… that’s your name from now on, you John Legend!” He stayed.

Now Ivy is helping mentor other emerging artists through her partnership with Bulleit’s The Bulleit Pioneer Project, a multi-year campaign that elevates the voices of emerging and underrepresented talent in a variety of industries. The winner of one of the project’s activations, The Remix Challenge, will receive a one-hour mentoring session with Ivy.

Thinking of Ms. Argue, Ivy knows the power mentoring can have on a person’s career path.

“So every time I get a chance to give back, return the favor, talk to some young people or mentor someone who is chasing their dreams, it’s the best feeling in the world because I know what an impact it can have on your life.” He explained.

Mixing it up!  Siobhan Bell kept the party going behind the DJ booth

Mixing it up! Siobhan Bell kept the party going behind the DJ booth

In good spirits!  The guests enjoyed a variety of delicious treats at the party.

In good spirits! The guests enjoyed a variety of delicious treats at the party.