Brother Dash, Dasham K. Brookins, is a spoken word poet from the United States. He is perhaps the most well known performance poet in the Islamic Entertainment industry. Recently the subject of a BBC Radio 4 feature documentary on Muslim poets entitled Sing Your Own PsalmsBrother Dash has performed for over 50,000 people at both the 2005 and 2006 Global Peace and Unity Concert in London, England Video Link(source: Islamic Channel TV [1] and London Metropolitan Police official crowd estimates) which took place 12/4/2005 and 11/25/2006, respectively. He has performed for over 10,000 at ExpoIslamia at the Manchester News Arena in Manchester, England (August 18th 2006). He has also performed for over 8,000 at North America's largest Islamic conference ISNA where over 30,000 Muslims converge every Labor Day weekend in Chicago, IL at the Rosemont Convention Center. He is known for his energetic and rhythmic delivery along with creative non-preachy Islamic content. He has been featured on Islam Channel TV, Al Arabiya Television, Bridges TV, Islamica Magazine, PBS affiliate NJN network in New Jersey, USA and mainstream New Jersey newspaper The Star Ledger in Spring 2006. His television appearances alone have been shown in over 2 million households worldwide (Bridges TV, Al-Arabiya TV, Islam Channel TV)

Early Life and Influences

Brother Dash is an American convert to Islam whose poetry is influenced by not only his religion but the life experience of an African-American "child of the 80's" from Brooklyn, NY. Born December 3rd in the Crown Heights section of Brooklyn, NY and raised in East Flatbush Brother Dash grew up with a combination of both literary and musical influences. He credits writers from Shakespeare to Poe to Langston Hughues, Amiri Baraka, Sonia Sanchez and Nikki Giovanni as poets and writers whose works helped shape the importance of language and content. He credits spoken word pioneers The Last Poets and Gil Scott Herron with providing stylistic influences and Hip Hop artists such as Grandmaster Flash and The Furious Five, Run DMC, Public Enemy, A Tribe Called Quest and others with the cadence that his audiences have come to enjoy. Islamically Brother Dash has been heavily influenced by Western raised scholars such as Sheikh Abdullah Adhami, Imam Zaid Shakir, Sheikh Hamza Yusuf and Imam Siraj Wahhaj. With this combination Brother Dash's poetry has found a home in audiences who've grown weary of overt utopic interpretations of religion and prefer Brother Dash's blend of realism, hope, love and "flavor".

The Present and Future

Recently (December 8th 2006) Brother Dash performed at the prestigious British Library in London, England and is perhaps the first Muslim performance poet to do so. He is the founder of MuslimPoet.com which is his official website and also a portal for other Muslim spoken word artists. He is currently working on his first full length album entitled DNA: Dunya 'N Akhirah which refers to the Islamic terminologies for the world and the afterlife.