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Lee Mokobe    

Internationally Published Poet, TEDx Speaker & Human Rights Activist; Creative Director at Vocal Revolutionaries

Lee Mokobe is an internationally published poet, screenwriter, literary editor, and film maker hailing from Cape Town, South Africa. His work focuses on human rights, gender inequality, education, LGBTQ+ issues, and African history. Mokobe is also the Founder and Creative Director of Vocal Revolutionaries.

Mokobe is the youngest TED Fellow in history, a six-times TED and TEDx speaker, and three-times TED blog contributor. He was the first African to win Brave New Voices International Youth Slam Poetry. Mokobe has performed all over the world, including at the Barclay's Center, The LGBT Center, LA YouTube Space, and Vidcon. His work has been featured by The Fader, Al Jazeera, New York Public Library, Philly.com, Ideas.Ted, Soulpancake media, OkayAfrica, Leeway Foundation, and Sundance NEXT Film Festival.

His work has graced the stages of the National Museum of African American History and Culture as part of a special LGBTQ+ installation where he was the first transgender person to perform and speak on trans people in Africa. He also trail blazed as the first transgender person to be featured in Converse's Forever global campaign. He was also featured as a prominent African non-binary leader in Beyonce Knowles And Gucci's Chime for Change as part of The Future is Fluid Campaign. His works have been exhibited and published in 5 continents - namely Harvard School of Education, The University of Calcutta, and in the NSC South African curriculum. He has partnered with Adobe, Sundance, Twitter, Instagram, Gucci America, and Hulu Pridefest as a human rights activist and performer. His work has been published alongside Barack Obama and Harvey Milk in "Loud and Proud: LGBTQ Speeches that shook the world."

Mokobe has worked with various non-profit organizations in the United States, especially in youth development. He's gained nominations and awards for his work in youth development and career advancement for township youth in South Africa, and have been shortlisted for the Muhammad Ali Humanitarian Awards. Mokobe won the Adobe Creative Catalyst Award for his innovation of media content creation in Africa.

News


Vocal Revolutionary and Young TED Fellow Lee Mokobe
in 2012, Lerato put together the first team from Africa to compete in the Brave New Voices slam competition, held that year in San Francisco.
Transgender Slam Poet Reciting Powerful Poem
During the event, the 19-year old poet and activist, whose work deals with social injustice and gender identity issues, delivered a stirring autobiographical poem in which he came out as transgender.

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