Brendan McLeod
Brendan McLeod is a Toronto-based poet, spoken word artist, theatre artist, and musician. He’s the author of one novel, The Convictions of Leonard McKinley; a one-woman play, The Big Oops; three monologues — the most recent of which is his award-winning piece on consciousness, Brain; and a collaborative spoken word/music show with classical pianist Sarah Hagen, Exultation. He is the founder of The Fugitives, a folk group signed to Borealis Records that tours internationally and has been nominated for multiple Canadian Folk Music and Western Canadian Music Awards, including Best Songwriter, Best Roots Group, and Best Vocal Group. He is a former Canadian SLAM poetry champion and World SLAM runner-up. He was the 2012 Poet of Honor at the Canadian Festival of Spoken Word and the 2015 Poet of Honour at the Victoria Spoken Word Festival. He has been influenced by a large contingent of spoken word artists including Zaccheus Jackson, Andrea Gibson, Buddy Wakefield, Sheri-D Wilson, and Jillian Christmas.
As a teenager, I was very influenced by a combination of hip-hop, folk music, and Sharon Olds.
I began as a performance poet when I was 23. I started touring a few years later, so that's when I decided to pick up the “poet” label.
Tell the truth with vivid language.
“Blackberrying” by Sylvia Plath.