Mike Tokars

Michael P. "Mike" Tokars (born April 20, 1988) is an American journalist, poet, and punk rock musician. He has covered politics, art, crime, science, religion and skateboarding. Tokars is the author of one unpublished novel, Big Tuesday (2013), and GRUESOME (2016), a long and "unending poem" of around 920 lines. His second novel, The Shameless and The Innocent Or American Activities: Quantum Nowhere, is currently entered in a publishing contest on Inkitt.com, and is available for free online for a limited time only. Tokars lives in New York City.

Early years, mother's [...], and education

Mike Tokars was born in Atlanta, Ga. in 1988 to Fred Tokars, a trial attorney and part-time traffic judge, and his wife, Sara, a schoolteacher. On November 29, 1992, at the age of four, Tokars witnessed his mother's [...] near the family's home in suburban Cobb County. Mrs. Tokars was killed by a shotgun blast to the head after she and her sons were abducted from their garage by the shooter, a 24-year-old crack addict named Curtis Rower. Tokars's older brother, Rick, also witnessed the [...], and served as a principal witness for the prosecution during the ensuing [...] trial. The boys' father was eventually implicated, tried and convicted of masterminding the [...] for hire plot, as was his business associate, Eddie Lawrence. Mr. Tokars was also convicted of a number of charges related to organized crime, including money laundering and racketeering; he remains incarcerated, in Federal witness protection, and has always maintained that he is innocent of his wife's [...], which prosecutors allege was ordered to PReVENT Mrs. Tokars from exposing his illicit dealings.

Tokars grew up in Bradenton, Fla. He is of Jewish heritage, was baptized Catholic, and attended Catholic school as a boy. In 2006 he graduated from Manatee High School, home of the Hurricanes. He subsequently attended Tallahassee Community College, and the University of South Florida, earning his bachelor's degree in history in 2011.

In 2015, Tokars graduated from Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism with a Master of Arts degree in political journalism. His master's thesis was titled 2016, A Millennial Odyssey: Jeb Bush and the Politics of the New Youth Vote. At the time of writing and publication, Tokars assessed Gov. Bush's youth campaign as superior to that of Hillary Rodham Clinton.

Career

Tokars became a journalist in 2012. He has contributed to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Tallahassee Magazine, The Bradenton Times, The Christian Science Monitor, and The National Memo. From 2016 - 2017, Tokars worked as a researcher and editor for the television show Crime Watch Daily With Chris Hansen.

Music and Poetry

Throughout his adolescence and early-twenties Tokars played in ska-core bands, notably as bass guitarist for the Tallahassee band Call For Fire, and as the singer, guitarist, and lyricist for the Bradenton-based groups Bombshell Lust,, Half Dub, and The CatAtoNiX.

Tokars has written many poems. He has performed his work in St. Petersburg, FL., San Francisco, CA., and New York, NY, where he read "GRUESOME" at Nuyorican Poets Cafe and Bowery Poetry Club in February 2016.