Pimp out your webpage with PimpWebPage
What if someone pointed out a homeless vagrant to you and said, "that's going to be a well-known poet and biographer, and he'll change lives around the world"? Would you laugh; raise an eyebrow and inquire as to their usage of narcotics; check them for a fever?Imagine a man against all odds; born dopesick, poverty-stricken, expected to fail... then a poem saves his life! MADMONKIE PRODUCTIONS introduces the story of John "Survivor" Blake!Once upon a time, in a land known as the Lower East Side of a sometimes bitter apple, there was a miracle. A black man and white woman defied their families and fell in love. SHE became pregnant with their 9th child. After 6 months, while driving home from eating out, on a January night, they were run off the road and beaten nearly to death for "making half-nigger kids!" SHE was thrown into the East River, and HE was left for dead on the FDR Drive...January 1970... Mother, father (a coma for nearly 2 months), and Baby SURVIVED...Born "The youngest of nine experiments in a two bedroom cage" as he put it (Poem; titled, "Mother's Nature"), John Stanley "Survivor" Blake cut through the earth like a razor, escaping the hell of two parents addicted to dope and booze, with siblings lost; casualties to the war at home...By the time he was 13, He had his own drug habit. He was 14 when he watched his oldest brother, Benny, shunned at home for contracting the AIDS Virus. Locked out of the house; Benny died of hyperthermia within 7 days of homelessness; winter of '84, discovered sitting upright in an abandoned car near Coney Island.By the time John was 16, his mother was sentenced to 15 years in prison for manslaughter. meanwhile his father contracted HIV... At 25 he buried his father, another brother, and a sister from the deadly AIDS virus as well. Another brother passed on, murdered in a project stairwell, another overdosed, another sister; shot while attempting armed robbery... At 33, John's mother came home from prison sick with Osteo miolitis ( a severe infection of the bone marrow)... Two years later, she died... John was all that remained. while preparing to overdose, someone asked him to watch Def Poetry. Needle in arm, Blood cells running for cover."Survivor" stopped when he heard "Do not let this universe regret you!" (a line in a Marty McConnell poem)... Someone inserted a videotaped recording of Def Poetry and hit play. Someone told John, "all that stuff you've been writing on bar napkins; there's a show all about it! Check this out."He began writing...seriouslyIn 2007, "Survivor" was a proud member of the Louder Arts slam team that placed 3rd in the nation! Joined by Rachel Mc Kibbens (slam team coach), Jon Sands, Oveous Maximus (Ove), and Roger Bonair-Agard! A 2007 finalist at the Urbana 2007 Grand Slam (at The Bowery Poetry Club) and a 4x semi-finalist in 2006 (his first year of slamming) at the Nuyorican Poets' Cafe, NYC.John survivor Blake is now required reading for many spoken word programs in numerous universities as well as english and modern poetry programs nationwide, and his writing has been added to the required readings of OSU's upper class graduate program.He's performed with Saul Williams, Amiri Baraka, Patricia Smith, Taylor Mali, Rachel McKibbens, Shadokat, Mahogany L. Browne, Jive Poetic, Ed Mabrey, Roger Bonair-Agard, Carlos Andres Gomez, Tara Betts, Marty McConnell, Suheir Hammad, Aja-Monet, and Malcolm Jamal Warner. At 37 years of age, "Survivor" just finished touring the US for the second time. John is now transplanted himself in Richmond, VA and is now curating for SlamRichmond; booking feature performers and now conducting writing workshops open to the public every Saturday afternoon.He's featured in Denver, Vegas, San Jose, Fresno, San Diego, Los Angeles, Berkeley, Reedley, Hollywood, Santa Monica, Santa Cruz, Miami, Tampa, Ft Lauderdale, Orlando, Jacksonville, Del Ray Beach, Ft Worth, College Station, Little Rock, Wilmington, Newark Delaware, Phoenix, Flagstaff, Scottsdale, Mesa, Tempe, Tucson, Lawton, Tulsa, Richmond, Stafford, Frewdricksburg, Albequerque, Silver City, Loudesburg, Boston, Cambridge, Miami, Orlando, Tampa, Jacksonville, Red Bank, Trenton, Jersey City, and New York City. Survivor's also begun speaking in rehabilitation centers (Phoenix House in AZ), universities (Virginia Tech, Columbia University, Westchester Community College,) and organizing poetry workshops in high schools (Cab Calloway School for the performing arts in DE, Lourdsburg HS in NM,), sharing his experiences with chemical dependency, grief, struggle, family, and the miracle of living; through writing. winning poetry slams in NYC, NJ, Philly, Pa, VA, TX, IL, DE (In both Newark and Wilmington), California (Berkeley, Oakland, San Diego, and San Jose). John hasn't looked back at the hell he came from, with the exception to reflect never forgetting...and measuring the distance he's flown so far!!! John has also begun conducting private literacy lessons for adults. This year, he is the slam coach and team memeber for SlamRichmond's slam team accompanied by Megan Rickman, Narrator, and Sabrina Gilbert. Expect his autobiographical accounts of struggle in stores summer 08, and feel free to to ADD his other myspace page on top friends; that has "The Greyhound Series", experiences while on tour, and "Low Tide" his daily journal about staying clean. Ask him what he does for a living and he'll point to his journal and say, "This!"John Survivor BlakeAdd to My Profile | More Videos