As a fairly geeky white guy, I find myself particularly drawn to other geeky white guys who do cool things. One such geeky white guy is George Watsky.
Watsky has perfected the geek rock image and brought it to the world of performance poetry. He’s hilarious, non-threatening, and he’s appeared on Def Poetry Jam. If only poetry were as popular as rock music, he’d have millions of adoring teenage girls hanging posters of him on their bedroom walls.
Alas, poetry has not yet reached that level of popularity in Western culture, so I’ve got to play the part of the screaming teenage girl here and let you all know about George Watsky and his kick ass poetry.
According to his bio, he’s got a list of achievements to back-up the rock star status I’m throwing upon him:
Watsky was featured on Season 6 of Russell Simmons Presents Def Poetry on HBO. He was the 2006 Youth Speaks Grand Slam Poetry Champion, 2006 Brave New Voices International Poetry Slam Champion, and performed in a record six consecutive Youth Speaks Grand Slam Finals. The last three of those audiences, all topping out at over 3,000, were the largest ever for poetry slams anywhere in the world. In 2009 Watsky was one of three poets who performed live on FOX at the NAACP Image Awards in honor of Russell Simmons’ lifetime achievement award.
So there you go. George Watsky: geeky white poet. He’s like the Weezer of performance poetry—geeky, but in an awesome rock star kind of way.
I’m into the 3rd week writing this blog and, until now, I’ve yet to feature a female poet. That’s not because women can’t rock just as well (if not better) than men. It’s just because, well, I honestly don’t know a lot of female poets.
Today, I end the absense of female poets on Rock Star Poet by sharing some videos of a woman I just recently learned about: Madya del Valle.
This woman rocks. According to her bio, she’s done a lot in just a few short years, including:
Being an original cast member and writer on the Tony award winning production of Russell Simmons’ Def Poetry Jam on Broadway, as well as being featured on 6 episodes of the TV show.
Winning the Individual National Poetry Slam Championship in Seattle, becoming the first poet from the Nuyorican Poet’s Cafe, the youngest poet ever, and the first Latina person to win the award.
She’s done a hell of a lot more, too, but you’ll have to check out her bio for that.
Since I don’t know too much about del Valle (having only recently discovered her), I’ll end the post here, and let her speak for herself.
One of the first true rock star poets that I ever had the pleasure of seeing is Shane Koyczan.
I saw him perform on the now defunct CBC arts program ZeD. I don’t remember what poem he performed on the show, but I remember being in awe of what Koyczan did with words. It was the first I knew of slam poetry.
I don’t think I was actively writing poetry at that point. It wouldn’t be until few months later, when I heard Charles Bukowski being played on the local university radio station, CJSR, that I would become interested in writing poems. But Kocyzan made me interested in hearing what other people wrote.
Note that I said “hearing” not “reading.” Suddenly, poetry was a living thing. It was a modern thing. Poetry wasn’t some old-fashioned art form that existed only in books. It was in the air.
A few months later, also on ZeD, I would see Koyczan perform again, this time as part of TOFU—Tons of Fun University—with CR Avery and Mighty Mike McGee. Poets can form bands, I thought, holy shit!
Shane Koyczan and TOFU were my first introductions to spoken word/performance poetry. If I hadn’t been watching TV at midnight on a weeknight during my first or second year of university, I might not appreciate rock star poets the way that I do today. So I give thanks for Shane Koyczan and for the CBC. Without them, this blog might not exist.
At 23, Pemberton is Canada’s youngest poet laureate (and possibly the youngest in the world). He brings the energy of youth and hip hop to the role of poet laureate.
In addition to promoting the City of Edmonton in his role, Cadence Weapon may just help the art of poetry gain some respectability outside of university classrooms and coffee shop circle jerks.
Pemberton will still be touring the world as Cadence Weapon. And, at least in Canada, word has already started to get around that he is Edmonton’s poet laureate. Hopefully, people will see him at a show and decide that, if this talented young rapper is considered a poet of the highest order, maybe poetry isn’t so dull and boring after all.
Hell, maybe they’ll even decide that poets can be rock stars.
I’m lucky to live in a city where poetry is quite popular. It might be a bit of an underground art form, when compared to music (for example), but it’s here in spades.
There is a massive poetry community, and open mics are usually very busy.
There is a big poetry festival every spring (there used to be 2, but they decided to join forces—probably a wise decision, when all was said and done).
One of my favourite Edmonton poets—one who doesn’t perform often enough—is Mark Kozub.
Mark is a writer, an artist, and a musician. Among other things, he’s the bass player in the Raving Poets band. I think that makes him a genuine rock star, even without the poetry.
As you can see from the embedded videos, Mark is skilled at combining his drawings with his writing in order to create some pretty stellar video poems.
He’s also got a great sense of humour.
Mark’s ability to weave tales that are both humourous and heartbreaking, and to blend various media forms to create something truly unique, is what makes him a rock star poet. For more about Mark, be sure to check out his website: markkozub.com.
Taylor Mali is one of my favourite performance poets, so it seems only fitting that the first post on this blog should be about him.
Mali is a true performance poet. His poems are delivered with a passion and showmanship that makes them impossible to ignore. And they mean something.
He isn’t one of those spoken word poets who stand in front of a microphone and spew cool-sounding nonsense.
His words have meaning and his poems have impact. If you aren’t moved to either laugh, cry, or think more deeply about the subject of one of Taylor Mali’s poems then you must not have been listening.
Watch the videos I’ve embedded, and you’ll see why I think that Taylor Mali defines the rock star poet archetype.
