Derrick Brown
Derrick Brown, former paratrooper for the 82nd Airborne, gondolier, magician, and fired weatherman, now travels the world and performs his written work. From Long Beach, CA, he is dedicated to bringing American poetry into rock and roll status.
As a poet, he has toured or performed with Indie rock act, Cold War Kids, The Decemberists, Comedian David Cross, Richard Swift, Pink Mountaintops and at the All Tomorrow’s Parties festival with the Flaming Lips and Animal Collective. His work has been featured in books with Jeff Tweedy of Wilco, Jeff Buckley, Jack Hirschman, Amber Tamblyn and poet laureate Ted Kooser. He has performed at the largest outdoor festival in the world, Glastonbury, as an author.
As one of the most original and well-traveled writer/performers in the country, Derrick Brown has gained a cult following for his poetry performances all over the U.S. and Europe. A poetic terrorism group has taken to tagging his metaphors across the globe. About.com called his latest collection, Scandalabra, one of the best books of 2009.
To date, Brown has performed at over 1500 venues and universities internationally including The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, La Sorbonne in Paris, CBGB’s in NYC and a small Jewish youth group in Glendale. He is the host of the variety show, The Lightbulb Mouth Radio Hour. Lightbulbmouth.com
Known for a moving show that incorporates poetry, minimalist music, and sound fx, Brown is unique for being an outstanding performer but is foremost a page poet. He is the president of Write Bloody Publishing, the first indie press to be reviewed with favor by Forbes magazine.
Derrick is available for booking performances, workshops, Master of Ceremonies, Master of Puppets as well as Host for shows and motivational-ish commencement speeches.
“Wait untila year from nowwhere you say,“Holy fuck,I can’t believe I was going to kill myself before I etcetera’d…before I went skinny dipping in Tennessee,made my own IPA,tried out for a game show,rode a camel drunk,learned to waltz with clumsy old people,photographed electric jellyfish,built a sailboat from trash,taught someone how to read,ect. Ect. Etc.”The red washingdown the bathtubcan’t change the color of the seaat all.”
“Stop ruining love by wanting it so bad.”
“Go to other countries. Not a typical backpacking tour. Planned tourmeans you will hang with Americans on bikes and flirt with drunkGermans and someone will steal your Levi’s in the hostel and a guyfrom Poland will sock you in the face while bad techno playseverywhere and you will learn nothing except that your face hurts andnot everyone showers. Get into other cultures and talk politics andlove. Meeting other people is the only way to know if you believe whatyou believe cause it’s been handed to you, or if it really rings truein your heart.Getting lost should be seen as a sweet chance to be found.Remember, you belong everywhere.”
“When I am alone and my skull is ripsaw I want to jump into the womb of any bonfire, I want to leap into the ceiling fan head first, but I need that fan this coming summer.”