AMP Founder & CEO
You must be the change you wish to see in the world - M.K. Gandhi
Timothy William Prolific Veit Jones is a poet, publisher, activist, and educator who truly believes that how we decide to utilize art, particularly poetry & hip-hop, as a community could be what saves our children from the streets and the prisons. He is appalled by the continued disenfranchisement of people of color in this country, and is dedicated to making whatever changes he can make in his lifetime.
Having spent the majority of his life in Uniondale NY, Timothy is an ambassador of the black Long Island experience, and an oral historian of black life in Nassau County. He has been writing for over ten years, and writing professionally for the past seven. He currently works full time as the Front Desk Manager of a hotel, and very happily demonstrates that an individual is not defined by their occupation.
Timothy does not believe poetry to be a dead art form, and uses his words as a means to inspire change, and to inform and uplift. He believes art to be revolutionary, and views poetry as God's gift. Although much of his performed work carries themes in a socio-political context, Prolific's body of work is quite versatile. Writing since the age of 12, he first embarked on a journey with is pen to cope with the loss of close family, his parents' eventual divorce, and early encounters with Long Island's competing brands of overt and covert racism.
From 2002-2004, Timothy was a founding member of The Cataclysm, a spoken-word fusion group based out of Hunter College. It was during this time that he was given the name Prolific by his mother, due to the voluminous output of poetry that he had written as a member of the group. The Cataclysm embarked on several college tours, and released an independent cd titled "The Movement." The years spent working with the members of the group (The MarXman, SoSoon, K-Mil, & Darkside) contributed heavily to his growth as an artist, and aided greatly in honing his craft.
Timothy's dedication to his community extends far beyond his artwork. In 2002, he joined Blackout Arts Collective, a national grassroots organization dedicated to empowering communities of color through the arts, education, and activism. He has conducted workshops on political education, using hip-hop and poetry as pedagogical tools in the classroom, and produced a year's worth of notable showcases in NYC. Through Blackout, Timothy embarked on a tour in 2003, Lyrics on Lockdown Tour: Slamming the Prison Industrial Complex, performing and conducting workshops in poetry cafes, nightclubs, halfway houses, juvenile detention centers, and prisons. In 2007, Timothy was appointed to Blackout's Board of Directors, and is currently serving as Co-Chairman with fellow AMP artist and Blackout activist Nigel Greaves.
In addition to being the CEO/Founder of André Maurice Press, Timothy is also its resident book designer and layout specialist. His design weapon of choice is Adobe CS2, and he prefers Adobe Indesign for book layouts. As a book designer, his talent is in using creative formatting to bring the artist's words and vision to life. Poetry is not meant to simply be read, it is to be felt, and through design, it is possible to create a visceral experience.
Prolific has performed across the Country in open mics, slams, hip-hop showcases, and speaking engagements at venues including ranging from The Nuyorican Poets Cafe and Bar 13 to Rikers Island and Riverside Church. Prolific's poetry has been most recently published in Gunplay, a graphic novel created by Jorge Vega, and published through Platinum Studios. He is currently working on several books of poetry concurrently, one of which will focus on the Black Long Island experience.