Saul Williams brought the urban sound of spoken word to Fairbanks on Saturday.

An audience of about 350 gathered in the Wood Center Ballroom to listen to the words that tumbled off his lips in insightful arrangements.

He fielded questions between poems and let the audience determine what he recited next.

Williams is an MTV endorsed figurehead of the modern beat poetry movement.

Fifty years after Allen Ginsberg and Jack Kerouac, Williams attempts to bring poetry back to hip-hop and in doing so make poetry more mainstream instead of peripheral and elitist.

The New Yorker turned Los Angeleno harbors no delusions about why MTV published his books.

"It looks like he's going to be the leader of this movement," Williams mocked. "Let's say we were down from the start!"

Poems from his earlier compilations were requested several times.

He provided background and read from books he borrowed from members of the audience.

Williams talked about his early book "S/he" after impetus from a fan.

He laughed at himself and explained the depression that was taking over his life when he wrote the poems in "S/he".

He also discussed the open relationship that inspired his words.

"I wrote this book when I was hella depressed," said Williams, "But it was the first time I ever really felt like a poet…my bedroom had no windows and all my clothes were black. My journals entries all started with She did this today. I had to learn to be comfortable with the role I was playing and to understand that I was the root of what I was going through."

Williams has a bachelor's degree in philosophy and a master's in acting.

Williams has three albums, and has compiled four books including his latest, "The Dead Emcee Scrolls."

He can be seen in movies such as "Slam," which he co-authored, "K-Pax", and the award winning "Lackawanna Blues."

He also had a regular spot on the TV show "Girlfriends."

He is currently recording an album, which is being produced by Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails.

The audience asked many questions about the progression of modern hip-hop music and he talked about the advantage of the similarity to comic books.

He compared emcees to superheroes pitted against each other and locked in mortal combat.

Williams lamented the decline of lyricism and the rise of intoxicating beats in songs with little or no actual substance.

He attributes the rejection of substance to global trends and "What's happening, or what's not happening in the public schools."

He feels that the main problem is the attempt to "make the have-nots excited about having."

He admits to falling victim to this himself.

"The reason I don't bling now is because I blang with lots a fake shit," Williams said.

"He was electrifying, extremely enlightening, and very open to the audience," said junior English major Jonathan Williams.

Theater major Anna Gagne-Hawes captured Williams's power to incite contemplation in a different way.

"Saul Williams awakens my soul," she said.

Williams was the keynote speaker at the Leadership Conference before his performance Saturday.

Alexis Bowman, a junior political science major, found his words particularly insightful.

"He understood that we were all looking for leadership but instead of looking for high profile people with lots of money we should look into ourselves," he said. "He said the most influential people were disinterested leaders that focused on making things happen and making a change rather than getting credit for their actions."