Brendan McLeod

Biography

Brendan McLeod is a spoken word artist based out of Vancouver. He is the co-winner of the 2004 National Individual Finals at the Canadian Spoken Wordlympics (CSW), awarded to the top SLAM poet in Canada, and finished second in the world at the 2005 World Slam Championships in the Netherlands. As a performance poet, he has been a featured performer at over forty European events, including the Rotterdam International Poetry Festival (2005), the Writing on the Wall Festival (Liverpool, 2006), and as a member of The Fugitives at the Dylan Thomas Festival (Swansea, 2005) the German National SLAM Championships (Leipzig, 2005), and the Isle of Barra Poetry Festival (Scotland, 2005). He has also been a featured reader at many prestigious European reading series, including Big Word (Edinburgh), Brixtongue (London), Hammer and Tongue (Oxford), Mouthtrap Cabaret (Reading), Speak & Spin (Munich), and Wicked Words (Leeds). He has also performed at the University of Bangor, Wales, and as a guest facilitator for a workshop on the Harlem Renaissance at the University of Bamburg, Germany. In America, he has performed at the National Poetry Slam (St.Louis, 2004; Albuquerque, 2005), and featured in readings and SLAMs in Bellingham (2005,06), Berkeley (2005), Hollywood (2005), Long Beach(2005), Orange (2005), Santa Monica (2005), and Seattle (2004, 05,06), with an upcoming feature at the prestigious First Fridays series in New York City (October, 2006). In Canada, he has been a featured main stage performer at the Saskatchewan Festival of Words (2005), South Country Fair (2005, 06), and with The Fugitives at the Festival Voix D'Ameriques (2006), and a featured performer at the West Coast Poetry Festival (2004), and Word on the Street (2004, 05). He has toured cross-Canada twice, and has featured at reading series and performed solo in every province from Quebec to BC, with upcoming performances in Halifax (May, 06). He was also a member of the 2004 and 2005 Vancouver poetry SLAM teams, the former of which finished first at the 2004 CSW. Brendan has written and performed numerous collaborative pieces with both the Vancouver SLAM teams and The Fugitives. Also, along with a number of other spoken word artists, he helped re-write the scripts for the spoken word operas, The Bacchae (January, 2005) and Generation X (March, 2006). As an audio producer, he has co-produced an independent album for his acoustic trio Barefoot (2000), and two each for his seven-piece funk/jazz group Eden Express (2001, 2002) and The Fugitives (2005, 06). As an event planner, in addition to booking his solo career and The Fugitives, he has organized fundraisers for the Vancouver SLAM team and performances for the “Poetry In-Schools” program. He has also performed at over twenty high schools across the country. He has a BA (Honors with Distinction) in Philosophy from the University of Victoria (2001), and an MA in Philosophy from the University of Waterloo (2002). His work has been featured on CBC Radio and numerous college and co-op stations. Excerpts from his first novel were published in the academic journal Sophia (May, 2001). Brendan is a high energy storyteller equally at home with social and political commentary, family histrionics, surreal love poems, obscure adventure stories, and powerful personal stories. He runs the gamut of performance poetry, making him an effective live performer and an artist well equipped for collaboration.

Samples

All poems are copyright of the originating author. Permission must be obtained before using or performing others' poems.