Buddy Wakefield
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Buddy Wakefield is spoken word poet, recently signed to Sage Francis's record label Strange Famous Records. He has been praised for his explosive energy and captivating lyrics.
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[edit] Bio
Born in Shreveport, LA, mostly raised in Baytown, TX, now claiming Seattle, WA as home, Buddy has been a busker in Amsterdam, a lumberjack in Norway, a street vendor in Spain, a team leader in Singapore, a re-delivery boy, a candy maker, a street sweeper, a bartender, a maid, a construction worker, manager of a CD store, a bull rider and a booking agent.
[edit] Career
In the spring of 2001 Buddy left his position as the executive assistant at a biomedical firm in Gig Harbor, WA, sold or gave away all he owned, moved into the small town of Honda Civic, and set out to live for a living, touring every major poetry venue in North America through 2003. He still tours full time while managing The Bullhorn Collective (a talent agency founded by Wakefield), made up of 30 of the highest ranking Slam Poets and most accomplished performance poets alive.
He has participated on Slam teams from Long Beach, California, and in 2006 won Seattle's Grand Slam to earn a spot on Seattle's semi-finalist team at the National Poetry Slam.
Buddy's work frequently references Georgia, but his first performance in Georgia was in May, 2006[1].
[edit] Achievements
In 2004 and 2005 he won the Individual World Poetry Slam Championship title[2], the only 2-time winner to date, and has gone on to share the stage with nearly every notable performance poet in the world including Derrick Brown, Saul Williams, Sage Francis, Marc Bamuthi Joseph and Utah Phillips in hundreds of venues internationally from Comedy Central’s Hudson Theater and Scotland’s Oran Mor to San Quentin State Penitentiary and CBGB’s.
In 2006 Buddy was invited by folksinger Ani Difranco to perform as a special guest on several of her fall tour dates.
[edit] Merchandise
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[edit] Poetry
Fran Varian's Grandmother appeared in the spring 2002 issue of Lodestar Quarterly, and also appears on Run On Anything.
Convenience Stores appeared in the June 2003 Cobalt Reading Series from Poetry Superhighway.
[edit] External links
- Buddy Wakefield's Official Site - Go here for tour schedule, journal entries, audio and video, merchandise information and more
- Strange Famous Records
- The Bullhorn Collective
- http://www.poetryslam.com/ Poetry Slam Incorporated]
- louderARTS project
