Open Mic, Featured Poet, and the LYRIC Slam: ALL performers must read song lyrics (the more well known the better). The catch - no singing! The lyrics MUST be read like a poem. So feel free t0 bring out your favorite Prince, Journey, Madonna, etc. songs and bring them to life like no one ever has before.

Email info@seattlepoetryslam.org for more info

BUDDY WAKEFIELD is the two-time Individual World Poetry Slam Champion featured on NPR, the BBC, HBO’s Def Poetry Jam, and signed to Strange Famous Records. In 2004 he won the Individual World Poetry Slam Finals thanks to the support of anthropologist and producer Norman Lear then successfully defended that [arbitrary] title at the International Poetry Festival in Rotterdam, Netherlands against the national champions of seven European countries with works translated into Dutch.

In 2005 he won the Individual World Poetry Slam Championship again and has gone on to share the stage with nearly every notable performance poet in the world in hundreds of venues internationally from The Fillmore in San Francisco and Scotland’s Oran Moore to San Quentin State Penitentiary, House of Blues New Orleans and CBGB’s.

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 everything he owned, moved to the small town of Honda Civic and set out to live for a living, touring North American poetry venues through 2003. He still tours full time and considers recent tours with Ani DiFranco, I Am A Lagan, and Solomon Sparrow’s Electric Whale Revival to be the highlight of his career thus far.

Buddy, a Board of Directors member with Youth Speaks Seattle and member of Team Seattle 2006 and 2007 for the National Poetry Slam Finals, is honored that his work is published internationally and has been used to win national collegiate forensics competitions. Also a member of Solomon Sparrow’s Electric Whale Revival, Wakefield is known for delivering raw, rounded, high vibration performances of humor and heart.