Slam poet back onstage after brain injury; time at Madonna sparked another creative project

LINCOLN, Neb. (KLKN) – A year’s gone by since Noah Weaver suffered a traumatic brain injury in a car crash.

Weaver is a slam poet, and after his crash, it was uncertain if he would ever walk, let alone be onstage.

But after receiving therapy from Madonna Rehabilitation Hospitals, he relearned to walk and speak.

He’s even made it back onstage reciting poetry, and on Tuesday, he shared one of the lines he spoke:

“The old me, his story is done now. Get ready for my story because 1,2,3,4 it has begun.”

During his rehab, his speech therapist had him do tongue twisters, and that gave him an idea.

After he was discharged from Madonna, he created a game called Word Whizzes.

It involves challenging opponents to say tongue twisters that he came up with.

When he reunited with his care team on Tuesday, they sat around a table to play the game and got to see how far he’s come.

Weaver said the therapists were like “proud parents,” and he was happy to show them his progress.

“It was an exciting time,” he said. “It was just awesome.”

He plans on releasing the game at some point but first needs to find a large-scale manufacturer to produce it.

Weaver plans on creating a page on Kickstarter to help fund the endeavor.

He will give one of the games to Madonna for the therapists to use with their patients.

Weaver said that in a strange way, the crash was one of the best things to happen to him.

He said it forced him to think in a different way and take a different route in life.