Famed Miami Area Poet Will Bell Murdered

Poet and spoken word artist Will "Da Real One" Bell was shot to death early Sunday morning outside the The Literary Cafe, a place he owned and had grown as a performer and promoter of young writers for years. Bell, whose performances are documented on HBO's Def Poetry Jam among others, was 47. The following, from The Miami Herald gives details of the sad event while shedding light on Bell's significance to both local and national poetry and spoken word scenes, while also highlighting the role poetry played in helping Bell overcome a great deal of adversity:

Bell, 47, whose performances have been featured on HBO’s Def Poetry Jam, had just closed his business, the Literary Cafe and Poetry Lounge on 933 NE 125th Street, at about 12:40 a.m. and was walking to his car nearby when another car occupied by at least two men pulled up beside him, said Lt. Neal Cuevas of the North Miami Police Department.

A gunman leapt out from the passenger seat and fired multiple times at Bell, who died on the scene, Cuevas said. The men then fled in the car, but did not take any of Bell’s possessions, which included cash and jewelry.

“We don’t have a motive right now,’’ Cuevas said.

Several witnesses, who had been inside The Literary Cafe earlier that night, offered police differing descriptions of the suspects’ car color as light and dark, with a spoiler on the rear.

Bell will be missed in South Florida’s poetry and spoken-word performance scene, where he loomed as a local laureate, having achieved national recognition with performances on Def Poetry Jam and on albums by artists such as Miami’s Pit Bull, and hosting open-mic nights at his Literary Cafe and other venues.

Standing nearly 6-feet-5, Bell cast an imposing presence on stage, where he delivered prose honed from a life of poverty, fatherlessness, crime and prison — before finding redemption through words.

The full article, with links to audio clips of Bell and the Facebook page started in his honor, can be found here.