J. Ivy

This biography of a living person needs additional citations for verification. Please help by adding reliable sources. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately from the article and its talk page, especially if potentially libelous. Find sources: "J. Ivy" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (August 2014) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

J. Ivy
J. Ivy performing "HERE I AM" Book Concert in New York City in 2012
Background information
Birth name	James Ivy Richardson II
Born	(1976-03-03) March 3, 1976 (age 48) Chicago, Illinois, U.S.
Education	Rich Central High School
Alma mater	Illinois State University (BA)
Genres	Spoken word
Occupation(s)	Poet writer author

James Ivy Richardson II (born March 3, 1976) is an American performance poet, spoken word artist, songwriter, and author. He won his first Grammy Award in 2023 with his sixth album, The Poet Who Sat by the Door.

Richardson is a three-time HBO Def Poet and is known for his performance on Kanye West's Grammy Award-winning debut album The College Dropout (2004), which featured him on the song "Never Let Me Down" along with Jay-Z.^[1] He received an NAACP Image Award for his writing and on-camera narration of the BET documentary Muhammad Ali: The People's Champ.