“The Maya Angelou of the
Millennial Generation”
FORBES
From HR to penniless poet to being approached by Oprah
Azure’s story started like many other creative entrepreneurs. She left her well paying, soul crushing corporate HR role to become a poet, and ended up moving from couch to couch, living in the living rooms of her friends.
Until one day, at a time she had just $3.75 to her name, Azure was selected to write a commissioned poem for First Lady of California, Maria Shriver.
It was during the performance of that poem, that her poetry and storytelling captured the attention of Oprah, who decided to feature Azure in Oprah Magazine.
Having her creative career catapulted by women like Maria Shriver and Oprah taught Azure an important lesson. That she needed to use any platform she was given:
To raise others up, to inspire them to follow their passion, to know that anything possible, to validate others experiences, to bring life back to the mundane, to inspire and be inspired, and to live a story worth telling.
To do what you love, and love what you do.
ENGAGING THROUGH
BRAND STORIES AND
STRATEGY
Poet Inside | Commissioned Poet
Azure has been commissioned to write for Maria Shriver, Elizabeth Gilbert (Eat, Pray, Love), The Gap, Johnson & Johnson, Beats By Dr. Dre, Girl Scouts of America, The Documentary Group, California Arts Council, American Cancer Society’s benefit Art 4 Life and many more.
Defib Your Brand™ | Brand Humanist, Corporate Advisor, Spokesperson
Azure noticed early on in her HR career the lack of empathy, passion, emotion in the corporate sector. Often questioning her upper management, peers and clients about their “why”. Many times she was cautioned to not “get emotional”, whereas this was an impossible request. After leaving the corporate sphere as an employee, Azure Antoinette re-entered as a conduit of Social and Emotional Narrative for the workplace, a heart driven sounding board for her clients in navigating the landscapes of people and culture, ultimately becoming the epitome of her passion; a Human Resource. Defib Your Brand/DYB™, is just one iteration of how Azure Antoinette keeps the story heart focused and people centred.
Arc of Hue | Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Thought-Leader
Azure is a 13-year survivor of multiple sclerosis, a proud member of the LGBT community and international thought leader and advisor for fortune 100/500 companies on inclusive workplaces, ERG construction and allyship. Her inclusion in the program is part of a significant push to focus on present and future industry challenges and provide genuine insight into how to meet them. Azure made her acting debut in April 2021 on Grey’s Anatomy as the first character to portray her disease on screen and represent the LGBT+ community.
The Un Factor | MC, Keynote, Interviewer, Facilitator, Spokesperson
The Maya Angelou of the Millennial generation, her performance poetry explores the ways social media is reshaping humanity. In 2011, she founded a NYC arts-in-education program that provides custom workshops to excite and educate teen girls on how spoken word, performance poetry, and social media can make an impact on the world.
AREAS OF FOCUS
You simply cannot represent and champion each and every thing, by doing so - we in turn deplete our energy, we dilute the potency of the power of our own human spirit. My work is my life. My life remains a manifesto in process. My energy is my passion. My heart is my compass. I am best, WHEN SERVING.
This is where I shine. Where others focus on the semantics of pillars, values, ethos, I stay shackled and steeped to the vibration of the human heart. This is where I FOCUS.
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As a social justice advocate, champion of diverse people, serial observer; I accepted the call to identify the needs of human beings in our world. I employ my mediums of poetry, music, film, narrative, oration and fashion to connect the unoppressed to the oppressed.
SOCIAL JUSTICE
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From birth, no matter where you came into consciousness - we have been told stories. To lull us, to quiet the heart, to enflame the warrior; our brands, our professions, our passions are informed by the same. I am an AVID believer in the power of stories; and like my parent brand TELLER Ventures, I excel in the art of Storied Risk.
STORIES TOLD
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If we are less than our hearts, or if our feelings are not valid to the cohort of our peers, then who are we to claim intelligence? My work over two decades has shown me the equally paramount and tantamount necessity of being “emotional”. Therein lies the sale, the progress, the merger, the acquisition, the expansion, the closure, the off set and the growth. Go ahead, call me Emotional, I am only that.
We progress, because emotion is human. Technology is our accessory - not the replacement.
HUMAN EQUITY
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Health and Wellness has become an implacable focus of my personal work, the work of TELLER V., and the clients I purvey, service, and wish to engage. Health, wellness, living WELL, is a human right for every BODY. This is not for discussion, conjecture or negotiation.
HEALTH + WELLNESS
THIS IS HOW WE (SHE) DO IT
Montell Jordan
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Formerly a musical theatre performer and jazz singer, Antoinette is beyond comfortable with the vacuous and implacable industry of Entertainment. Azure Antoinette is asked after EACH PERFORMANCE if she is moonlighting as a standup comedian. She commonly engages her love of storytelling, comedic timing and poetic thought process to evoke both laughter, sentiment, and sometimes tears to her audiences. At no stage is she the poetry or the poet that you rolled your eyes about in English class.
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When you book Azure Antoinette for your annual meeting, sales conference, off-site, or internal engagements you will be guaranteed the input, active participation and an indelible experience like no other presenter in the public presentation field. As multi hyphenate, and neurodivergent personality; Antoinette has traversed every industry, personality archetype and cultural intersection seamlessly. Her love of connection and collaboration is the catalyst to her approachability and innate talent to connect to any person in the room.
