About

ABOUT DARK MATTER:

The poetry, show listings, and occasional poetic musings of Tony Brown, former slammer and current performance poet from Worcester MA.  Includes six years of posts from LiveJournal and new stuff starting in May of 2009.

ABOUT TONY BROWN:

A veteran of both page and stage in the poetry world, I’ve been publishing and reading in journals and on stages around the US for over thirty years.  My work has appeared in anthologies including A Generation Defining Itself, from MPW Press; Look, Up In the Sky! and Appleseeds, both from Sacred Fools Press; From Page To Stage, The Wordsmith Press; Knocking At The Door, Birch Bench Press  (all US); and 100 Poets Against the War, from Salt Publishing (UK).

My work has also appeared in many journals (among them: Riverwalk Journal, The Ballard Street Poetry Journal, nthposition, The Worcester Review, The Furnace Review, New Verse News, The November Third Club,  Spindle, Breath And Shadow, Home Planet News, and World Literature Today).

I was named a “Legend of Slam” at the 2006 National Poetry Slam in Austin, TX, and was elected “The Poet Laureate Of The Blogosphere” by voters at thebloggingpoet.com for 2008.

A three-time Pushcart Prize nominee, I’m the author of thirteen chapbooks and three CDs of my work, the latter with my music and poetry project, The Duende Project, which features the stellar bass and nylon string guitar work of Steven Lanning-Cafaro (aka “Faro.”)

I’m a regular columnist blogger for the online journal Radius (radiuslit.org).

A chapbook of recent poems, FLOOD, is available from Pudding House Publications (Columbus, OH). They can be purchased from me at readings and through the publisher’s Website. $10.00 US.  In addition, the Duende Project’s most recent album, “The Duende Project,” is available at all your favorite digital music outlets.

I welcome your comments, thoughts, offers of gigs, cash, etc…

ABOUT WHY I POST PRETTY MUCH ALL MY POETRY HERE:

I have a love/hate relationship with copyright law.  I get it, understand it…but I’d rather get my whole body of work in front of people — the good, the bad, the mediocre.

Everything I do is licensed under a Creative Commons license.  It allows you to redistribute the work with credit and without modifying it.

Pretty much everything I write which I feel is “finished” (as much as it ever is) will end up here on the blog.  Consider it an extended effort at self-publication.

You’re welcome to comment, critique, etc.  I read everything, take what seems valuable for improvement, and respect your opinions…although I am human, and that means that sometimes we’ll disagree; I try to keep disagreements here civil.  I hope you’ll do the same.

This, by the way, doesn’t mean I still don’t submit to journals, anthologies, etc.  I do.  This is a self-publishing experiment that I’m committed to and have been for years — getting myself out there…a kind of online “Collected Works.”

ABOUT THE DUENDE PROJECT:

The Duende Project (formerly “Duende”) is the name of the musical/poetic collaboration I have with the incredible bass and guitar player Steven Cafaro, AKA “Faro.”  We have been at this for several years now and have released three CD/chapbook sets of our work.  Contact me here for more info.

A link to our tracks on Reverbnation is on the page labeled, appropriately, “Show Schedule, Tracks, and More.”