Def Sound (pronouns they/them/he/hims) is an Afro-Caribbean transdisciplinary artist born and based in South Central LA. Def is a postbinary Grammy Award-considered contemporary hip-hop artist, producer, poet, and award-winning academic.

Def’s work as a poet has been included in Saul Williams’ Anthology CHORUS, while their music has been featured in LA WEEKLY, LA Record, The L.A. Times, The Frieze Art Fair, the Emmy Nominated Television series Music Diaries, and the Emmy winning Artbound on KCET. Def is currently teaching Hip Hop/Black Critical Theory at the California Institute of the Arts (CalArts).

On this month’s episode, Def Sound is joined by Yrsa Daley-Ward in the dublab studio.

Yrsa Daley-Ward is a writer, poet and actress of mixed Jamaican and Nigerian heritage. Since publishing her first poetry collection, the widely beloved bone, Yrsa has been in a constant state of exciting creative output, which earns her continued critical acclaim. Her follow-up book, the lyrical memoir The Terrible, garnered glowing praise and won her the prestigious PEN Ackerley Prize in 2019. Following that, she published The How, which NPR called “a hopeful work of meditation and healing” and has been taught in women’s prisons around the world.

Amidst all this, Yrsa continues to work and write in other areas of entertainment. In 2019, she worked closely with Beyoncé to co-write Black Is King, “a grand statement of African-diaspora pride and creative power” (NYT) and has been adapting The Terrible for screen. As an actress, she played Grace Jones in Kwei-Armah’s upcoming feature film The Collaboration.