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Antoinette often describes herself as lifelong student, and someone that loves learning. When asked about the most influential people or moments of her life, she cites her mother who believed that education was paramount to the foundation of every human in the world; secondly her time teaching in primary, high school and undergraduate classrooms. Her students taught her the art of fearlessness, bold moving through the world, and the power of stories. Audiences leave Azure Antoinette’s presentations, off sites, keynotes or performances emboldened to dive deeper into the queries of their personal worlds. Thus making space in the classroom of life itself.
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“I believe that possibility and success are just on the other side of our exhaustion. I believe that when we drop into the passion, the purpose, the why, of our lives, of our life’s work; we move into a superhuman realm. One that eclipses all the spaces where we store our unworthiness. I am honoured to have the profession of being a living Call to Action for my clients, for their workforces, campaigns, endeavours. I am here to rally, to engage even the nay sayers, I am here to get on side of the right side, the side that says “yes - we have this, now OFF YOU GROW!” Audiences of Azure Antoinette can expect to be motivated to action, activated to movement, and empowered to empower others.
“As the world becomes more connected, we somehow find our humanity more elusive. Meaning gets lost in streams of data, and no search engine can find our purpose. Azure is a beacon to those seeking a signal of meaning and a powerful antidote to inauthenticity. She relentlessly reminds us who we are, why we are here, and what we can do together. She is the voice of our time.”
Mark Bonchek
Azure Antoinette
A commissioned poet, actress, TED Speaker, GRAMMY™ Considered recording artist, entrepreneur, and DEI thought leader and corporate advisor. Named the "Maya Angelou of the millennial generation," in the highly acclaimed Forbes Most Powerful Women in the World Issue.
Since being discovered in 2010 by Oprah Winfrey on the World Stage of the Minerva Conference hosted by former first Lady Maria Shriver, Azure has Written for and shared a stage with bestselling author of Eat Pray Love Elizabeth Gilbert and opened for Lady Gaga. Current spokesperson for Janssen Pharmaceuticals and the MoretoMS Campaign, Azure Antoinette is a 13-year survivor of Multiple Sclerosis and has a strong passion for patient advocacy and living well with MS. Amongst her many commitments she has previously served as ambassador and/or spokesperson for Clean & Clear, The GAP, and Beats by Dr. Dre, among others, and commissioned to write for the Girl Scouts of America, Johnson & Johnson, California Arts Council, American Cancer Society's benefit Art 4 Life, The Documentary Group, and many more.
Azure Antoinette made her acting debut in April 2021 as the first character to portray her disease on screen and represent the LGBT+ community on the critically acclaimed hit series Grey’s Anatomy in its 17th season as Irene Hayes! Off screen, you can find Azure planning storytelling strategy with her team at her parent firm TELLER Ventures Ltd.
Manifesto
We obsess over positive messages.
We strongly rely on the human ability to be passionate and indecisive.
To say that we are a collective of dreamers: would be putting a mild term over how we see the world.
We believe in alchemy.
Never use the word 'extraordinary because we are not additionally simple.
We see the world as brilliant.
We are forever alchemists.
We support the paths never worn.
The stars that don't see the wishes and persons who still love a piano that has lost its tune.
THE ART OF
STORIED RISK
When asked how I would describe myself, I respond with the phrase, “I am all passion, no plan. I am here to tell the story. To create, cultivate and protect a space for brands, people, ideas yet born to deeply engage in the rite of lived storytelling.” This is why all my brands exist. Hence the parent name, TELLER Ventures. No risk, no reward. Tell that.
MEET THE BRANDS
Teller Ventures
Teller Ventures Ltd is a collection of brands steeped in the necessity to preserve, enhance, foster and amplify the art of storytelling. TELLER seeks to collaborate and provide service to brands that understand the paramount need for risk, experience, equity and change. Life is a gorgeous journey, together we write the story, together we take the risk, and together we LIVE.
BE.SPOKE Cr8v
is a boutique design + copy firm. Specialising in identity architecture, branding, design, creative copywriting, strategic planning and brand exploration as it pertains to collaboration and brand visibility. As of July 2020, BCA has committed its availability to work with BIPOC owned/operated brands as well as to be an anchor and support of Minority Solo/Entrepreneurs.
Alchemy Global
Alchemy Global Foundation’s mission is to be the place where purpose and vision collide to give birth to brilliance. Whether that be in the form of the written and spoken words of our storytellers, the visual narrative of the fight for racial justice, or the building of community to combat the racial inequity seen in the medical field.
Ticonderoga
An in-house, press for poetry and literary works of the Office of Azure Antoinette and the TELLER Ventures Ltd. parent brand.
monk | a Label.
An explorative essay on fashion. An exercise in boundary, identity, rule of thumb. A textile statement, in flux and development. Pretty. Handsome. For every, body. Look for our book of looks in Spring 2024.
Huem/\n Productions
HUEm/\n. is a multi-medium video and audio collective, specialising in the creation and production of social justice narratives as told through the lens of mass media. The story of HUEman is simple, it is the story of HUE. Here at HUEman, we make stories for us, by us. For HUE, by HUE. We see colour, we honour, celebrate, whistle and demand it. We are committed to the power of storied risk, to the champions of the minority and the equity that our complex narratives deserve.
AUTHOR
DON’T BELIEVE ME -
JUST WATCH
BRUNO MARS
COLLABORATE
WITH AZURE
Want to collaborate with Azure for your brand, event, or campaign? Head to the contact page and reach out, and we’ll be in touch to confirm the details and Azure’s availability.