An Evening with Buddy Wakefield | Urb Arts, 2600 N. 14th St. | All ages | $15
When you listen to someone tell a story, there comes a point (if they’re a good storyteller) where you say, “Me, too!” That moment can interrupt a story in progress, but the feeling of connecting to someone else that shares that feeling/moment/vibration with you is so compelling. It’s a rare thing to find connection these days, particularly one that resonates.
I was waiting to see Ani Di Franco play a few years ago at the Pageant. Instead of a band opening, out walked a man. He walked quickly to the mic and started talking. He was telling stories. He was a poet. There were so many moments during his set that I wanted to shout out “Me, too!” I jumped to my feet and clapped. I cried. I laughed out loud. I covered my mouth in empathy for the pain he was talking about, and I hugged my friend because of the shared love that we heard.
I bought his CDs and listened on the way home. I shared them with my friends. I wrote out the lines of his poetry. I got a tattoo on my forearm because of one of his poems, to remind me.
Every time he’s come to St. Louis, I’ve been there. Even when I was tired and had to pay for a sitter. Even when my partner had a 102° fever—he knew how important it was to me, so he came along. I’ve been wondering why—what is it about this poet that makes me buy every book, every CD, to pass his words around like gospel?
It’s because they are gospel, really. They’re the gospel of us. How we feel. How we can grow and crumble. How we can be cruel or kind. His words resonate and make us make sense. They make us say “Me, too!”.
Buddy Wakefield will be visiting us again on March 23rd at Urb Arts. You should come. | Melissa Cynova
Buddy Wakefield tour dates:
March 20, 2018 The Den Theatre, Heath Mainstage, 1331 N. Milwaukee Ave., Chicago, IL, 7pm
March 22, 2018 Uptown Arts Bar, 3611 Broadway Blvd, Kansas City, MO, 7pm
March 23, 2018 Urb Arts, 2600 N. 14th St., St. Louis, MO, 7pm
March 25, 2018 Stage 18, 18 E. Center St., Fayetteville, AR, 7pm
March 26, 2018 Living Arts, 307 E Mathew B. Brady St, Tulsa, OK, 8pm
March 27, 2018 Commonplace Books, 1325 N Walker Ave, Oklahoma City, OK, 6:45pm
March 28, 2018 with Chamber Music Amarillo at Fibonacci Space, 3306 SW 6th Ave., Amarillo, TX, 7pm
March 29, 2018 The Source, 1111 Carlisle Blvd SE, Albuquerque, NM,
March 30, 2018 with Andrea Gibson, Crescent Ballroom, 308 N. 2nd Ave., Phoenix, Arizona
March 31, 2018 with Andrea Gibson, Orpheum Theater, 15 W. Aspen Ave., Flagstaff, AZ, 8pm
APRIL 2018
April 5, 2018 supporting Derrick Brown’s Book Release Party and Variety Show ft. Mahogany Browne, Elna Baker, Emily Wells, The Fuggedabuddies (Jon Glaser and H. Jon Benjamin). Hosted by Amber Tamblyn! Union Hall, 702 Union Street, Brooklyn, NY, Doors at 7:30pm
April 7, 2018 full solo set, NYC, details TBA
April 14, 2018 Loud Mouth Poetry Jam, Howie & Sons, 2430 S. Mooney Blvd., Visalia, CA,
April 21, 2018 with Brendan Constantine, B’nai Israel Jewish Center, 740 Western Avenue, Petaluma, CA, 7pm
April 24, 2018 with Brendan Constantine, Derrick Brown and Anis Mojgani, The Holland Project, 140 Vesta Street, Reno, NV, 7pm
April 25, 2018 Taggart Student Center, HUB Stage, Utah State University, Logan, UT, 7pm (open to public; short writing workshop, not a performance)
April 28, 2018 short feature for Get Lit Classic Slam, The Theater at Ace Hotel, 929 S Broadway, Los Angeles, CA
April 30, 2018 with Cristin O’Keefe Aptowicz, Anis Mojgani and Derrick Brown at Sylvia Center for the Arts, 205 Prospect Street, Bellingham, WA, 7pm MAY 2018
May 1, 2018 with Cristin O’Keefe Aptowicz, Anis Mojgani and Derrick Brown, presented by Hugo House at Fred Wildlife Refuge, 128 Belmont Ave. East, Seattle, WA, 7pm
May 2, 2018 with Cristin O’Keefe Aptowicz, Anis Mojgani and Derrick Brown, presented by Louder Than A Bomb at Real Art Tacoma, 5412 S. Tacoma Way, Tacoma, WA, 7pm
OCTOBER 2018
October 5, 2018 Uppsala International Poetry Festival, Sweden, details TBA
October 21-31, 2018 AIR Serenbe, Chattahoochee Hills, GA
NOVEMBER 2018
November 1-11, 2018 AIR Serenbe, Chattahoochee Hills, GA
