David Blank has been performing
and hosting poetry across the country for the past five years. He
was a featured poet at the 1997 Austin International Poetry Festival,
the Here in RI Festival in 1998 & 1999, the 2000 Folk Alliance
held in Cleveland, OH, and at the Massachusetts Sober in the Sun
festival in 1997 through 1999 (also hosting their all-night coffeehouse
music and poetry performances.) He is the former host of the weekly
Spoken
Word Poetry Series in Providence, RI, and the former co-host of the
monthly Borders Bookstore reading in North Attleboro.
Dave has read poetry in the
schools as part of Projective Verse, a non-profit organization devoted
to poetry spoken aloud, and has hosted child slams at the yearly Reading
Awareness conference held by the Rhode Island Teachers Organization.
He has published two chapbooks,
Tales
of a Traveling Idiot and The God Complex, as well as the CD
recording Live-ish.
Dave was a member of the 1998
Providence Slam Team, coach of the 1999 Providence Slam Team, and captain
and coach of the 2000 Providence Slam Team.
His performances range from in-your-face to soft and introspective. Some quotes:
On why am I a poet?: “It was a strange miracle when lightning struck my alfredo pasta and supercharged me with a vocabulary.” —Dave Blank“Dave Blank has the ability to use metaphors and imagery that seem far out and different and make them work to his advantage.” —Jason Edwards (prominent slam poet from Dallas, TX)
Click
here for samples of the poet’s work on gotpoetry.com.