Venus Jones is spoken word poetry expert, who loves to promote dialogue, and helps emerging sheroes find their signature voice through the power of poetry and the healing arts. She felt abandoned as a foster child by her birth mother at the age of two, before a woman named Rose helped her rise. Thanks to the kindness of a stranger, faith in a higher power, and resiliency, Venus still seeks to give back the love she received. She’s still keeping her inner light on, even when the world around her turns dark.

Through it all, she’s been recognized as an award-winning radio personality, an accomplished actress, model, poet, and educator. She grew up in Akron, Ohio, nurtured countless emerging artists in Tampa Bay, Florida, her second home, and recently served as an associate English and Communication professor at Mission College. Her poems have appeared in several printed anthologies and online journals. Other publications include a mobile iPhone holiday app, four spoken word albums and three books entitled, She Rose, Kwanzaa: Living on Principle and Lyrics for Langston. She’s even been endorsed by the family of the legendary Langston Hughes.

She’s been a leader in the Shero movement, a TEDx presenter, and a poetry slam finalist at the Austin International Poetry Festival. Her one-woman show, “Poetic Soldier” earned her “Most Inspiring Solo Performance at the Los Angeles Women’s Theatre Festival.” Her short play “Race and War” was featured at the Tampa Bay Theatre Festival.

Venus earned her MFA in English and Creative Writing from Mills College in 2014, and she was one of the honored commencement speakers that same year. She’s worked for two television networks including HSN, where she was a backstage coordinator, and MTV, where she was local correspondent. She’s also opened for Def Poetry on Broadway. Her image has appeared in countless commercials, in a Marvel movie, on a billboard, and it has graced the cover of Spoken Vizions magazine. Yet her greatest achievement has been finding true love and maintaining a healthy matrimony for over 20 years.

One of her favorite quotes is by Alice Walker – “The most common way people give up their power is by believing they don’t have any.”