Elliot Weiss

Biography

 

      Originally from the Bronx, New York, Weiss has been writing and performing original poetry for the past 30 plus years. He is also an actor and bass guitarist. Weiss was discovered by Joe Franklin, pioneer and host of The Joe Franklin Show on radio and television. Titus Walker, founder and director of the Ujamma Theatre in New York, gave Weiss his first professional break as an actor and writer. Since then he’s performed original one-man shows from New York to Hawaii to California. Presently he’s a Masters of Fine Arts Student at the California Institute of Integral Studies. His MFA graduate thesis is an autobiographical book, and a new one man show. The first poem Weiss wrote, Junky, has been published by Coalesce, an online magazine. His poetry is short, intense, thought provoking, and far from boring.

 

       Weiss’ writings and performances are deeply influenced in the culture of African–Americans and people of color. He was exposed to the music of people of color as an infant. His uncle - who lived with him as part of an extended family in the Bronx, New York - was in a doo-wop group. The film A Bronx Tale depicts the melting pot neighborhood of Irish, Italian and Jewish people that Elliot was reared in. Exposure to this music led Weiss on a mission to discover the ethnicities of these musicians and their histories. As a member of the Ujamma Theatre, Weiss was required to read and discuss the Autobiography of Malcolm X. As an undergrad student at San Francisco State University he enrolled in ethnic studies classes, focusing on the history of African-Americans in the United States. Weiss was one of a handful of white students enrolled in these classes. At the California Institute of Integral Studies, Weiss was a part of a intensive workshop facilitated by Dr. Joy DeGruy about the Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome.

 

      Part of his poetry cannon is reflective of the crime of slavery African-Americans endured. Weiss expresses the ramifications of the slave mentality that has affected the world in his poem There’s a Rebound, that took ten years to write. Jason Bell, the director of Project Rebound at San Francisco State University, an organization that fights the rate of recidivism of the formerly incarcerated, calls this poem their national anthem.    

 

      Weiss is also the star of an Independent film, Lights Out! produced by Arthur Streeter in 2000. This film was based on an original poem he wrote, Mr. Electric Bill Collector. He also co-wrote the screen play and plays bass guitar on the soundtrack. Filmed in Honolulu, Hawaii, the viewer is exposed to non-tourist scenes and sounds of the island and its denizens.

 

      His actor's training is steeped in the Stanislavsky method. His training includes workshops with Gene Frankel, and two of the original students of the famed Actor’s Studio in New York, Lisa Seagram and Al Avalon. The intensity and depth of the characters that he portrays are a direct reflection of their teachings.