The Loss of Poet David Blair – Poet, Songwriter and Musician
The Palm Beach Poetry Festival mourns the passing of David Blair, Performance Poet, Songwriter and Musician, who died this past weekend. David and Taylor Mali were featured on January 22, 2011 at the 7th Annual Palm Beach Poetry Festival, where they played to a sell-out crowd of 300. David’s poetry, performed with such passion, brought the crowd to its feet numerous times that evening. Though David is gone, his great good heart and his amazing poems and performances live on.
David’s death is a huge loss to his beloved city of Detroit. Here is a link to a video of David reciting his poem, “Detroit, While I Was Away” at his 2009 appearance at TEDxDetroit.
David was asked to join a group of poets to commemorate the poetry of Emily Dickinson. Anyone who does not believe in the power of poetry to bring us together should watch this video and listen to Emily’s words sung accapella by David Blair.
We pray that his family and friends are comforted by his memory. His kindness, his poetic and musical talent, his teaching and strivings for social justice survive him. He will be sorely missed.
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The performance-poetry movement has suffered a major loss. Over the past weekend, renowned poet, singer and songwriter David Blair was found dead in his apartment. Blair, who was born in New Jersey but lived in Detroit since the 1990s, was a prolific artist. He earned a National Poetry Slam Champion title, performed with Urban Folk Collective and yhe Boyfriends, and taught poetry and songwriting in Detroit Public Schools. Performances took him throughout the U.S., Russia, Europe and South Africa.
Blair was also a 2010 Callaloo fellow, a 2009 Seattle Haiku Slam champion and the recipient of Seattle’s 2007 BENT Mentor Award for LGBT Writers. He was named best urban folk poet by Detroit’s Metro Times and best folk artist by Real Detroit Weekly.
His first book of poetry, Moonwalking, about the life of Jackson, hit book shelves in April 2010.