Robert C. Ford, aka Wall $treet Poet, is a poet, spoken word artist and host of Sky Vault, an intimate concert venue in New York City. He frequently collaborates with Composers Concordance, a contemporary music organization, and other world class performers, for both recorded and live music featuring his words self-narrated or brought to life by accomplished pop, rock, jazz and opera singers.

He has released 2 albums of his poetry set to music, The Music Between Us (2021) and Footprints of Steel (2025), in collaboration with composers Charles Coleman (Paavo Järvi, Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, Kristjan Järvi, London Symphony Orchestra), Adam Holzman (Miles Davis, Steven Wilson), Mark Kostabi (Guns N' Roses Use Your Illusion, Ramones Adios Amigos, Ornette Coleman), Carli Muñoz (Beach Boys, Eddie Gómez), Gene Pritsker (Matrix Resurrections, Joe Zawinul) and Jay Rodriguez Sierra (Groove Collective, Wu-Tang Clan).

Robert has performed with accomplished musicans including Gerry Brown (drums--Diana Ross, Stevie Wonder), John Clark (horn--Gil Evans), Jane Getter (guitar--Saturday Night Live Band, Brother Jack McDuff), Adam Holzman (keyboards--Miles Davis, Steven Wilson), Jason Kao Hwang (violin), Mark Kostabi (piano), Carli Muñoz (piano), Paul Nowinski (double bass--Les Paul, Keith Richards, Sting), Gene Pritsker (guitar), Harvie S (bass), Rob Schwimmer (theremin--Wayne Shorter, Paul Simon, Bette Midler), Jay Rodriguez Sierra (saxophone), Dave Soldier (violin--Bo Diddley, John Cale) and David Taylor (bass trombone--Duke Ellington, Quincy Jones).

He has performed at renown NYC venues such as Birdland Jazz Club, The Bitter End, Chelsea Table + Stage, DROM, Greenwich House, Joe's Pub, Nublu, Pangea, Pianos, Le Poisson Rouge, Queens New Music Festival, The Stonewall Inn and Theatre 80 as well as Howland Cultural Center (Beacon, NY), Jazz Club ZWE (Vienna, Austria), Centro Mexicana para la Musica y las Artes Sonoras (Morelia, Mexico), NWEAMO Festival (San Diego State University) and University of Costa Rica (San Jose, Costa Rica). In September 2022, he was one of four poets featured at the storied Players Theatre (NYC) with Grammy-award-winning artist Suzanne Vega as part of The [Greenwich] Village Trip Festival.

Robert has been mentioned in newspapers including New York Daily News (Oct 23, 2023, Dec 24, 2022), AM New York and The Highlands Current. He has also has appeared on podcasts such as Missing Link Ensemble w/ Eddy Malave and Composers with Drinks Listening to Music and his recordings have been featured on radio stations including WFMU 91.1 FM (Jersey City, NJ), WPRB 103.3 FM (Princeton, NJ), WRUU 107.5 FM (Savannah, GA) and WMSE 91.7 FM (Milwaukee, WI).

He is a member of Broadcast Music, Inc. (BMI) with 30+ songwriter credits. 

Robert's work has appeared in several publications, including Maintenant, the highly acclaimed annual journal of contemporary Dada writing and art, published by Three Rooms Press.

He has had his poetry featured, as well as acted, in several short films by the Mexican director Octavio Maya Rocha and is recognized by Internet Movie Database (IMDb) with 5+ credits.

Robert was born in Doylestown, PA and graduated with a B.S. in Computer Science from Lehigh University (ranked #14 in Wall Street Journal’s Best Colleges in America). After university, he joined Dean Witter Reynolds (now Morgan Stanley) and became a Series 3 licensed commodities broker specializing in precious metals options trading. Next he achieved partner status at Financial Sciences Corporation, a treasury management system vendor. The past 15 years Robert has provided consulting services for various enterprise trading platforms. He was recently featured in the National Enquirer article Protect Your Cash.