D. BLAIR is an
award winning Detroit based poet and singer-songwriter. A 2010 Callaloo
Fellow and a National Poetry Slam Champion, his first book of poetry,
Moonwalking was recently released
by Penmanship Books. His band The Boyfriends also recently released
The Line on Repeatable Silence
Records. In the words of Metro Times
journalist Melissa Giannini, BLAIR focuses his work on the hope that
rises from the ashes of despair.
BLAIR has been
nominated for 7 Detroit Music Awards, including a 2007 nod for Outstanding
Acoustic Artist. He's been named Real Detroit Weekly Readers Poll's Best
Solo Artist and The Metro Times Best Urban Folk Poet. In 2007 He won
Seattle, WA based BENT Writing Institute Mentor Award.
Blair teaches poetry and music classes in Detroit Public Schools, Hannan
House Senior Center, the YMCA and lectures at universities, colleges and
high schools across the country.
BLAIR has performed on bills with Stevie Wonder, Oscar winner Michael Moore,
Mike Doughty, Bitch and Animal, Justin Bond, members of Sweet Honey in the
Rock, Richie Havens, The Butchies, Tribe 8, Wilco, Cat Power and others.
BLAIR was the
January 2005 HBO Def Poetry Jam Website Featured Poet. He currently studies
privately with a poetry instructor as part of the writer's collective Write
Word / Write Now.
BLAIR has toured the United States and Europe extensively and performed in
South Africa both solo and as part of Walk & Squawk's The Walking Project of
which he is a co-writer and cast member. He's performed at New York's
historic CBGBs and The Knitting Factory, The San Francisco Public Library,
at Miyagi's on L.A.s famed Sunset Strip, Detroit's Hart Plaza and Magic
Stick and with a string section at the home of the Detroit Symphony
Orchestra.
His new CD, The Line, was released in June 2009 on Repeatable Silence
Records.
Detroit poet-musician David
Blair's vision of pop icon Michael Jackson isn't the fedora-tipping,
sequined kind. It's more about a lonely, abused child trying to fall asleep
in a strange place, trembling in fear of the snap of his father's belt.
Click
Here For More
- Norene Smith - Metro Times
March 26,
2010
Blair
discussed his new poetry book, Moonwalking, on the
Craig Fahle
Show (WDET - Detroit) on
March 26, 2010.
(Click the date for the Podcast)
February 15, 2010
From the moment I heard the
music and poetry of Blair, I was in love with it and believed in it. He
weaves spoken word poetry, with folk rock, trip-hop and punk.
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- Bayard Rustin - State Of The
Re:Union
January 27, 2010
The first weekend back after an
overlong and overly wintery break brought a lovely surprise--Poet and
musician, Blair... Click
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- Kate Brady - New Paltz Groove
January 1, 2010
Perhaps it seems a bit cliché to
call David Blair a renaissance man. But the New Jersey-born, Detroit-based
poet, singer, songwriter, playwright, actor and musician does a little bit
of everything, and does it all very well.
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- J. Nadir Omowale - B.L.A.C
Notable Press: 2009
July 8, 2009
Detroit writer-musician reflects
on his art - a poetry collection and a new LP - in the midst of the Michael
Jackson tragedy. Click
Here For More
- Chris Azzopardi - Between The
Lines
July 1, 2009
For the last four years, Detroit
poet and national slam champ Blair has been examining the King of Pop
through a collection of poetry to be released as a book-and-CD combo,
tentatively titled Moonwalking.
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Here For More
- Travis R. Wright - Metro Times
April 2009
Bet
your CV isn't as impressive.
Click
Here For More
March 2009
Music and poetry are not an either/or pursuit for Blair. The two blend
together quite seamlessly, he says. A good example of that harmony is the
track “Berlin” on the new album. The lyrics began as a 20-plus-page poem
inspired by his experience of sitting on a train to Chicago listening to
Beethoven. Click
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- Terry Paris, HOUR Detroit
Magazine
January 20, 2009
Blair’s music has been described as urban folk and Afro-punk, and his
influences range from Stevie Wonder to The Smiths. He might include an
Italian madrigal in a set of performance poetry. He’s hard to pigeonhole,
and seems to like it that way. As long as he's true to the message, the form
seems to take care of itself.Click
Here For More
- Amy Whitesall, Crain's Online -
Detroit Make it Here
Notable Press: 2003 - 2008
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Performing Songwriter (National) Slaveships and Radiowaves Review
-
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(.pdf file)
Abendzeitung (Germany) Geburtstagsfeier in der Dichterstube
-
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(.pdf file)
Pace Arts Magazine (Massachusetts) Blair Poet
-
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(.pdf file)
Metro Times (Detroit) Blair Laid Bare
-
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Pride Source (Detroit) Blair Unburied
-
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Bay Times (San Francisco)
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(.pdf file)
Detroit News (Detroit) Folk Music with Pavement and Concrete
-
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(.pdf file)
Quotes
Blair’s are those rare lyrics that dare to challenge the listener. Blair
insists on composing more than a haunting melody (as if that weren’t
evocative enough); he gives us unforgettable songs line by line with the
care and attention of an exceptional poet.
-Vievee Francis (Author of
Blue-Tail Fly)
Urban folk, afro-punk, singer-songwriter,
poetry slammer, gay activist,
Blair is our
kinda dude... the kind of ambitious versatility we like.
- Metromode
A very common theme in Blair's
work is the notion of the poet turning the table within the work onto the
readers/listeners. A circular sort of - the narrator is the poet, who is me,
who is you, who is the poet pattern. I picked up two of Blair's CD's
afterwards and haven't stopped listening to them since.
- Dan Wickett, TheDetroiter.com
Blair is awful. Not in the way you’re
probably thinking, though. When you see someone that talented it’s
hard not to be reminded of how mediocre a lot of other things are.
Every single time I’ve left a Blair show, I’ve made a comment about how I
need to see that guy play more often.
